The choreographer Rita Marcalo (IRL) explored the creative methods between art and activism in the ecologically engaged work SlowTides: Embodied Journeys and Island Narratives, which she worked on during her stay at Residency B28 on Suomenlinna.
SlowTides: Embodied Journeys and Island Narratives builds on Instant Dissidence’s earlier project SlowMo, which explored carbon-free touring through land and sea travel. The new project deepens this commitment by focusing on isolation, islander identity, and sociopolitical realities through embodied movement.
SlowTides integrates slow travel and local engagement as central creative methods. By using site-specific choreography, oral historical narratives, and immersion in local folk dance traditions, together with collaboration with island communities, SlowTides expands the vision developed in SlowMo. It connects not only places but also the lived experiences of those shaped by their island environment.
The project culminates in informal exchanges on Madeira and Suomenlinna, where movement, memory, storytelling, and sustainability are interwoven. It reflects on how geography shapes identity and artistic expression within a broader European context.
Choreographer Rita Marcalo is the artistic director of Instant Dissidence, a socially and ecologically engaged dance company based in Cloughjordan Ecovillage. The company highlights the role of dance as a social catalyst. Instant Dissidence rejects the idea of art as an object produced by the so-called artist. Their works are often created in dialogue with (and performed by) non-professional artists, focusing on issues that matter to them. The people Rita brings together for each Instant Dissidence project become “artivists” who realize the power of connecting art and social awareness.
