Teo Ala-Ruona: Parachorale

Being tattooed is both pleasurable and painful. Perhaps through the hole made in the skin, a distressed body can momentarily find solace. We sense something that reason cannot explain; it feels like the touch of a spider web on our skins. 

Parachorale speaks to the experience of inner dissonance. At its heart lies the desire to share an under-the-skin world and to create a new understanding of the reality with the audience in the moment of the performance. Parachorale challenges the othering gaze that views transcorporeality as exceptional in society. It asks how private the experience truly is, and how many genuinely feel at home in their own skin.

The performers weave a web with the audience, stripping and shaking loose the frames of conventional reality. Parachorale trusts in our capacity to reimagine ourselves and our communities, transcending the limits imposed by language. It calls us to feel and listen more intently, to surrender to the absurd spectrum of corporeal existence.

Parachorale is a new work by Teo Ala-Ruona and the working group, continuing Ala-Ruona’s series of works addressing the psychosomatic extremes of transcorporeality and paranormal potential.

DETAILS

FORMAT:
new dance, performance

DURATION:
60:00 min

CONTENT NOTES

tattoo, paranormal, tactile hallucination, transembodiment

WORKING GROUP

Concept, direction
Teo Ala-Ruona

Text
Teo Ala-Ruona, Even Minn, Tuukka Haapakorpi

Performance
Teo Ala-Ruona, Caroline Suinner, Anni Puolakka, Pauliina Sjöberg, Tuukka Haapakorpi

Choreography
Teo Ala-Ruona, Raoni Muzho Saleh

Dramaturgy
Even Minn

Sound design and composition
Tuukka Haapakorpi 

Costume and set design
Teo Paaer

Light design
Sofia Palillo 

Performance dramaturgy:
Ami Karvonen

Featuring tattoo artist
Spider Nykänen

Costume designer assistants
Nour Ainasoja, Pauliina Sjöberg

Sound designer assistant
Linda Lazarov

Production
Baltic Circle, Teo Ala-Ruona, Even Minn

EXHIBITED

Baltic Circle, Helsinki, 2024

XS-festival, Kutomo, Turku, 2024

Vleeshall, Middelburg, 2025

PHOTOS

Patricia Carlitos