Could you tell us about the background and starting point of this project?
Improvising (in life and) in dance is a core practice of mine that reveals where I am situated in at a present moment. It is the joy of finding myself making moves and decisions which are surfacing in that specific moment, and in relation to what is going on elsewhere. Like in the room or in the music or with the audience. It is like being a transmitter in motion and focusing on being tuned in with what is happening in the midst of it all. It is a challenge to be creating a stream and sequences of bodily communication during each performance without stating the obvious. Or at least being aware of stating the obvious – and that makes me feel sometimes embarrassed even though it is also fun to play with personal obviosities. I am extending my awareness into listening to the space and to the music and the audience and finding a dialogue with them through dance.
I have been making quite large scale works in the past couple of years. Last autumn my colleague choreographer Ulla Koivisto asked me to give an improvised performance with a musician in the retirement home where she lives, and so Troels Strange Lorenzen and myself did our first gig together. It was so very nice to get back to my dancing through improvising, and I thought that there is not so much of it happening at the moment, dance and music impro performances. So we started to plan a season for it and invited these great dancers and musicians to perform in the events.
There is actually a long tradition in improvising in Finland. In Oodi we will have a whole day of performances around the theme. Also there will be workshops open for everybody.
As I understand it in the music scene it is common for musicians to improvise, especially in jazz. Dance improvisation can take so many forms and shapes but there is always a thrill of the unknown. You just have to get going.
How do you situate your artistic work within the Finish performing arts landscape?
This is a very difficult question for me to answer. I can say that I have been part of the landscape for a long time and my work and interests have changed somewhat. The landscape here in Finland is also very variable. My work follows my curiosity in relation to the new questions that arise and inspire my dancing. At the moment I’m intrigued by how the dancer’s thinking process is reflected in the dance, by where the concentration is and how the body is working in tandem with the mind.
I work a lot with questions and tasks and usually my work is related to the material that comes out of these questions. Very process-like. Lately I have asked many questions about the different relations between dance and music. I’ve also taken a dive in the archives of contemporary dance and found questions relating to the ghosts of dance theater. Next year I will be doing a solo, so I’m curious about it and what will appear in the process. I will continue with the ghosts and the bodies. And with an electric guitar played very loud.