Divisions

Rankids, Finland

“Rankids ry is a multicultural theatre association founded in 2000 in the Rantakylä elementary school in Joensuu, Finland, where the participants of a theatre club came up with a name that later became the name of the association. Rankids, pronounced "run-kids" points to the idea of staying in motion, looking for new, exciting ideas, and maintaining a child-like wonder at the world around us. To this day, Rankids organizes theatre and dance hobby groups for children and young people, and our group Voimavara is a Rankids youth theatre group which consists of members from Finland, China, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Egypt, and Sri Lanka.”

The play “Divisions” was performed by the group Rankids from Finland. They are composed of many different nationalities and speak lots of languages.

The play showed us how borders and walls are made and how they impact our lives. Borders affect each- and everyone and people also make/have borders within themselves. 

With their music and beautiful choreography they delivered the message like a punch. The audience was shown many different situations. The connections were not always clear, but lots of them came from the lives of the performers themselves- so thank you, Rankids, for being so vulnerable on stage and sharing your stories with us. You also made wonderful use of the white screen in the background where you showed videos that rounded up the whole experience. The melody of the piano and your beautiful voices broke our personal walls and got directly into the hearts of the entire audience. The often costume-changes brought in a lot of surprise-elements and we really appreciate you bringing so many beautiful costumes with you. 

At the end of the performance you talked to us about the play and also the situation of some of your actors and actresses. Again, we really appreciate you being so honest and open about everything. Your stories really touched us and we understood that no one can choose the cards they get in life and that everyone should be treated with kindness regardless of their card's value. Thank you Finland for coming here to share your stories with us! 

Evi, Annalena and Moritz