Bio

I am a choreographer, dancer, dance pedagogue and dance researcher.

I was born in born in Finland in 1987, and since lived in 10 countries around the world. My artistic work is exploring cultural identity, concepts and paradoxes of freedom and imprisonment as well as artists’ responsibilities on a personal and societal level. All of my creative practise is very much guided by values of multiculturalism and de-colonial discourse, planetary consciousness, equality of all living beings as well as love and detachment. 

My career in dance is vast and varied. I choreographed my first full-length musical Peter Pan at the age of 17, started teaching at the age of 19 and since performed and created around the world. I have studied a BA in dance teaching and choreogaphy from Viljandi Culture Academy (2009), Estonia, and another BA (hons) Dance Theatre from Laban, London. I worked as a choreographer, dancer and dance teacher in London, Thailand and Austria for 5 years before adding on a more serious dance research path starting from a Masters degree Choreomundus – International Masters in Dance knowledge, Practise and Heritage. The main focus of this 2-year programme is in world dance heritage and dance anthropology, and I took my practise to prisons.

My fieldwork for research The Potential of Dance in Prison Rehabilitation was conducted in two juvenile detention centers of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and 2 adult prisons in Manchester, England. In 2019 I was back in Finland and started Uniarts Helsinki’s non-degree pedagogical studies for teachers in the arts, in order to deepen my understanding of feminist, radical and emancipatory pedagogy and creative praxis.

My work as choreographer expands from site-specific to big stages, and from musicals to gallery space pieces and festival work. I’m inspired of challenging working environments, extremes and the unexpected. In London my work for youth dance company Kinetik was picked for a youth dance showcase in Saddler’s Wells 2012. In the same year I got commissioned to create a solo for a contemporary dance event Women of Mass Destruction, and was invited to choreograph full-length Macbeth, a graduate show for Central school of speech and Drama and Lamda, London. My work has been shown in Accidental Festival, London, and Water Tower Art Festival in Bulgaria.

As a dance artist I’m always on the look for authenticity, honesty and inner strength. I have created solo productions, worked for performance & dance companies as well as freelance choreographers and artists internationally. I have worked in productions with choreographers such as Lea Andersson, Lasse Kantola, Rachel Lopez De la Nieta, CHTO DELAT, Zoi Dimitriou etc. From 2012 to 2014 I was a dancer in LCP Dance Theatre in London, and Figmentations art Collective, touring the UK.

On screen I have danced in a motion-film Cuban Fury, and in music videos of Mateus (Austria) and Älymystö (Finland).

I have taught dance since 2006 in various settings. From Professional classes to fulltime-dance teaching in Espoon Tanssiopisto, prison projects in USA and England to Ramallah Ballet Center in Palestine. Regardless the age and level, I’m aiming for holistic approach where the processes of self-realization and empowerment are in the core of the dance skills learning. My aim as a dance teacher or facilitator is to contribute to the discussion of arts pedagogy in the culture of education, drawing from feminist, critical and radical pedagogies.