Leena Harjunpää Co What About Death

What About Death is a contemporary dance solo piece by Leena Harjunpää Co. It deals with the border between life and death. The piece is loosely based on a character in the epic poetry collection Kalevala called Tuoni’s daughter (Tuonen tyttö, daughter of the god the Underworld), who serves as a ferryman and a guide between the realms of life and death. Thus she exists to both the living and the dead and is aware of both life and death. The liminal space represented by Tuoni’s daughter serves as the basis of the piece. This space enables the balancing between the world we know and the one we do not yet know, and through that the workgroup can address the unknown change. In addition to contemporary dance the piece incorporates a vocal element produced by the performer with a technique called death growling.