TRIO

The work originates from a choreographic reading of dialogue as articulated by Finnish philosopher Jorma Lehtovaara, who frames dialogue not as exchange but as an act of listening. In 2014, choreographer Soili Huhtakallio, in collaboration with her student colleagues at the time, developed a short performance sketch in which mutual listening between performers was structured through principles borrowed from classical harmony.

In that initial study, the relational frequency differences within a triad were translated into movement. Each performer attuned to the “fundamental” or tonal ground of a preceding dancer’s action, then layered a movement of doubled density—interpreted individually in bodily terms. This process generated a spatial clarity and luminosity akin to that perceived in consonant harmonic music.

In trio, Soili continues to work through harmonic thinking, treating movement as organised through frequency, density, and intervallic relation. The proportional relationships of chord tones are transposed into the stage space, guiding how performers align, diverge, and resonate with one another. The performers maintain an open dialogic state both with these structuring principles and with each other, allowing compositional order and live responsiveness to co-emerge.

The sound design extends this exploration of relation and separation: the sonic environment alternates between material audible to the audience via loudspeakers and material heard only by the performers through headphones. This shifting audibility renders perceptible both the discontinuity between sound and movement and their continuation within one another, foregrounding the communicative field that binds them.