A FESTIVAL GREETING
In June 2015, we organized a venue for Dances to a Beat in Helsinki’s Vapaan Taiteen Tila. Dances to a Beat (DTB) is a practice I’ve developed for making instant choreography. I’ve created two contemporary dance pieces, Merphing and Merphing 2, based on the practice. Merphing 2 had its premiere on that weekend in June, and the performances were accompanied by two DTB workshops and a club. The leading Finnish newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, shared our happening in their recommendations with the headline: “Festival of Instant Choreography”.
In the Autumn 2016 I applied for Dances to a Beat to be featured as Theatre Höyhentämö’s next three-year program cycle. My application had three dimensions: (1) I wanted to give classes and workshops on DTB; (2) I wanted to choreograph new performances based on DTB; and (3) I wanted to continue developing a festival format that would include performance, workshop and clubs as a single concept. In addition, I wanted to invite other artists operating with similar interests to join me. I remember finishing the application with these words: “Contemporary dance in Finland, a festival of instant choreography in Helsinki, this is a margin within a margin – I’m dreaming on!”
Now here we are: it is Spring 2017 and the first Festival of Instant Choreography in Höyhentämö awaits! The festival will kick off with Merphing 2, and a call for performances, workshops and concepts to accompany the piece, is now opened. I’m extremely happy and excited about this opportunity: this is a home-made, low-budget effort that may be the beginning of new conversations, practices and margins. It was worth to dream.