Category Archives: Inspiration

happy New Year everybody!

I spent the New Year’s eve peacefully visiting my parents and grandparents in Hailuoto.

Now I’m happy to be back home, catching up with my own work, reading, writing and exercising this week. Just what I like. And this week my daughter has a ice-skating competition and my friends are getting married so I’m really looking forward to it all.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, the sale started today in Minna Parikka’s online shop. Pretty amazing shoes and bags -30% and  -50%…I’ve already check out from the shop…

Have a great week!

Johanna

images of Amsterdam

Before Christmas I spent five days in Amsterdam where I performed Twirling World as part of the Nordic Gold event.
I haven’t been to Holland since my graduation in 1997 (besides the Schiphol airport) so it was great to visit Amsterdam again. Walking down the canals and narrow streets of Amsterdam brought back so many memories and emotions that it was all a bit overwhelming. Amsterdam has such a special character and feeling and I must say that I’ve missed it!




Walking on Nine Streets, I came across this pop-up party:

And I swear I wasn’t looking for and didn’t even know where the Marlies Dekkers‘ shops are, but this came on my way:





In one of the vintage shops I saw the exact glittery top that I bought in the 1980’s from London and which has been stolen from the performance I don’t have anything to wear.


I had a wonderful Saturday morning at the Farmers’ Market in Nordmarkt and the most delicious apple pie and coffee in Cafe Winkel. I bought tons of Dutch cheeses for Christmas – they are the best. I’m a very big fan of old gouda, especially the ones made of goat’s milk.






We performed Twirling World in Rabozaal, a new space between the city theatre and Melkweg. The space was great, a huge stage with a big seated audience. We just used the stage, cutting of the seating with a metallic wall.



The performance itself went ok, I think, but the day building up the show, trying to do a run through, warm-up, prepare and to get all the necessary stuff was very stressful. Two things I learned: Twirling World cannot be toured without my own technician and I need to have my own private accommodation.
This is the painting of the Amsterdam show:

I’m sorry I haven’t been a very active blogger recently. I’ve been extremely busy and therefor a bit too tired and stressed at times. But now I’m trying to relax and take it easy. A party with a group of girlfriends today – really looking forward to it!

Johanna

Twirling World tonight in Amsterdam! Welcome.

I’m performing Twirling World tonight with Sonja in Melkweg, Amsterdam at 9pm. So if you happen to be here, you are most welcome to the show. The space is great, Melkweg’s crew is fantastic and we are soon heading to Melkweg to start building the set up. Long day ahead of us. But tonight should be fun!

We were rehearsing yesterday in a studio in DasArts but Twirling World is very difficult to rehearse without the set up and the right space.  But I think we are ready and prepared and at least for me, the logic of the performance is very clear.
Ooh, and it’s so nice to be in Amsterdam! What nostaligia, what memories. It’s all a bit too much really.
And yesterday it was so great to see Maija and Jyrki and Tuovi and Pia…

Well, hope to see you tonight!

Johanna

last few days…

I’ve been a bit up and down. My plans for this week changed completely because of an unexpected situation at work and I’m now behind my schedule in many ways. Well, I guess things were going too smoothly for a couple days – something just had to happen. Well, I won’t get into that more.
I went to Helsinki on Thursday for a meeting and also had a chance to visit Suvilahti where Esitystaiteen keskus has their new office and rehearsal space. I had a lovely talk with Annika Tudeer, Anna Krzystek and Timo Fredriksson from Oblivia. It was really great to see them and I miss them! Their new space is great and even the Kalasatama tube station welcomes you with posters of environmental art projects and the importance of arts for the area. How cool is that?





But I did get my new glasses today so I’m happy!


Glasses Kenzo. Dress Nanso Black Dress collection, model Can I call you dear?

Have to get some sleep now.

Johanna

lots of work & fun

What a luxury to be at home for a few days. I’ve gone for runs, dentist, library, ice-skating with my daughter, Zumba, Pilates, seen friends, wrote comments for a MA thesis and have read some stuff. But not nearly enough! I have a huge pile of books that I need to read, articles and essays to write and performances to warm up and work on. I’m so fully booked until Christmas that I just hope I won’t catch a flue or anything. I’m very excited to travel to London to work with Rebecca French in the beginning of December. We’ll continue our collaboration which we started in June in Kuopio. And after that, I’ll be performing Twirling World with Sonja in Melkweg, in Amsterdam. They have a very exciting Finnish programme for a couple of days and I’m very happy and proud to be part of that.

More later!

Here’s a picture of my daughter ice-skating on Saturday in Leppävirta. She’s so gorgeous! Although the competition didn’t go very well for her –she was so nervous- she did much better than last time and I love her what ever she does!

Johanna

reading, writing, thinking, reflecting

Uuuh, I’ve been reading books and articles related to my studies all day. I have no idea how I’m going to pass all the exams, write articles and research plans related not only to my studies but also my work. Well, one thing at a time but I do feel a bit helpless at the moment. But I am excited like a little child about everything! It’s such a privilege to be able to study, develop my thinking and challenge myself and my thoughts. I love it.

