An article written by Maria Atroshchenko who attended the premiere performance in Arkhangelsk

https://region29.ru/2020/11/07/5fa4fc4664298c573a306dc2.html

Celebrating work in progress sharing of Moving Barents 2020 – Out Of Urgency in TaikaBox’ studio on Pikisaari, Oulu, we are publishing interviews and monologues of the dance artists in Barents.

We spoke on the topics, that inspire them to dance within “Moving Barents” project: fighting climate change, pollution, refugee crisis, sexism, racism, depression, abandonment, isolation, Corona lockdowns and violations of human rights and basically freedom.

Please, meet Dmitry Melnikov, 33, Arkhangelsk, Russia.

– I have started dancing when I was seven – my parents have brought me to the school where one could enroll to choreographic ensemble class, choir or orchestra. But one had to choose between those though: you either dance, or sing, or play music. My parents have applied for choreography on me behalf, although they hadn’t really asked my opinion. Never have I regretted their choice.

I would strongly suggest my past self to always appreciate this choice which turned out to be the right one for me, keep going forward, yet look back to never leave the precious luggage of memories unattended. One of them captures my primary school mate, whom we shared a desk with in the classroom. She managed to convince me to ballroom dancing, and I engaged in the course for ten years before returning to the choreographic ensemble.

Never have I wished to plunge into anything completely – that, in my perspective, implies losing oneself. Contemporary dance art is one planet, which from time to time faces floods of overwhelming philosophy waves. Classical dance is another planet, the one suffering from excessive stringency and inflexible, redundant canonical adherence. I move along the line where these two planets collide. Thus, carefully listening to your body is the only way to stay true to your feelings.

I feel oppressed by division, by the fact we are forced to make a compulsory choice in favour of one thing over another. Not only this applies to the choice of genre, but also to the choice of a person to interact with. The generally accepted order dictates us whom to communicate with and whom not to.

Let there be good and open doors for everyone. Yet we won’t solve any political or financial problem if we don’t learn how to actually talk to each other.

Words are indeed stronger than movement. But they are harder to pick. Dance allows you to express what cannot be put in words.

I have traveled a lot within the Barents region. My favourite places there are those where I had spent the longest time. Russian Arkhangelsk is on the first place. People escape the city, seeing no perspectives here as factories work less and less. As the city is dying out, left with less factories and people, it has literally become easier to breathe here.

My second favourite city is Finnish Rovaniemi. When the borders were still opened and Coronavirus didn’t exist, I could run out of the car when passing Rovaniemi, just to make a bow in the city center. It feels like a second home to me.
The third of my favourite cities is Hammerfest, Norway. Globalization has affected it most out of those three. Within just a few years it has turned out of a village-like small town into a big modern city with a lot of hotels and increasing production of natural gas. People have found what they can suck out of there. On the one hand, for humans, this area has been coming to life. On the other, for nature, it is dying out.

Nature is the best thing existing in the world, catalyzing most powerful emotions and life itself. Everything connected with nature either calms down or excites. After all, everything depends on the Sun. On the rain. On the wind. On the leaves on the trees. On the heat…

Corona virus has given me a chance to give up the redundant and devote more attention and time to myself. I began to read more and fulfill my plans better. My artist friends have quite quickly responded to the new conditions and figured out the way to survive: online.

I myself had been resisting to admit it for long – I’m one of those people who hadn’t even recognized Skype at some point. Now I am quite used to five-hour online rehearsals and call my friends mostly via video calls.

The Corona crowned the decade in which humanity has faced both downs and ups. And the main of the latter in my perspective is (re)considering the values. That is what makes me believe we, as humans, haven’t failed just yet.

Celebrating work in progress sharing of “Moving Barents 2020 – Out Of Urgency” in TaikaBox’ studio on Pikisaari, Oulu, we are publishing interviews and monologues of the dance artists in Barents.

We spoke on the topics, that inspire them to dance within “Moving Barents” project: fighting climate change, pollution, refugee crisis, sexism, racism, depression, abandonment, isolation, Corona lockdowns and violations of human rights and basically freedom.

Please, meet Jenny Schinkler, 32, Luleå, Sweden.

– I thought I couldn’t become a dancer when I was young, because I come from a small town in the North and thought the training here wouldn’t be good enough to get me into any good schools. Actually, I was playing a lot of football as a kid. Dancing was just one of the other hobbies. I don’t remember why I started dancing, but I know that I can’t stop.

Most of my professional life has been abroad, outside Sweden. After a one-year education in Sweden I continued with a professional dance education in Germany. Munich became my home and stayed there for eight years, but I also worked in Spain, Greenland, Italy.

