Soup Talks is a series of informal conversations with the artists presenting their work during the festival. The talks form a discursive line that goes through the festival and brings people together. We want to welcome the audience and the artists around a big table with a bowl of warm soup. Everybody is invited to join in, to listen, to pose questions and to take part in the discussions. Each of the talks will be hosted by an artist based in the Helsinki area.

The Soup Talks are organized together in collaboration with Caisa.

 

7.11.2024 
Performance Pancor Poetics
Guest: Pontus Pettersson
Host: Maija Hirvanen

8.11.2024 @ Goethe-Institut Finnland
Performance A Plot / A Scandal
Guest: Ligia Lewis and the working group
Host: Gesa Piper

9.11.2024
Performance LIVRE D’IMAGES SANS IMAGES
Guest: Mette Edvardsen & Iben Edvarsen
Host: Laura Cemin

10.11.2024
Performance The Second Body
Guest: Ola Maciejewska and the working group
Host: Tuuli Vahtola

11.11.2024
Performance Soliloquio
Guest: Tiziano Cruz
Host: Eurídice Hernandes

12.11.2024
Performance Skvallret (The Gossip)
Guest: Stina Nyberg
Host: Chen Nadler & Tim Winter

13.11.2024
Performance Whitewashing
Guest: Rébecca Chaillon
Host: Kadence Neill & Pierre Piton

14.11.2024
Performance The Making of Pinocchio
Guest: The team behind The Making of Pinocchio
Host: Even Minn

15.11.2024
Soup Talk Panel
Guest: Rahalël Beau, Sara Grotenfelt, Milla Koistinen, Anne Naukkarinen, Lydia Touliatou
Host: Simo Kellokumpu

16.11.2024
Performance blackmilk
Guest: Tiran Willemse
Host: Geoffrey Erista

17.11.2024
Performance IL FAUX
Guest: Calixto Neto
Host: Patricia Scalco

 

Maija Hirvanen is a choreographer and performance maker. Her interests range from the relationship between art and different belief systems and ways of re-learning to questions of embodiment and the more-than-human approach in performance and choreography. She makes performances on stages and in places, writes, researches, and teaches. Maija has co-led and planned several artistic laboratories and discursive programs. Hirvanen’s work has been presented at festivals and venues e.g. Tanz im August/Hebbel am Ufer/Berlin, ImpulsTanz/Vienna, Sadler’s Wells/Lilian Baylis Studio/London, SPRING Festival/Utrecht, Seoul Performing Arts Festival, Saal Biennaal/Tallinn, Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis and Dansens Hus/Stockholm, Zodiak, Kiasma, Baltic Circle Festival, Helsinki Festival and Moving in November Festival in Helsinki.

Gesa Piper is a German-born dance-artist and -pedagogue. She has been based in Finland since 2011 and is active as a performer, teacher and choreographer nationally and internationally, eg. as a soloist for Fabien Prioville and Jude Walton. Her own artistic work has dealt with ecological and ancestral themes for several years and has been staged in various venues and festivals, such as “Bog Stories” at UrbanApa 2023 or “Memory Matter” in collaboration with Georgie Goater and Maikki Palm at Zodiak Centre for New Dance in 2020. She holds a BA in dance and choreography from ArtEZ Arnhem and a MA in Dance Pedagogy from the Theatre Academy Helsinki. She has worked at the Theatre Academy Helsinki in various programs and tasks since 2014.

Laura Cemin (b. 1992) is an Italian visual artist and choreographer based in Helsinki. Her work delves into the choreographic power of language, examining how language influences movement and physical interactions. Her work has been presented both nationally and internationally at venues such as Kiasma Theatre, Helsinki Art Museum, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, and Bozar in Brussels. In addition to her artistic practice as an author, Laura works as a dance dramaturg and guest lecturer at various international institutions.

Tuuli Vahtola is a dance and performance artist who lives in Helsinki and works as a performer and choreographer. In her artistic work Tuuli is intrigued by questions of intimacy, the sense of touch and the corporeality of language. These questions connect to a larger interest of social relationalities, realities and responsibilities and the possibility of queering them through experimental performance. Her latest works are Here, there, somewhere (2023), shown in New Performance Turku Biennale, and intimate expectations (2023), co-coreographed with Ella Skoikka, in Contemporary Art Space Kutomo, Turku. In 2024 Tuuli is performing in works of choreographers Sonja Jokiniemi and Oda Brekke. Tuuli holds a BA in Dance Performance from DOCH/Stockholm University of the Arts (2017). In 2024 Tuuli was a danceWEB Scholarship recipient at ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival, nominated by Moving in November. 

Eurídice Hernández Gomes is a Doctoral Researcher in Latin American Studies at the Doctoral Programme in Political, Societal, and Regional Changes at the University of Helsinki. She is dedicated to unveiling the intricate links between public spaces, migration dynamics, and identity development. In her doctoral thesis, Hernández examines the creation of Latin American “places” within the social infrastructure of the Helsinki Metropolitan Region and their impact on individuals with mixed Finnish-Latin American background. Eurídice applies ethnographic methods and arts-based research to explore the intersection between city spaces and transcultural identification.

Chen Nadler is a choreographer and dancer based in Helsinki, integrating community, philosophy, culture, and tradition through cross-disciplinary approaches. Her work explores what the body can do, celebrating the knowledge carried and evoked by individuality and the collectivity of dancing bodies. She is busy with the dilemma that lies in meeting with the other, the emotional, energetic and political nature that emerges from a human encounter, followed by ethical wonders and responsibilities. Chen creates gatherings, performances, video art projects and presents works in international festivals. She co-facilitates inclusive community projects in Germany and a Multidisciplinary Jam project in Helsinki, supported by the City Cultural Grants. In 2024, she hosted a workshop at ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival, sharing her bodily-visiting practice evolved from a ritual rooted in her Moroccan ancestry. Chen holds a professional dance certificate in dance (Tel-Aviv-Jaffa, 2013), studied for B.Ed in Steiner and Social Education, (Haifa, Helsinki, 2022) and currently studying for an MA in Choreography at the Theatre Academy, Helsinki. 

