FUNNY THINGS
before Panic

2021 Uferstudios / Tanznacht

Performance, two dancers, two singers, Tatami mats

In Funny Things Before Panic, Liina Magnea explores the different stages of a panic attack. Observing the attack as a process of dying and rebirth, its phases link the individually experienced panic to the death processes, we as a society have to experience over and over again. Illustrating this cycle, two intertwined bodies without gaze, wrestle into an eternal roll following a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu choreography. Each time they break apart they are faced with each ones panic bodies, a dance inspired by Tourette and tic symptoms, that unfilteredly reacts to its surrounding, smashing, cramping, laughing and howling. 

Two Tenors accompany the embodied symptoms with a mash-uped soundtrack composed in collaboration with music producer/performer Reetta Nummi (SITOI), Haraldur Thrastarson and Noah Kin. The songs deal with personal dramatic stories of the past, politics and fantasy, supporting and deconstructing the atmosphere like a film score. 

Funny Things Before Panic is a story of making kin and not of heroes, a chosen family that is dancing on a cruise ship sailing to the edge of the world, relaxed, awaiting the apocalypse and the new beginning.

Concept by Liina Magnea

Choreography Liina Magnea

Music by Liina Magnea and Reetta Nummi

Performers: Reetta Nummi, Laurean Wagner, Julianna Schreyer, Liina Magnea

Video edit: Liina Magnea

Camera: Kristin V Jam

Full documentation available on request