RISA-Riia Kivimäki & Saku Mäkelä a seamless weave of dance and acrobatics, a combination of two different physical artists and

the movement language that they have created together. Between the artists dance is reaching out in new dimensions, meets acrobatics and transforms into something new. 

The collaboration of the duet started in 2018 when they focused on exploring and developing their own personalized movement language and established RISA. 

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The base of RISA’s work is dance acrobatics that has become one of the characteristics of contemporary circus. Saku is among the first circus artists majoring in dance acrobatics in a higher education institution. Based on this, RISA has started to develop their pair acrobatics into a new direction which feels welcome and refreshing in the fields of dance and circus and opens up a new chapter in dance acrobatics.

The name RISA is based on the artists forenames and additionally has inspired them to do things “risaisesti” (in a ragged manner)  

in their own way.

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“Our aim is to break down existing forms and techniques and concentrate more to listening and attending

to paths of our own inner energy and physical yearnings.

Which way does the inner movement wish to unwind and with how much force, how do we relate it to each other?

We want to explore what is to be found when we are acting stronger through our own inner impulses, sensitizing senses and by reaching to our full extent, simultaneously facing resisting forces and reciprocal conflicts. Would that mean having to reject techniques and reasoning, that we have practiced before, in order to dig deeper, or will we rise upon those and through their assets find new levels?

We want to create movement with powerful content without making concessions to wavering physical limits."