Category Archives: Dance

2012

In 2012 I enjoyed immensely my return to the position of a choreographer in MAP OF SCARS. Directing a piece in which I don’t perform myself was a fantastic experience and I had a great team to work with. So thank you Sannamaria, Tuovi, Pirjo, Ainu, Tatu, Pekka and everyone who was part of that process.
Photo by Pekka Mäkinen.

I also really enjoyed creating Follow me with Rebecca French but was sad how little visibility the audio walk received. In Finland it still seems very difficult to create works outside the mainstream artistic forms and to get media’s or people’s interest to participate in works that are not in the ‘safe’ environment or form. As a contemporary artist, I think this is very sad and depressing.

Although it is sometimes difficult, I still feel that there’s a need and interest for my work and to improve the production processes and overall working conditions, I set up an organization called Live Umbrella with Pekka and Maija. I’ve postponed that for several years but now it’s the time to really give it a try!

I made several work trips in 2012. To Vienna, Gloucestershire, Montreal, Uppsala, Stockholm, Helsinki, Kajaani, London, Brussels…all the trips were really inspirational. The most exciting adventure was however to Montreal and I was so happy to visit the Les Escales Improbables Festival and meet many new collegues there. And my morning run to the Parc Mount Royal was unforgettable! The best teaching experience I’ve ever had was in Brussels at Cifas Summer University.

I had an unforgettable summer holiday with my children in London in the summer. We had such a great time and it was a much needed break for me. Thanks for our wonderful hosts Rebecca, Andrew & VP!!!!!

Although studying can and has been at times really hard and tiring, it has mostly been a true inspiration. I’m so happy I’ve gotten to know new amazing academics, thinkers, theorists and fellow students as well to deepen my own understanding and knowledge in the fields of cultural policy and art theory.

I saw some touching performances. 100% London by Rimini Protokoll, For Those Who Have Time by Maija Hirvanen and In Human Disguise by Eeva Muilu and Milja Sarkola made me cry.

Photo Pekka Mäkinen.

ANTI 2012 was a fantastic festival. It was a kind of a dream come true to have Annie Sprinkle & Beth Stephens, Heather Cassils, Kris Grey, Alejandra Herrera and Jukka Huitila in one festival – not to dismiss any artist at the great festival! Up To Nature project was also a great experience and I was very happy to collaborate with Thomas, Helen, Jon and Gregg on it. It was fantastic that Vilja joined the ANTI production team!

Photo Pekka Mäkinen.

During 2012 I still got a lot of happiness in my daily life from the shoes of Minna Parikka, exercising at Functional Team (now Element Studios), hanging out with friends, good Riesling wines and of course my family. I’ve had some health problems which have annoyingly effected my metabolism so somehow the year has not been a great improvement physically but more mentally and theoretically. And that has been great and more than welcome.

Looking forward to the challenges of 2013!


Happy New Year!

Johanna

 

Map of Scars – 8 min shortie

Johanna

Map of Scars teaser !

Enjoy!

Johanna

in the process of Map Of Scars


it’s a bit challenging to be a choreographer, producer, set designer and costume designer at the same time. Luckily I don’t have to be a performer, light designer, photographer nor sound designer for this upcoming show!




I have three gorgeous performers Sannamaria Kuula, Tuovi Rantanen and Pirjo Yli-Maunula, my favourite sound designer Tatu Metsäpelto, wonderful performance photographer Pekka Mäkinen and a new collaborator, light designer Ainu Palmu, and of course the great graphic designer Tomi Leppänen.

Aren’t you just dying to see the show? A few weeks to go!!!

Johanna

functional training

if you ever wonder why functional training is the way to exercise… this is why!

Have FUN!

Johanna

towards a new work

Now the approaching premiere of MAP OF SCARS has started to become more and more concrete. Last week I worked with Sannamaria Kuula and this week Tuovi Rantanen joined rehearsals. What amazing, beautiful, gorgeous women, dancers and performers they are! I feel so blessed. On Sunday Pirjo Yli-Maunula will join the team. Although our rehearsal period is short, I have a very positive and confident feeling. The team includes light designer Ainu Palmu, sound designer and composer Tatu Metsäpelto and photographer Pekka Mäkinen.
This week we also got some performance costumes from Tyra Therman and I have to say that they are just stunning.

I feel like we are on our way to something very special, very beautiful, touching, intimate….

Premiere is on the 16th of November. In Kuopio, Finland.

Johanna

Montreal in pictures

As you can see, I had a short but intense visit to Montreal. Thanks for the invitation Les Escales Improbables de Montreal!
My morning run to Parc Mount Royal was also unforgettable and the view just stunning:

I met some great people, saw exciting works, traveled for days and ate some good foods! What else can you wish for?

