The sessions are an exploration of each participant’s way of experiencing and observing their way of moving and personal patterns of dance while looking for new perspectives for both.
The course underlines a quality-based perspective to being a dancer and a performer: how something is done is more important than what exactly is being done. What is highlighted in the sessions is the assuming of a certain authority towards one’s own ways of moving, which Karttunen considers one of the important pillars of being a performer. Karttunen’s teaching is much inspired by his work with Deborah Hay, but is also based on his experiences from his long career as an artist. Circumstances allowing, the course activities also feature chorographic exercises and activities.
I started my career as a dancer in Helsinki City Theatre’s dance company in 1989. Since 1993 I have primarily worked as a freelance dancer and later also as a choreographer as one of the founding members of Nomadi-tuotanto. 2008 saw the beginning of the Karttunen Kollektiv, where I was the artistic director from 2008 to 2012. From 2013 to 2017 I worked as the artistic director of Helsinki Dance Company, and from 2017 to 2019 as the head choreographer of Helsinki City Theatre.
My stage productions include Fairy (2002), Human Imitations (2005), Jemina – Act as You’d Know Her (2012) and Keijukaisneuvos Koo (2014). My works have also been performed abroad extensively. One of my more notable theatre choreographies is Yellow Sulphur Sky in the National Theatre of Finland (2019, directed by Juhana von Bagh).
Since 2018, I have looked for new forms for my work with dance, and I have had a desire to go “back to roots” to work as dancer and a performer. I graduated as a Bachelor of Social Services qualified to work as an early education teacher in autumn 2021 with the intention of expanding my field of work to children and young people.
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Indulge the Movement - Contemporary Dance for All 2022 course series has been designed based on wishes and feedback by Zodiak's course and workshop participants. Based on the feedback, the length of the course has also been increased to six weeks.