Rūta Ronja Pakalne

The Space Between Us Is Not Empty is not finished. It is becoming. It is rehearsal extended into performance. It invites audiences not into a polished answer, but into the fragile attempt to connect — where even the simplest act may turn radical.

This piece begins with the radical difficulty of coming together. Each body follows its own path, its own subjective trip, facing knots it may not want to face. In this process, even the simplest gesture can become a radical act. A single step across the space can feel like cutting through matter, impossible distances crossed. For those inside the process, these moments are miracles. For the outside eye, perhaps “just a walk.” The gap between inner necessity and outer appearance is where the work lives. 

You are you, but you are also each other. Without mimicry, without sarcasm. Ultimate trust in observing the other becoming you. Even when you don’t want to see it. Even when it’s too much. 

The paradox is that trust is also the greatest risk. To show yourself fully is the condition for the work — and also its greatest challenge. What happens when you don’t? The piece does not hide these failures: they are part of the material. 

The time of this work is the suspension of escalation. We live inside a collective pause that feels like waiting for something to explode. The piece does not resolve this tension — it holds it, as bodies hold it in rehearsal. Escalation is not elsewhere. It is already here. 

Failure, in this process, is redefined. We don’t fucking care anymore if we fail. Failure means half-assing. Failure means not bringing ourselves fully. It’s about fire, not polish. The demand is not for harmony or perfection, but for fullness, presence, risk. 

 “I hope it’s not gonna be safe. I want it to be like when you shake someone, not violently, but so they wake up.”  

PLEASE NOTE! The performance is not wheelchair accessible. The audience will be located on the stage where the access is via staircase.
Age recommendation 13+
Duration 70 minutes

Choreographer and director Rūta Ronja Pakalne 
Dancers Arolin Raudva, Juulius Vaiksoo, Helina Karvak, Leevi Rauhalahti, Maryn-Liis Rüütelmaa, Rūta Ronja Pakalne 
Sound designer Israel Bañuelos Loreto 
Light artist Kristiina Tinnu Tang 
Stage designer / costume artist Pire Sova 
Dramaturge Alissa Šnaider 
Photography Kris Moor
Producer Sirli Oot, Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava 
Support Cultural Endowment of Estonia
Premiere 16.10.2025 at Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava  

Rūta Ronja Pakalne is a Latvian-Estonian freelance dance and film artist based in Estonia. Her interdisciplinary practice spans choreography, performance, filmmaking, and teaching, investigating body, presence, and everyday experience. She holds a BA in Choreography from the Latvian Academy of Culture, further training at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels, and an MA in Film Arts from TLU, BFM. Since 2019 she has taught at TLU-BFM, Tallinn Ballet School, and ETA Tantsukool. Her recent projects include Body of Dreams (2023)—a collaboration with Laura Kvelstein exploring body archives, Freedom to Lose Control Together with the Many (2023), and dance films H61 and Centrifugal (2024). She also creates experimental dance films that explore movement and embodied storytelling.