Morning classes

Partnering Technique
For advanced movers

In the partnering technique class we practice and play with balance, coordination and force production. We learn to slide, fly, fall and support. At the end of the class we do a longer series in which we use the learned techniques.

Jarkko Mandelin (FI) is the artistic director, choreographer, dancer and teacher of dance company Kinetic Orchestra. His work combines different ways of moving into an acrobatic dance, where technique, skills and aesthetics build worlds that are strong yet easy to approach. 

Suvi Nieminen (FI) is a dancer and dance teacher graduated from the Turku Art Academy. After graduation she has performed i.e. at the Finnish National Opera and in works by i.e. Jarkko Mandelin and Marjo Kuusela. In recent years she has taught Kinetic Orchestra’s partnering technique with Jarkko Mandelin.

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Transferring Energy
For professionals

This class focuses on functionality of movement that strives to improve the dancers efficient use and transferring of energy. We will work on moving around and through ourselves, travel through the space, both in the vertical and horizontal plane, using jumps, runs, turns and slides. The class could be described as floor-work, but we will also work with principles that can be applied in relation to a partner. We use tools from both contemporary dancing, martial arts, flying low and other related movement practices. In the end the participators will have an experience from which they can find new tools that can enrich their own dancing, work and practices. 

Vincent Jonsson (SE) is a dancer, creator and teacher based in Denmark and Sweden. It is important for him to both create, perform and teach because he believes these different ways of working with dance inform each other and they have an equal importance in his work. He has performed in pieces made by e.g. Liz Kinoshita and Marina Abramović. He has taught and presented his own work in Denmark, Sweden, England, Spain, Finland and Germany.

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Inner Geometry
For professional movers

A contemporary dance class based on a technique Riikka calls Luuliike (bone movement ). It is a combination of different dynamic exercises linking the inner and outer space of the body to its dynamic structure and bone connection. The aim is to connect with one’s natural inner geometry-symmetry-harmony and reach out to the space with ecological energy resources.

Riikka Kosola (FI) is a choreographer, dancer and pedagogue and interested in space and its complex structure in the world, linking this to the bony, dynamic structure of the human body. Riikka has a MA in Contemporary Dance from the Lyon CNSMD in France and a degree in Cultural Anthropology and Performance Art from Lyon 2 University, and is studying Mathematics and in Art History in Helsinki University in Finland. Her dance company Kustavi Korps studies kinesthetic intelligence through dance works and workshops for many kinds of audiences. Riikka is part of the Finnish Maths-in-Motion team.

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WiseMotion Experts
Movement-based workshops for artists and pedagogues

WiseMotion is a method, which improves physical abilities, self-awareness and social bonding through movement and neuroscience. This workshop is designed for dance and movement professionals and based on guided improvisation, neuroscientific explanation of the experience, and group conversation. The movement material aims for effortless and intuitive individual bodywork, and adaptive and organic embodied collaboration. The neuroscientific material and group conversation are directed to nourish the professional development in creation, and give tools and new point of views for the demands of the high-level embodied performance.

Workshop 1: The Brain Intertwined – Movement, Emotion and Cognition
Workshop 2: Creativity, Awareness and the Neural Networks

Teacher:
Hanna Poikonen (FI) has a PhD in neuroscience of movement, dance and music and is the developer of the WiseMotion method. She has studied movement and dance in New York (Gibney Dance, Movement Research), Barcelona (La Caldera, Institut del Teatre), Montreal (Circuit-Est Centre Chorégraphique) and Berlin (Marameo). She worked for five years in brain research and education focusing on learning and creativity at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology after which she pursued her PhD at the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Helsinki.

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Age on Stage
For everyone

The Age on Stage project celebrates maturity on stage. Since its start in 2015, Age on Stage has continued to create work for professional dancers with an age over the norm, arranged an annual festival called ”Age on Stage International Meeting Point” as well as workshops for anyone over 65 years of age.

At Stretch Turku, Charlotta will show what an Age on Stage workshop for people over 65 can be. The class is open for anyone, dance professionals as well as amateurs of any age. Come with your movements, your memories and an open mind. Everybody and each body is unique and has a true movement and expression.

Charlotta Öfverholm (SE) is a choreographer, dancer, and artistic director of Compagnie Jus de la Vie. She is the initiator of the Age on Stage project.