Programme: Johtti / Taivaltaja / Wanderer
Description of the work
A wandering investigation into a collaboration between dance and virtual performance amid ecological crisis, exploring embodiments with the aim of returning to a world of kinship between people, land, waters, spirits and other than human beings.
Can it grow into a larger action?
A forest landscape unfolds on stage, yet its truthfulness remains ambiguous. Created through virtual reality, brushwood, meadows, trees, water, land, and sky mirror one another in a choreography that feels almost tangible.
The performance invites you to become a wanderer, to engage with a land that remembers everything. Through encounters with stories of dance, it searches for an embodied agency in the face of urgency, disruption, and the possibility of healing.
Are we wandering when we are dancing?
Does the dance remember the path before we do?
Johtti (Northern Sámi) may refer to one who goes, moves, or is on their way. It suggests being in constant movement, in seasonal rhythm with the land.
Taivaltaja (Finnish) may refer to one who travels slowly and far, crossing landscapes over long distances. It can mean a wanderer by choice or someone who must leave home, carrying all their belongings under the open sky.
Wanderer (English, German) may refer to one who moves about, sometimes aimlessly, roaming without a fixed destination on the land.
Working group
- Choreography: Gáddjá Haarla Pieski (Master’s programme in Choreography)
- Performers: Inari Hulkkonen, Julia Mäkelä, Hyunbean Jeon (Master’s programme in Dance Performance), Milka Salokangas (Degree programme in Dance)
- Scenography and virtual performance: Erika Rustamova (Master’s programme in Sound Design)
- Lighting design: Saana Hannonen (Master’s programme in Lighting Design)
- Sound design: Tuomas Teittinen (Master’s programme in Sound Design)
- Costume design: Miranda Hiidenkari (Aalto ARTS)
- Dramaturgy: Güde Nissen (Master’s programme in Comparative Dramaturgy and Performance Research)
Support services for artistic activities at the Theatre Academy
- Stage manager: Marja Zilcher
- Lighting: Titus Torniainen
- Sound: Mika Savolainen
- Costume: Kati Autere & the Costume department of Theatre Academy
- Props: Saima Lahtinen
- AV: Jyrki Oksaharju
- Production coordinator: Rosa Sedita
- Producer: Riikka Lakea
- Promo picture: Erika Rustamova
- Poster: Erika Rustamova
- Photography: Roosa Oksaharju
- Programme: Jaana Forsström
In collaboration with
Master’s Degree Programme in Costume Design: Performing Arts and Film at Aalto ARTS, the School of Arts, Design and Architecture
Supervising teachers
- Kirsi Monni (choreography)
- Jana Unmüssig (choreography)
- Maria Saivosalmi (dance & dance performance)
- Mikko Niemistö (dance & dance performance)
- Luca Sirviö (lighting design)
- Tom Lönnqvist (sound design)
- Fabian Nyberg (scenography)
- Siru Kosonen (costume design)
- Emil Santtu Uuttu (dramaturgy)
Thank you!
To everyone who maintains and cares for the building and facilities, creating a safe and comfortable environment in which we can work.
Performance times
- Sat 23.5.2026 at 15:00
- Mon 25.5.2026 at 20:00
- Tue 26.5.2026 at 17:00
- Wed 27.5.2026 at 17:00
- Thu 28.5.2026 at 17:00
Venue
Theatre Academy, Theatre Hall, Haapaniemenkatu 6, Helsinki
Duration
35 min
Content notices
The performance includes haze, projected virtual imagery, and sustained coloured lighting states. Sensory intensity varies across scenes although there is no strobing lighting.
Course description
The Artistic Collaboration Projects (ACO) brings together students from seven Uniarts and Aalto University degree programs. Over a period of five weeks, the students have explored and practiced artistic collaboration in performances based on movement and choreography. The process culminates in performances of all five works during the last week of May.
During the artistic collaboration project (ACO) students work primarily within the current framework of contemporary dance and performance, in multidisciplinary artistic working groups.
ACO is a collaborative project involving the Theatre Academy’s master’s programs in choreography, dance, lighting design, sound design, scenography, comparative dramaturgy and performance research, costume design at Aalto University, and second-year bachelor’s students in dance at the Theatre Academy.
The aim of the course is to deepen students’ understanding of the collegial, movement-based artistic process and their ability to work creatively, purposefully, and responsibly in an artistic working group. The course develops an understanding of the specific characteristics and requirements of different areas of the multidisciplinary process, enabling students to develop their artistic work through constructive negotiation and collaboration.