Mesh is a verb for making things fit well together.

Maija Hirvanen's choreography Mesh makes connections in between people, breath and wind, matter and feelings, electricity, waves, and across time and space. The dance of Mesh arises from tuning in with many life forms and with the question of being human at the same time. In Mesh, Maija has particularly worked with the connections of the way of being of the fungi mycorrhiza, and the networks that run within and through the human body.

Mesh works with the principles of movement similar to many forms of life – in the artificial and mostly human made environment of the stage. The dancers are entangling, blooming, energizing, decaying, howling and eventually, meshing. Mesh works with a hybrid and playful way of being on stage. The performance gives birth to mystical and performative stage creatures, hybrids that move in between layers of being. At the core of Mesh are the connections between things, transformations, and stretching the line of imagination.

Mesh will premiered internationally in August 2022 on the Hebbel am Ufer 2 stage as part of the Tanz im August festival.

Suvi Tuominen

Suvi is a multidisciplinary professional in the fields of dance, performance and performing arts. She is an educated dancer, archaeologist and holds a master’s degree of arts in theatre and drama. As a dancer Suvi is interested in different meanings and visualities that movement produce ephemerally.

Marika Peura

Marika Peura is a freelance dance artist based in Helsinki. She works multidisciplinary way in the field of contemporary performing arts. In her artistic practise Peura is particularly interested in looking at the intimacy of dancing.

Marlon Moilanen

Marlon Moilanen is a dancer based in Helsinki, Finland. Performing mainly in the realms of contemporary dance, he works with the psychic and soulfully experienced body - where often sensitivity, darkness and humour are in intimate relations. Recently he has collaborated with choreographers Maija Hirvanen, Sonja Jokiniemi, Liisa Pentti, Margrét Sara Guðjónsdóttir and Karolina Ginman among others.

Pie Kär

Pie Kär is a non-binary dancer and choreographer living in Sipoo. They have graduated as a dancer from the Amsterdam University of the Arts 2014 and as a choreographer from the University of the Arts/Theatre Academy 2020. Kär has been the Moving in November Festivals dramaturg of social choreography 2022-2022, using mediums of performance installation, sound walk, workshop organising and composting.

Tatu Nenonen

The sound designer Tatu Nenonen works in the art field by making materials that sound and vibrate. His sound designs have a physical and sculptural element in them. His latest works include Rikinkeltainen taivas (2019) at the Finnish National Theatre, dir.: Juhana von Bagh, Asennot (2019) at Q Theatre, dir. Anna-Mari Karvonen and audio play Filosofien rakkaustarinat (2020) for the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, dir.: Anna-Mari Karvonen.

Heikki Paasonen

Heikki Paasonen studied lighting design at the Finnish Theatre Academy of Finland and at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts earning his Master´s degree in Lighting Design in 2003. He has worked as a designer in more than 70 professional theatre, dance and opera productions. Paasonen works in the Kiasma theatre in the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art as a resident designer and theatre technician.

Maija Hirvanen: Mesh

16.-17.09.2022

TANSSIN TALO

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The Working Group

Maija Hirvanen is a choreographer and performance maker based in Helsinki. Her performances have been presented at festivals and venues in Finland and internationally, 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, 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. Hirvanen has participated in and led through several international artistic laboratories and discursive programs, for instance with Ong Keng Sen and Meg Stuart. In addition to her stage work, Maija has made artistic walks, site specific performances, lecture performances and situation specific social choreographies.

Hirvanen's work has been exhibited in theatres, public spaces and galleries. Maija’s interests include the relationship between art and different belief systems, questions of corporeality, ways of re-learning and creating different kind of connections with and through art. Her long-term project “Performing Interconnections” focuses on performative practices work through a more-than-human worldview. Maija is currently a member of the THIRD Research Cohort at the Research Department of DAS Graduate School/Amsterdam University of the Arts.

Her most recent performances and collaborations include performance lecture Art and Love (2017), and stage works Magic and Despair (2019), and Life as we know it (2020).

http://www.hirvanen.net

Director and Choreographer:

Maija Hirvanen

Arriving at Dance House Helsinki

Dance House Helsinki is located in Ruoholahti, Helsinki, at Kaapeliaukio 3. The entrance is located in the covered Glass Courtyard of Cable Factory, which is also accessible from the other end of the building at Tallberginkatu 1. All routes are accessible.

We recommend arriving by public transport, on foot or by bicycle. Find the most convenient route and mode of transport in HSL’s Journey Planner.

Useful Links:

https://www.zodiak.fi/en

https://hirvanen.net

https://www.tanssintalo.fi/en

Zodiak social media channels

CREDITS

Choreography, direction: Maija Hirvanen
Dancers: Marika Peura, Marlon Moilanen, Suvi Tuominen, Pie Kär
Lighting design: Heikki Paasonen
Sound design: Tatu Nenonen
Production: Zodiak – Center for New Dance, Tanz im August / HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Friends of Physical Contemporary Art
Productional support: Arts Management Helsinki
Supported by: Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation