Arts Fraction Foundation & JIENKYO: Kuuki (Poland/Japan) – Hurraa! Festival

Dynamically, lightly, airy, elusively – Kuuki is a quest for energy. Can the wind be touched? How does the air smell? How does the breath sound?

Kuuki is the Japanese word for air. It consists of kanji signs defining sky, atmosphere and energy at the same time. For artists working on this production Kuuki, air is primarily a movement.

Dancers and instrumentalist take viewers for a journey to search for materiality together, in what is so fleeting. They invite the air to be touched, felt, listened. In this delicate and safe space, artists, children and adults look for mutual experiences and inspire each other. Movement, sound and image are filled with air.

Kuuki is a Japanese-Polish production, for which JIENKYO (Japanese Theater Union for Children and Youth) invited the creative duet Barbara Małecka / Alicja Morawska Rubczak. They were joined by an outstanding Japanese accordionist Kanako Kato.

Duration: c. 35 min
Target group: 0-18 months
Language: Non-verbal

Performers: Monika Kiwak & Magda Wolnicka
Direction: Alicja Morawska-Rubczak
Set design and costumes: Barbara Małecka
Music: Kanako Kato
Production: Barbara Małecka

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Hurraa! Festival 12.–20.3.2022

Virtuosity in the doorway, swans on a silver lake and men in wool socks!

The municipal cultural services of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, in cooperation with ASSITEJ Finland, organise the Hurraa! festival of performing arts for children and young people on 12–20 March 2022. The festival offers high-quality performances for children, young people and families in the cultural centres of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. The programme includes physical theatre, circus, dance and puppet theatre. Traditionally known as a showcase for fresh Finnish performance art, the 2022 Hurraa! festival will also feature international performances produced by ASSITEJ Finland.

The Finnish highlights of the 2022 Hurraa! festival include: Ovisilmä by Teatteri QO, Prinsessa Pikkiriikki by Nukketeatteri Kuuma Ankanpoikanen & Tehdasteatteri, Suru puserossa by Teatteri Tuomikko, Piste, piste, piste by Company Portmanteau, Frankenstein by Red Nose Company and Sarana by Ilmatila. The international programme consists of four exciting performances originally intended for the 2020 Bravo! festival, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the 2022 Hurraa! festival, we will finally see M.I.S. – Natten Lang by Don Gnu from Denmark, Tvärslöjd by Kompani Giraff from Sweden, LILLA SVANSJÖN by Claire Parsons Co. from Sweden and Kuuki by Art Fraction Foundation & JIENKYO from Poland and Japan.

More information about the festival’s performances, ticket sales and related events will be available at www.hurraa.org from mid-December.