Dance festival pairs meditative calm with a cathartic release

ERR’s Grete Liina Tuuksam reflects on two contrasting works at this year’s Independent Dance Festival, both of which gave audiences a sense of freedom and left a strong impression.

On Friday and Saturday, the festival moved beyond the Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava building to Kai Art Center and Paavli Culture Factory. At Kai, Jefta van Dinther’s three-and-a-half-hour performance “Unearth” drew viewers into a trance-like state through a minimalist atmosphere and the performers’ voices and bodies.

The exhibition hall was empty, with no technical elements supporting the performers, and audience members could move around freely. The 10-person ensemble moved among them, singing, humming and whispering. Repetition in the words and movements, along with the hall growing dim as evening fell, gave the performance a ritual quality. The room seemed to connect everyone present while leaving space for introspection.

At Paavli Culture Factory, audiences could spend the evenings and nights watching performances, listening to artists and attending a TAB 2026 panel discussion. The evening’s centrepiece was “/” by Japanese duo Ayano Yokoyama, a dancer and choreographer, and sound producer 34423. Yokoyama’s precise movement, eclectic electronic music and neon lights in a dim room offered a sharp contrast to “Unearth.”

Yet the works shared a sense of freedom and explored the boundary between the collective and the individual. “Unearth” created a powerful, almost sacred atmosphere, while Yokoyama and 34423’s performance offered a chance to release the emotions and energy it had stirred through movement and dance. Seen a few hours apart, the works formed a contrasting but coherent experience: a meditative journey ending in catharsis.