When I got homesick, I always craved for my safe place – the summer house just outside Luleå. This is also where I have most memories of my dad, who passed five years ago. Picture a very old wooden house, almost falling apart, with its own well full of pure tasty water, just near the forest and the river, and of course the midnight sun.

This is one of the few rivers in Northern Sweden with no hydroelectric power plants. It comes from the mountain and the water is not stopped anywhere. It’s free. Not in terms of climate change though. In the Spring 2018 we witnessed a flood after the snow melted, the same summer the whole place suffered from drought and the river was almost empty. It never has happened before, although Luleå did face dramatic change some centuries ago, when the whole town was moved because the harbour became shallow. The city centre where I dance within the “Moving Barents” used to be all under water.

One’s eyes never rest in a big city, like Munich, for example, with the horizons constantly limited by buildings. You see far in Luleå. It brings your vision back. I missed that. I made my decision to come home when I got pregnant.

I don’t have TV, all those silly shows with stupid people doing stupid things. I tend to hide from social media, commercials and the news buzz. Every now and then I see a switched-on TV and wonder: is this thing still a thing, haven’t we gotten further? Is this still what people are told, what they get to see? And most importantly: is this really what they want to see?

I read a lot and keep updated, I like reading articles, where you can dig into the topic, rather than see “Another forest fire” news. So I hide.

I think the world in whole would be a better place without humans. We, the human race, treats the Earth with everything living and growing on it as less than us, as if we´re the Gods. Not nice Gods at all. We are making everything obey and suffer in the name of our needs. I don’t think I can tolerate it at all.

We could find better ways to live in harmony but it’s not really what we’re doing. I see the world is split. Some people are making a really hard effort to make it better, and some people are not listening to this at all. They’ll turn a blind eye to the fight and to the prospect that this is not going to end well – for any of us. Too many of us find it hard to keep an open mind. Therefore, so many rather stick to sexism, racism and speciesism, concentrating only on the “me and myself” paradigm.

Corona has taught us that we can survive even when we shut down everything. We don’t need everything the television tells us that we need.

Nature is taking over. It is coming back to where people used to be. If we don’t interact with nature as we used to, it will come back. It is not gone. We didn’t kill it. Yet. Although we have been trying hard to.

We have become split during the last decade. There is no space left in between the good initiatives, such as fighting climate change and campaigning for “Black Lives Matter” and the other side, collective Trump.

You are either here or there. The researches in the US show that before Trump a democrat and a republican can be a couple. Now it is almost impossible to picture them as friends. You become segregated that way to the extent you start living in different areas.

Dance doesn’t split people as much as words. In this sense dance language has more power. Yet it implies free interpretation. The neighbour in the audience next to you will understand the performance according to his own personal luggage and background. This is one of the strongest sides of dance art: it doesn’t smack people on their fingers telling them what they should see and think. Otherwise no one would listen, like it is happening with the world of words.

Due to the Corona many artists lost work opportunities. So, when governments are trying to save corporations rather than artists, especially free artists, we feel neglected. They give away state money to the big corporations, while a tiny leftover for the artists is not spent well, because they don’t actually listen to us. I hope we won’t learn out of this that we are not as important or worthy.

We, the artists, have been nice and peaceful so far. There might be a need for some rage now.

Celebrating work in progress sharing of “Moving Barents 2020 – Out Of Urgency” in TaikaBox’ studio on Pikisaari, Oulu, we are publishing interviews and monologues of the dance artists in Barents. We spoke on the topics, that inspire them to dance within “Moving Barents” project: fighting climate change, pollution, refugee crisis, sexism, racism, depression, abandonment, isolation, Corona lockdowns and violations of human rights and basically freedom.

Please, meet Henna Räsänen, 29, Oulu, Finland.

– I think I started taking dance classes at the age of 3 or 4, but my parents say I have danced all of my life.

If I think selfishly I would say that the worst thing in the world is a low iron level in blood, the tiredness never goes away! But when thinking about the bigger picture I think the selfishness itself is leading the world in quite a wrong direction.

The right one – the one that makes me feel happy and free – is being with my close people, those whom I love. And nature brings happiness. Even better if I can meet my people in nature, have a swim, berry picking, skiing or an overnight trip to the forest.

I was born in Rovaniemi, Finland, and I still feel my roots are in Finnish Lapland. I would love to spend more time there, even try to live there some time in the future. Lapland and its nature, including animals, are already facing the difficulties that climate change is causing: snowline is rising up so the living areas of Northern animals’ are getting smaller. Animals and plant species from the South are moving to the North overtaking the living areas and decreasing the diversity of nature. Also the mining industry is causing more and more problems to nature.

I think artists are already very resilient-talented-people but Covid19 has surely taught some more of that, at least me. Nothing in the world is permanent except change.There are victories and losses we have been causing as a population in the decade of 2010–2020, but there are too many perspectives to describe the decade. So I rather describe it from my own perspective: woken up.

