Janina Rajakangas is a Helsinki-based choreographer, performer, and teacher. She has explored themes such as the sexualization of teenage girls (Venus 2022), inclusivity as choreography (Dancer 2023), the agency women have over their bodies and the place of aging women in nordic societies (Look me in the eyes 2025). At the moment Janina reflects the human impact on other species with children (Floor is lava 2025).
Janina’s practice centers around making the dancing body undo rules given to the everyday body. She has found out that moving the body in poetic ways in different constellations of people breaks down expectations of what we are meant to do together. The doing brings to practice a poetry that in itself holds the key to the dance in the making.
Janina Rajakangas Projects works have been shown at and supported by: Zodiak Centre for New Dance, CODA Oslo International Dance Festival, Dance House Helsinki, Kiasma Theatre, The Place Theatre, Moving in November Festival, and Baltic Circle International Theatre Festival among others.
Floor is Lava is a performance where professional dancers meet the embodiment of children’s imagination. This performance is a space for shared reflection on a world shaped by crisis and on the human impact on other species and one another.
Floor is Lava is for both primary school children and adult audiences. It invites the audience to process floods, rainstorms and blazing red sunsets through artistic expression. The performers play drums, dance and sing; the children build a hut, climb and embody extinct animals and extreme weather.
The performance was developed through a series of workshops with children and professional dancers. In these sessions, movement, rhythm and physicality offered ways to navigate our changing world and to discover new forms of connecting with others.
Floor is Lava will premiere in autumn 2025 at two primary schools in Helsinki for young audiences. It will also be presented at Pannu Hall in Dance House Helsinki during spring 2026.
Kielo finds it hard to sit still in class. She takes a break venturing into the corridors of her imagination.
The film KIELO touches on the subject of love, support as well as contempt between young people in the school environment, with a focus on the convergence of neurodivergence and sisterhood/peer-hood.
We all have a poetic body, that dances when encouraged. It just needs to be given a chance to exist alongside the body that goes by the rules and is used to shy away from expression.
World premiere on NOWNESS. Currently available for festival screenings worldwide.
Duration: Short Film (4min.) Genre desciption: Dance/Movement Film - Youth Film
NOWNESS, online worldwide, Feb. 28th 2025 On Art - Dance&Music. Warsaw/Poland. 4.-6.9.2025 Curation Hour, online worldwide, 9.9.2025 Portland Dance Film Fest, Portland/US, 19.9. 2025 Frame Rush, London/UK, 19.9.2025. MPArt Festival (formerly Mill of Performing Arts), Larissa/Greece, 18.-20.9.2025 Tanssin Aika, Jyväskylä/ Finland 24.-29.9.2025 Barcelona Indie Filmmakers Festival. Barcelona/Spain. 27.9.2025 Crossings. Vardø/Norway. 9.-12.10.2025 The Children’s International Film Festival of Wales, Tredegar/Wales, 15.-18.10.2025 Sunnyside Shorts International Film Festival, New York / US. 18.10.2025 Moving Body, Varna/ Bulgaria. 24.-26.10.2025 Uppsala Short Film Festival, Uppsala / Sweden, 20.-26.10.2025 Cinematica Festival, Ancona, Italy 26.10.2025 Girona Film Festival, Girona/Spain, 3.-7.11.2025. Nordic Film Days Lübeck, Lübeck/Germany. 5.-9.11.2025 San Francisco Dance Film Festival,California/US. 5-10.11.2025 Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF), Tallinn/Estonia. 11.-19.11.2025 Lisbon Screendance Festival - InShadow, Lisbon/Portugal. 10.11.-19.12.2025 Dance on Screen festival, Graz/Austria. 14.-16.11.2025 Video Art and Experimental Film Festival (VAEFF), New York/ US, 14.-16.11.2025 Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, Boulder, Colorado/US. 16 & 19.11.2025 Amarcort Film Festival, Rimini/ Italy, 25.-30.11.2025 Bittersweet, Blackpool / UK, 27.11.2025 Choreoscope, Barcelona/Spain, online edition 1.12.2025 - 31.1.2026 Chinh Youth Film Festival, Bhimtal/ India, 6.-12.12.2025 ULTRA screendance festival, Udine/Italy, 17.-18.12.2025 AVDP - Athens Video Dance Project Festival, Athens, Greece, 13.-16.12.2025 Multiplié / Minimalen Short Film Festival, Trondheim, Norway 13.-18.1.2026 Dance Camera West, LA/US, 22.-25.1.2026 Kinetoscope: International Screendance Film Festival, Missoula/US Talvitanssit, Viterdans, Winterdances, Loviisa, Porvoo, Pernaja / Finland – Cultural Centre Marilyn, Loviisa, 8–9.2.2026 – Cultural House Grand, Porvoo, 26–27.2.2026 – Agricola-talo, Pernaja, 28.2.2026 Feminista Fesztivál, Budapest/Hungary, 13.02.2026 Ghent International Short Film Festival, Ghent/Belgium. 16.-22.3.2026 International Istanbul Women Films Festival, Istanbul/Turkey, 3.-5.4.2026 BRAGA INTERNATIONAL VIDEODANCE FESTIVAL’26, Braga/Portugal, 10.4.2026 Toronto Film Week, Toronto/Canada, 13.-16.4.2026 FILMFEST DRESDEN, Dresden/Germany, 16.4.2026 Beirut International Women Film Festival, Beirut/Lebanon. 19.-25.4.2026 ScreenDance Festival, Stockholm/Sweden, 28.-29.4.2026 DANCE AND MEDIA JAPAN, International Dance Film Festival, Tokyo/Japan, 2.5.2026 Dansfilmsdagar 2026, Eskilstuna, Sweden 18–23.5.2026 Dance Digital - Sadler's Wells, London/UK, 5.-7.6.2026 SUPERKUNSTFESTIVAL, Lübeck/Germany, 12.-14.6.2026 Bates Dance Festival, Lewiston / US, 19.7.2026 (curated by Flatlands Dance Film Festival) enCore Dance on Film festival, Decatur / US, 1.5.-31.8.2026 2Utah Dance Film Festival. Orem-Utah/US, 9.-10.10.2026
