Spotlight: Kaisa Nieminen

Text: Heidi Horila
Translation: Claire Ruaro

Collaborating with Dancer-Choreographer Marika Peura, in the piece down below things shudder you explore the intersection of club dance and contemporary choreography on the stage. Why is bringing social dance onto art stages important?

We wanted to dive into the feeling of the club dance experience in a stage and contemporary dance context, creating space for dancing’s full complexity, enjoyment, emotionality, expressiveness, sexual energy, and the tensions that arise from the dimensions of social dance. We wanted to aim for a dance space where every dancer works with themselves to really feel the dance, and through that their relationship with other dancers and the audience.

In the future, I hope that artistic stages will become more diverse, providing space for different creators and perspectives, such as street dance and club dance. 

You are part of the rap group Pimeä Hedelmä. How does combining making music and dance affect your own practice?

Sometimes they blend together, sometimes they take different paths. My own work as a dance artist is strongly influenced by my dance background in freestyle hip hop, and rap is part of hip hop culture. When I participate in Brown cultures, I reflect on my own whiteness and the privileges it offers, as well as questions to do with taking up space and power.

If you could create your dream piece and money and resources were no obstacle, what would it look like?

I would continue working with club dance, on stages and in other spaces, with Peura and other great colleagues and friends. The piece would provide employment for as many artists as possible. In this era, with our current shitty fascist government and the cuts it is making to the arts, dancing together and creating hope for the future would be a dream.