Colourful courtship rituals, intense gazes, and choreographed power struggles unfold in a universe where birds-of-paradise meet wrestling, boy bands, and futuristic fantasies. Inspired by the dramatic and precise mating dances of birds-of-paradise, the performance explores how we seek love, validation, and belonging through the body, the gaze, and social rituals.

On stage, the performers transform into hybrid and futuristic bird-like creatures through precise and theatrical movement vocabularies inspired by club culture, boy bands, wrestling, post-internet aesthetics, and the video game Tekken 3. Animalistic and human expressions coexist in a physical landscape that balances the absurd, the vulnerable, and the powerful.

In Birds of Paradise, Finnish choreographer Tiia Kasurinen explores how identity is shaped, performed, and perceived. Through exaggerated courtship rituals and performative power games, the work turns its attention to questions of gender, masculinity, body ideals, and hierarchy.

Costumes by Leevi Ikäheimo amplify the performance’s playful engagement with expectations surrounding the body and gender. The result is a highly physical, visually charged experience where humour, vulnerability, and theatricality exist side by side.

Birds of Paradise was presented as a finalist at Danse Élargie in Paris in 2024 and premiered at Helsinki City Theatre in 2026.