Johanna

in Stockholm

I have the luxury to spend a couple of days in Stockholm before traveling to Uppsala where I’ll perform on Thursday.

Last night I hardly got any sleep as I had so much work to finish before the trip that I was really late packing. I had maybe 1-2 hours sleep before getting up at 4am so was rather exhausted. Luckily my flights were on time and all went smoothly. I arrived in my hotel in Södermalm very early and was rather doubtful that they would have any rooms available but they did and gave me one at something like 10am. I was so happy and had a little nap before heading off to town for my business.

In the evening I went to visit Fotografiska and ended up walking a route that took me to completely new places in Stockholm. Here are a few pictures from the way.













Nicest thing today has been speaking Swedish – after my course in academic Swedish this spring I really really enjoy catching up with the language. And now it’s just lovely to be able to speak better Swedish and use the language. Great! You never know where life takes you.

Hope to see you in Uppsala on Thursday!

Johanna

milk load

I performed MILK last Friday in the Functional Studios in Kuopio. I had completely forgotten what a nightmare that show is to organize!!! It took 14 hours from me to pick up all the props and materials including the dance carpets, empty milk boxes, fresh milk, bags to pack the boxes into and the bucket in which I bathe and then to set up the space, tape the dance carpets, organize the milk boxes in chronological order and back them, then to get ready for the show, perform, shower, clean up and pack everything and transport all the gears into different storages and places. I WAS EXHAUSTED.

But of course the greatest thing was to perform and to experience once again that the work is strong and it really touches people, provokes ideas and somehow also connects. So yesterday when I went to the studio for my training, I got such a warm and lovely feedback which made me feel very happy and also more connected to that place and the people who work and train there. So it was a beautiful experience.

I need to thank my son Zulani and his friend Elina who help enormously before and after the show! And I couldn’t have survived without the help of my daughter Justiina with whom we taped the dance carpets earlier during the day! So it’s all like a family business except that it’s not a very good business… Well, call it collaboration then!

I’ve been deep into dialogical and relational aesthetics and I need to work on my article rather intensively this week… Lots of work still to do. And in fact I have so much work in May and July that I can only focus on one thing at a time otherwise I’ll go crazy. But if I’m still alive in the end of June, I know I can be very pleased and proud of myself and will really enjoy a proper holiday. But until then, back to work now! So probably not a very active blogging season ahead of me – but I’ll try my best.

Hauskaa vappua!

Johanna

Kuopio-Vienna-Kuopio

Last weekend I was in Vienna, Austria, in one of our EU project meetings, UP TO NATURE. I left of Friday which was the beginning of the skiing holiday in Kuopio. The Kuopio airport was packed at 5.30am with wealthy families travelling to skiing holidays either in Lapland or somewhere in the Alps. I have never ever been able to take my family on a skiing holiday and I must say, I felt a bit jealous. I realized, once again, very concretely, that there are all these people who can afford to take their whole family on holidays (and have all the expensive skiing gears along) – in fact, for them is normal to take family holidays at least once a year abroad. I also realized that instead of having a proper skiing holiday, I was on a work trip for the weekend. Never mind that, because I really, really, enjoyed our meeting. It was great, useful, inspiring and informative. So thank you so much Thomas, Olivia and Nicole at brut Vienna and Helen & co and Hedda, Philip & co for a great meeting. We have created a great project and I’m really looking forward to the outcome. Unfortunately, I’m not able to make it to the first festival in Vienna, but I am planning to visit Bristol in June and Oslo in August. How exciting!



I also went to the opening of Imagetanz and saw a very strange performance…

Like I said, we are having the skiing holiday here but Vienna was very summer like already. It’s so strange to be located literally on the edge of Europe and see weird middle European road signs like this way to Budapest and this way to Prague… This was my second time to stay in hotel Fürstenhof, the strange but nice old fashioned simple hotel. This time I had a nice & spacious room and I slept surprisingly well. We also had some lovely dinners & drank some gorgeous Riesling and Grüner Veltlieners so I had a great time in Vienna! And I spoke some German, feeling very proud of myself.

Although I just received excellent grades from the economics of culture course and exam, please have a look at this wonderful article (in Finnish) by theatre director Esa Leskinen about why art shouldn’t bring any economic benefits!

In general, I have felt rather depressed recently as I haven’t received any project funding to produce my upcoming works. So I’m facing the same old same old questions of what to do, if to do then how or not do at all. Very inspiring start for new productions!

For the sake of the international women’s day, I wore Minna Parikka’s fuchsia Women are dangerous animals boots and went with my daughter to see a wonderful dancer Tuovi Rantanen performing a solo by the wonderful choreographer Ervi Siren. Women rule!

Johanna