And I’m so exited about my upcoming working period in London and a performance in Amsterdam! My weeks are extremely full but it’s so exciting to be giving talks, performing, writing, working on a new project and of course studying that I’m positive that I will somehow survive the upcoming intense months. We’ll see.

Today I finally managed to squeeze in a Zumba class at the Functional Studios and a bike ride there and back. Oh it was so good and soooo needed.

I’m so happy about my new sister Maija being part of my chosen family. At least one person to remember my birthday! Well, at this age birthdays are not very important events and it takes at least five minutes to calculate my age, but it’s still nice if someone remembers it. Well, my dad called me in the evening and I did get a card from my grandparents so I can’t complain. To treat myself, I bought a limited edition bottle of Codorníu Gran Plus Ultra and it’s amazing! If you can get hold of any, get as many bottles as you can – if you love cava as much as I do! What a treat. It’s a great wine.


Yesterday I went to town with my daughter and I had to go and try this I’m your queen dress on which a saw a couple of days ago. And when I put it on, there was no way I could leave it in the shop. It fitted just perfectly for me and I know I will wear it a lot. So since no-one else is treating me, I have to do it myself (sounds a bit perv but you know what I mean…)! Anyway, Nanso’s autumn collection is very nice so go and have a look at their collection. The best collection is of course in Helsinki in their shop on Mikonkatu but Kuopio’s Sokos has a surprisingly good selection at the moment. It’s about time…

I also saw two dance performances yesterday which made me really happy somehow. It was great to see my old time collaborator Jukka Ristolainen to perform and I’ve been enjoying getting to know Terhi Kuokkanen more as a performer, too. She is young, but gorgeous.

Hope you’ll have a great week!

Johanna

 

 

 

work & study

Oh it was lovely to be in the ANTI office today with Laura! At the moment we are working on dozens of grant applications so we went through plans for 2012, the projects, the artists, the budgets, the questions, the issues… I’ve made a draft of the programme which is a really great starting point. But yes, so many things to find out, sort, schedule and to work on. And we need some MONEY! But it will be great.

I’ve tried my best to study Bourdieu’s Field of Cultural Production lately but somehow I’m not getting very far… Last night I slept only a couple of hours so trying to force myself to study in the library felt like a torture today… But I had a coffee with my collaborator Jukka Ristolainen and I’ll see his show tomorrow so that’s good. All is good!

Johanna

a typical Sunday?

A bit confusing day. It started off very well, the weather was great – a really beautiful bright autumn day. I had a chance to read the newspaper sort of in peace, went for a longer walk with the dog and then for a short run. And I felt great! Because of ANTI, last week was just insane and I didn’t have a chance to exercise properly – I only cycled to work a few times but walked around the city a lot during the festival. Then on Tuesday I woke up with a sore throat and didn’t want to make it worse by exercising too much. On Thursday I had a small surgery and wasn’t allowed to exercise for a couple of days which is why I ended up taking Nerve Renew medication after reading its review online and just dint leave the house. Today it just felt great to be able to run although my pulse was rather high. Hope I don’t feel worse tomorrow.

For the rest of the day I guess I had a bit too ambitious goals of what I would get done. Had to comment an article, write a short piece, read, work on my schedules for the autumn etc etc. I did get a lot done but not enough. I felt especially bad for not getting to read as much as I wanted – I found it really hard to concentrate.

But I kind of made the ANTI 2012 programme and sent it off to Gregg to comment. Felt a bit manic really. I also made some notes about the meaning of ANTI as some people have written rather stupid and also totally incorrect things about the festival to the local daily newspaper. So we need to comment on and correct those. I also tracked down a date when one photo was taken related to the accusations in the writings.

So anyway, I feel a bit muddy. I’ve been also working on my upcoming performance and have had some exciting thoughts about how to structure and shape the work. So yes, there have been good things and moments but also I’m very aware that I need to do so much more. Oh well. Well well well.

Johanna

Valkyrian in Kuopio!

Today I was wondering in the city centre of Kuopio as my daughter was in her ice-skating class (can you say that? Should it be lesson? Or maybe session? Anyway, you know what I mean!). The kids need new clothes & shoes for the winter so I thought I’d have a look if I can find shoes for my daughter. Well, I didn’t. But I did find a few nice pairs for myself (didn’t buy anything) and discovered that Nina in Kuopio sells now Valkyrian Design! This is great and quite a surprise. Kuopio is really not the most interesting place to shop and the selection in most of the stores is lousy. I know this one boutique in Helsinki that sells Valkyrian so I was very positively surprised to see a few items in Nina. They only had a few things but I told them how great it is that they doing it. Lotta Mönkäre, the designer, is young and very interesting. She also lives in the Eastern Finland in Joensuu which I also think is great. So all of you, go and have a look at her gorgeous gothic inspired collections!

Johanna