Tsuumi Dance Theatre & Eloa Culture Company Arvo

When Something Great Is Gone.

In Karelian tradition, rites of passage, grief processing, and community went hand in hand. The everyday and the sacred lived side by side. The work Arvo is an artistic tribute to lost traditions, craftsmanship, and physical labor. Born from the fragments of a broken heritage, the piece reaches toward cultural ghosts as well as the strength and spiritual power of the lamenters.

Dance Theatre Tsuumi and Cultural Company Eloa bring to the stage a new performance by choreographer and artist Sonja Jokiniemi, which explores Karelian lamentation traditions and the bodily experience of crying within the context of contemporary art.

Arvo is the second part of Jokiniemi’s trilogy exploring Karelian cultural heritage and grief. The first part of the series, Armo, dealt with death, unspoken stories, and the experience of rootlessness—the second part focuses on the corporeality of lamenting, collective mourning, and intergenerational knowledge.