Tim Winter is a choreographer and performer,  currently based in Oslo (KHiO) and Berlin (HZT), finishing his MA studies in choreography. He holds degrees in environmental sciences as well as economics. In his artistic research practice, he explores the togetherness of observation and action, and the role of resonance as a connecting and constructing element of space, movement and sound. Key elements are questions on aesthetics, space/time and narrative, and how these are experienced and used to create environment. Practicing and involving Togetherness could thus mean to be involved, to experience and create in the same moment and to access sub- and intermediate spaces. Most recently, Timworked in collaboration with Clemens Winkler (Berlin) and Linda Wardal (Stockholm), as well as on his own practice, in which he merges movement, live sound and spoken language. 

Kadence Luella Neill is an interdisciplinary artist traversing the realms of dance, theater, education, and somatic healing practices. For the past 8 years she has worked primarily as a performer with the New York based dance theater company Nature Theater of Oklahoma, performing at festivals/venues such as Frankfurt Bockenheimer Depot, Dusseldorf Schauspielhaus, HAU Hebbel Am Ufer, Kampnagel, The Skirball Center, Espoo City Theater, Wiener Festwochen, Epidaurus Festival, Steirischer Herbst, Arctic Arts Festival, Zurcher Theater Spektakel, Norderzon Festival, and Spielart Festival.  This past summer she participated in Danceweb under mentorship of Isabel Lewis at ImpulsTanz Festival. Born and raised in New York City, Kadence has worked with many New York based choreographers including Walter Dundervill, Stacey Sperling, Rebecca Brooks, Pavel Zuštiak, and is the longtime student of choreographer and teacher Katiti King. Additionally, she is the long-term teaching and research assistant to Dr. Megan Poe, founder of the NYU Love Class. Kadence is a certified breathwork instructor and holds breathwork as an integral part of her creative practice. She also trains in Muay Thai. Kadence holds her undergraduate degree from the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and is currently pursuing her MA in Choreography at Uniarts Helsinki. 

After their first training at the National Conservatory of Paris, Pierre Piton studied at La Manufacture Lausanne. Upon obtaining their Bachelor’s degree, Pierre joined Corpus at the Royal Danish Theater Copenhagen and went on to work with Juliette Uzor, Natasza Gerlach, and Mark Lorimer amongst others. In 2018, they founded La PP in collaboration with Romane Peytavin and became Associated Artist at l’Abri Geneva. The duo created several works such as Dédicace (Swiss Selection in Avignon 2022), Farewell Body (Swiss Dance Days Basel 2022), and Open/Closed (La Bâtie 2022, June Events 2023). As of June 2019, Pierre enters the collective The Field and works with Simone Aughterlony, Ofelia Jarl Ortega, Isabel Lewis, and Meg Stuart. After a summer at danceWEB Impulstanz, Pierre began the MA in choreography at Stockholm University of the Arts. 

Even Minn is a writer and dramaturg working in the fields of performing arts and literature. Minn is the house dramaturg at Ehkä-production. They also work as a critic at Nuori Voima Literary Service. Latest works include Enter Exude (Kiasma Theatre 2023), Alien Mother (Vleeshal 2023) and Deep Time Trans (Baltic Circle 2021).

Simo Kellokumpu is a choreographer and researcher based in Helsinki, working in the fields of choreography and contemporary art. In his work, Kellokumpu explores the transdisciplinary interplay of bodies, choreography, movement, and space/place, influenced by post-internet hyper-reading practices, queer speculative fiction, and site-responsiveness/ability. In addition to his solo work, Kellokumpu collaborates with other artists, and his latest works have been presented at the Toaster Festival in Copenhagen, Tokyo Arts and Space, Kohta Gallery in Helsinki, and Konstmuseet i Norr in Kiruna. After completing a Doctor of Arts degree in 2019 at the Performing Arts Research Centre (TUTKE), Theatre Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, based on his artistic research project Choreography as Reading Practice, Kellokumpu has worked as a visiting researcher at TUTKE with his postdoctoral artistic research project titled xeno/exo/astro-choreoreadings. In addition to his artistic work, Kellokumpu currently works as a lecturer in the MA in Dance Performance program in the Theatre Academy, Uniarts Helsinki, and as a curator-facilitator at Pengerkatu 7 – Työhuone art space in Helsinki. 

Geoffrey Erista has performed in theatre, dance, moving picture, installation and performance art productions. His artistic passions are in site-specific art, documentary and politics of art. Erista is interested in exploring socially relevant topics and finding ways to bring up more diverse art. He is a Sudanese-Ugandan actor, dancer and live art maker, who in 2020 received an MA in Acting from University of Arts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy. After graduating he has purposefully pursued to practice policies that combine theory and physical expression.  In 2019 his artistic thesis N.E.G.R.O. – Nhaga & Erista Growing ‘n Reaching Out was part of Tampere Theater Festival. Since then he has worked in contemporary dance productions choreographed by Anna Maria Häkkinen, Sonya Lindfors, Sara Gurevitsch, Karoliina Loimaala, Mikko Makkonen, Jenni-Elina von Bagh, Calixto Neto and Lin (Lin Da) Martikainen. As a performer, he has been most influenced by the studies of Mikhail Chekhov, Jerzy Grotowski and Tadashi Suzuki.