Lau Lukkarila (they/them)is a choreographer and performer based in Vienna, born by the shore of the Gulf of Bothnia in Finland. They are dedicated to exploring the politicality of embodiment, nuances of engaged awkwardness and emphatic and visceral interactions. From 2008 to 2013 Lukkarila studied in the University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki and in the Royal Higher College of Performing Arts in Madrid. Recent works include Never Underestimate the Calmness in My Voice on My Face (2024) with Zeynab Kirikou Gueye and Lapse and the Scarlet Sun (2023) with Luca Bonamore. Lukkarila’s work has been shown at ImPulsTanz Festival (AT), Kunstraum Niederösterreich (AT), imagetanz (AT), XS-Festival (FI), Smoqua (CR) and supported by brut Wien, Tanzquartier Wien, Kone Foundation and the EU Creative Crossroads - Life Long Burning Creative Europe. As „Schoßhund“ they have published three internet EP’s: Super Like (2019), HUFKLANG (2020) and HEAVYCRUSH (2022).

More about Lau Lukkarila.

In the residency at STUK House for Dance, Image and Soundin Leuven, Belgium in April 2024, the artists Lau Lukkarila, Zeynab Kirikou Gueye and Marika Peura worked on the conceptual background as well as the expressive repertoire of the dance performance Hold yr ache 2 my ache. During their two weeks residency, in the big top floor studio of STUK, they maintained a morning practice, danced, shared resources with each other such as music, essays, podcasts, poems, lived experiences and talked about how institutionalisation, power imbalances, white supremacy and racism influence their realities and art making. On 18 April a Hold yr ache 2 my ache showing took place in the frame of PULSE Festival.

Zeynab Kirikou Gueye (they/them) (*1999, Prague) is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, sound technician, community organizer, and a DJ based in Vienna. Their practice is influenced by their interest in naturalcultural ecologies, research in postcolonial studies and the abilities to dream of visionary futurisms amidst social depression. Since 2017, they are articulating the intersections of their different artistic and curious practices mainly through the study of music, performance, and the politics of the dancefloor, and through collaboration with artists and researchers on interdisciplinary and frequently politically involved projects.

Marika Peura (she/her)is a freelance choreographer, dancer and performer based in Helsinki. She works multidisciplinary in the fields of dance and contemporary performing arts. She is interested in the emotional, poetic and political nature that unfolds from the experientiality of the body, and strives for choreography where sensitivity, darkness and humor are in an intimate and uncanny relation. Her ongoing practice observes dancing as a sensual way of being part of the world, she approaches this research from the intersection of club/rave dance & culture and contemporary choreography & stage. Peura’s dance background is in street & club dance culture; freestyle hip hop, house and waacking dances. This is reflected in her artistic practice and in the relation to bodily movement. Peura graduated from the Choreography MA program at Theatre Academy of the Uniarts Helsinki in 2020, and studied contemporary dance BA during 2014-2017 at Uniarts Helsinki and at HZT's Dance, Context, Choreography programs. Peura’s recent works as a choreographer include collaborations down below things shudder (2023), and then they left (2021), Guess What? Guess what! (2022 & 2021), Shall we have a drink before I start to cry (2020), Philia (2019) and solo work Sirkka Pukoilija (2017). She has worked as a dancer in works by Maija Hirvanen (FI), Joona Halonen(FI), Petri Kekoni (FI), Janina Rajakangas (FI), Reija Wäre (FI), Samir Akika (DZ/FR), Branch Nebula (AU) and Wang / Ramirez (DE/ FR).

In the residency at Workshop Foundation in Budapest the artists Lau Lukkarila and Zeynab Kirikou Gueye worked on the conceptual background as well as the expressive repertoire of the dance performance Hold yr ache 2 my ache. During the first week Lukkarila worked alone in the Trafo studio, creating movement language and studying books, essays, podcasts and stories. Lukkarila drafted a first version of a text under the title “Ache, the politics of an inherently emotional body”. The second week Gueye joined the residency, concentrating on sound production and composition. Together they continued to explore material through the idea of a wholesome corporeality in negotiation with the constraints of productivity, structural oppression as well as the stimuli and appeals of affect. They were simply staying with what is there and feeling it all. On 27 June Gueye and Lukkarila opened the studio doors for a rehearsal showing, followed by a short talk with the visitors about the impressions of the material. The residency at Workshop Foundation allowed the upcoming work to be crafted in a respectful and welcoming environment.

Before the TQW-premiere in November, Hold yr ache 2 my ache has a Finnish premiere on 24–26 October at Mad House Helsinki.