I think that’s the best word to describe the past decade from my part if I think in the perspective of climate change. Back 2010 I was 19-years-old , just graduated from high school. I was young, “careless” , enthusiastic to explore the world. I am still enthusiastic but I do think more of the consequences that my actions may cause. I feel I am more “woken up” than back then.

In Finnish we have a phrase “knowledge causes more pain”. It is quite true, but in this topic I rather know more than not.

It would be great to discuss, whether dance language is stronger than words together with dance artists and writers. I don’t know if I even want to have my own opinion on this one, discussing and sharing thoughts and ideas would be more rich. Dance is surely a language; a way to communicate, to share, to feel, to explore. But is it stronger, in every context?..

I thought about what I would tell my little self, the one that just started dancing in the beginning of the path that led to becoming a dance artist. Well, the pictures tell more than a thousand words.

Celebrating work in progress sharing of “Moving Barents 2020 – Out Of Urgency” in TaikaBox’ studio on Pikisaari, Oulu, we are publishing interviews and monologues of the dance artists in Barents. We spoke on the topics, that inspire them to dance within “Moving Barents” project: fighting climate change, pollution, refugee crisis, sexism, racism, depression, abandonment, isolation, Corona lockdowns and violations of human rights and basically freedom.

Please, meet Susanna Voyushina, 29, Arkhangelsk, Russia.

(Russian version in the first comment)

– I am still 29, but for the whole year I have been feeling myself 30. And I like that.

Sometimes it feels I was born on the stage. My parents performed in the folk ensemble, and I was always around. I have danced my whole life, having gone through all the stages from kindergarten dance club to the largest choreographic ensemble in Arkhangelsk Pioneer Palace and further – to receiving a master’s degree on contemporary dance at Vaganova Ballet Academy in Saint Petersburg.

It was surreal to be witnessing such a master’s programme in such kind of an academy: we didn’t come up to the ballet barre, dressed as we wanted and didn’t obey anyone, while the neighbouring classical students were subordinate to a strict hierarchy knowing no other way rather than walking on their toes in all senses. If I could address myself in the past, I would say: I am allowed to do anything!

Prior to my masters I have also studied classical dance in pointe shoes, folk and jazz dance. Dance, however, remained a hobby until I turned 22. I even tried to get a ”normal profession”, graduating from the university with a degree in foreign affairs. That was the point I got absolutely convinced that my profession is dance. I hate borders.

I love traveling, especially hitchhiking and cycling. I only get to remember that borders exist when meeting custom officers who believe they are always right and are able to restrict my travel.

Arrogance and indifference are something I hate more than borders. Arrogance takes on people, when they reach power.

People are the greatest wonder of the world. Never do they cease to amaze and delight me by their diversity, while neither the beautiful sights of nature, nor architectural monuments or artworks in general are apt to arouse that kind of excitement and marvel.

The more I travel and learn diverse human stories, the more I realize: anything is possible. This has changed my attitude to small towns: I no longer see them as a province you have to flee, but rather as a challenge to create a micricosm, find and prove yourself within it and inspire others. And that is how unity is built.

I would like to create my own microcosm in Northern Norway – I have spent some time there living and studying in Tromsø. I have always returned there in my thoughts when travelling. This is not due to the political, social or economical factors in Norway, but rather due to the fact that its nature gives me strength. You feel connected to the energy of stones, mountains and fjords.

This distant peaceful place has changed a lot lately due to the global war conflicts. The city has sheltered refugees from many places coming with different personal and cultural backgrounds.

I have collected many human stories by writing them down on various sheets of paper (and anything you can write down on actually) while travelling. Of course I would want them all gathered in a book. For now they are much shaping my choreography.

I love threads and weaving. The art of weaving is passed on from generation to generation in my family. My mother passed it to me, having received it from the grandmother, who had received it from great grandmother. Human stories interwine within me as threads as I dance and write.

The word changes the world. The dance changes you. It lets you live through your aggression and let it go, express disagreements and opinions in general – all in a healthy manner. Dance is, among other things, psychotherapy. Body language is more voluminous than the one of words, containing something that cannot be relayed in them. In the same time, our attention is structured in favour of words.

Imagine a movement you cannot take your eyes from. Suddenly, a man sitting in the back row breaks the silence with just one word. Any word. It takes one word to win the attention from the movement.

Corona has affected us all as a global meditation. It reminded that nothing is permanent and nothing should be held on to. Nothing we hold on to makes us stronger. That what you easily give away is the only thing you truly own. There is no more chance to plan one’s future. Such an obvious reason to live in the present for everyone. And for the artists it is also an encouragement to become more creative and use online technologies more.

