Tiia Kasurinen’s Birds of Paradise at CODA – Oslo Inter­national Dance Festival, 10-11 October 2026

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. 

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.

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.

Tiia Kasurinen is a choreographer, artist, and creative director based in Helsinki. A graduate of Stockholm University of the Arts, she works internationally across choreographic projects that move between performing arts, popular culture, and visual expression. Through transformation, movement, and physical worlds that balance the theatrical, the absurd, and the vulnerable, she investigates how people perform themselves and relate to their surroundings.

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

Place: Astrup Fearnley Museum  

Time: 10 October, 16:00-17:00

11 October, 15:00-16:00

For more information and tickets check the CODA webpage. 

–

The production has received support from the Kone Foundation, Institut Finlandais / pARTir, Dansé Elargie, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Zodiak – Center for New Dance / Loisto, and HKT Stage for Contemporary Performance. Birds of Paradise at CODA – Oslo International Dance Festival is supported by the Finnish-Norwegian Cultural Institute.