Tua Helve
- Visiting researcher, Research Theater Academy, Theatre Academy
- tua.helve@uniarts.fi
Publications in the research database (7)
Introduction
Dr Tua Helve is a researcher, costume designer, and educator in the performing arts, working both in Finland and internationally. Tua’s practice-based expertise is rooted in independent dance and performance, most notably through her long-term collaboration with the performance group Oblivia. Her research has been published in journals including Scene, Studies in Costume & Performance, Choreographic Practices, and Nordic Journal of Dance, and she regularly lectures and supervises students.
Tua’s doctoral dissertation (Aalto University, Finland, 2022) examined the formative role of costume in dance performance, including the use of everyday garments as costume and the conditions that enable sustainable collaboration in performance-making. Her postdoctoral work expands from dance and choreography to live performance more broadly, and from art research into artistic research. Her current interests span artistic co creation, contemporary process-based working methods, independent artists’ labour, and artistic thinking, informed by social theory and feminist perspectives.
As a Scholarship Researcher at Uniarts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy (Performing Arts Research Centre, Tutke), supported by the Kone Foundation, she is currently conducting a two-year artistic research project (2025–2026) on the costume history and practice of/in Oblivia.
Alongside her research and artistic work, Tua is active in both academic and non-academic positions of trust. From 2024 to 2027, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of Näyttämö ja tutkimus (Stage and Research), the journal of the Finnish Society for Theatre Research. She is committed to providing peer support and mentoring to both researchers and freelance artists in the performing arts.