There is a reason why the past decade has been flared up by the Coronavirus. Something – either it is referred to as god or the universe – wants to reach to us, because there is no other way. Part of me was expecting even more global apocalypse. Because until one happens – until a global tragic phenomenon affects every family, – we are not apt to notice, what we are actually doing with our planet and each other.

Ahead of the upcoming work in progress sharing of the MovingBarents2020 – Out Of Urgency in TaikaBox Studio on Pikisaari we are publishing interviews and monologues of the dance artists in Barents.

We spoke on the topics, that inspire them to dance within “Moving Barents” project: fighting climate change, pollution, refugee crisis, sexism, racism, depression, abandonment, isolation, Corona lockdowns and violations of human rights and basically freedom.

Please, meet Mikael Marklund, 37, Skellefteå, Sweden.

– I started to dance at the age of 16. Looking back at myself then I would say: listen to your heart, and when sadness comes – take it, don’t run away. After all sadness is your fuel to be happy. I would also recommend myself not to stand on the way of own joy. It may sound like a paradox, but in order to be good you have to understand – and enjoy – that right now you are not good.

The worst thing in the world in my opinion is hate and non-forgiving. To hold on to something and not to understand that everything has an end. Everything does.

The best thing in the world I would say is to feel the breeze. To feel how life is ever changing and always bigger than us.

I guess my favorite place in the Barents area is Skellefteå. I have not traveled to many other places. It is where I grew up and the forest there speaks to me. This area is changing right now: it is clear that the winter is getting shorter and that the summer is confused. Also the animals that were not used to be able to live there because of the cold are starting to be seen more.

I guess Corona has taught us that chaos is always just around the corner. The whole 2010-2020 decade I would call ”the fall of the West”. It is the decade when the other side stopped being “them” and we started to realize that “they” are “us”. It is also the time when the past catches up to us…

I would not say dance in stronger than words, it is different, it speaks about something else, from another perspective, maybe it is less linear. Dance art talks about the things in between the words and lines – about something that the words cannot catch. It talks about the things that appear after and before the words…

Words themselves are as important maybe in terms of the fact that the general population has an easier understating of them. But why? Because what cannot be named is mostly seen as not existing or unreal.

Ahead of the upcoming work in progress sharing of Moving Barents 2020 – Out Of Urgency in TaikaBox’ studio on Pikisaari, Oulu, we are publishing interviews and monologues of the dance artists in Barents.

We spoke on the topics, that inspire them to dance within “Moving Barents” project: fighting climate change, pollution, refugee crisis, sexism, racism, depression, abandonment, isolation, Corona lockdowns and violations of human rights and basically freedom.

Please, meet Maya Mi Samuelsen, 30, Karlsøy troms Norway

– I started dancing on my own very early, maybe when I was 1 or 2 years old. To my little self that just started dancing I would say: “You can do it, when one door is closed many more are open”. And one most important thing: “Feel the fear and do it anyway!”

Throughout my life I have come to the conclusion that the worst thing in the world is capitalism. And the best is nature.

My favourite place in the Barents region is Karlsøya. Karlsøya’s wild life and nature are being affected by many fish farms and one huge windmill park. The fish farms are killing the life in the sea and destroying the beautiful view of the nature, and the windmill park is killing birds, especially eagles. They are taking up a lot of nature!

Corona taught us to take better care of one and other and to appreciate each other. It is also teaching us the value of human contact and particularly physical contact. Yet the artists have learnt that we were travelling too much and many things can be done digitally.

I feel free when I face my fears, I am happy when I can be myself.
Accepting others, myself and the fact that we are different brings in freedom and happiness through mutual respect.

“Moving Barents 2020 – Out of Urgency” is especially dear to us as it breaks the limits of time and distance. We use choreography and technology to create an online interactive studio where artists from Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia dance on the margins of climate change.

Through movement and emotion they express the drama of Corona lockdowns, pollution and violations of human rights and basically freedom.

Ahead of the project´s work in progress sharing in TaikaBox studio on Pikisaari in Oulu, Finland, we have continued breaking the boundaries by mixing what can be put in words with something that goes between the lines. We have conducted interviews with the six independent dance artists about things that inspire them to dance within the “Moving Barents 2020”: fighting climate change, refugee crisis, sexism, racism, pandemic, depression, abandonment and isolation.

Please, celebrate the freedom and variety of artistic expression with us by meeting dance artists in Barents Henna Räsänen (Finland)

Maya Mi Samuelsen (Norway),

Susanna Voyushina (Russia),

Dmitry Melnikov (Russia),

Mikael Marklund (Sweden)

and Jenka Schinkler (Sweden).

Stay tuned!

Ravistaa, huojuu

Tasapaino kaukana

Siivet katoavat

—

Shaking, falling

Balance far away

Wings disappear