Helsinki Day at Kanneltalo: Dance carnival!

Event Introduction

Kanneltalo will celebrate Helsinki Day with a dance!

Unelmien lavatanssit (‘Open Air Dance of Our Dreams’) will bring genuine traditional dance atmosphere to the heart of Sitratori Square with the participants dancing to Marita Taavitsainen & Koivu. Do not worry if your dancing skills are rusty, as the event will also include dance instruction. 

Free and open to all, the dance carnival will continue with Bollywood and street dance. How would it feel to be part of a professional dance performance? Come and try it out as Back 2 the Future’s participatory performance invites people of all ages to join in. The evening will culminate with Will Funk for Food’s fantastic Fistful of Funk performance!

Programme:

14.00–14.30 Dance lessons, Tsuumi Dance Theatre
14.30–15.15 Unelmien lavatanssit (‘Open Air Dance of Our Dreams’): Marita Taavitsainen & Koivu
15.15–15.30 Funky fossils performance
15.30–16.00 Dance lessons, Tsuumi Dance Theatre
16.00–16.45 Unelmien lavatanssit (‘Open Air Dance of Our Dreams’): Marita Taavitsainen & Koivu

16.45–17.15 Will Funk for Food: Fistful of Funk performance
17.30–18.00 Lotus Indian Dance Centre – Performance and teaching of Indian dances
18.00–18.30 Back 2 the Future – participatory dance performance
18.30–19.00 Will Funk for Food: Fistful of Funk performance

 

14.30 and 16.00
Unelmien lavatanssit (‘Open Air Dance of Our Dreams’): Marita Taavitsainen & Koivu

All afternoon long, Unelmien lavatanssit (‘Open Air Dance of Our Dreams’) offers movement, music and good vibes for all ages. Before the live music, dance lessons will be offered. The beloved pop star Marita Taavitsainen and her band Koivu will take to the stage. When they perform, you have a chance to put your newly-acquired skills to the test accompanied by live music! The classes are suitable for beginners as well as for more experienced dancers.

In addition to this, Unelmien lavatanssit (‘Open Air Dance of Our Dreams’) will be accompanied by a balance track and balance testing, a presentation of regional exercise services and Liikuntaluotsi exercise instructor activities, a wheel of fortune with surprise prizes and general information about the services offered by the City of Helsinki’s Sports Services.

15.15
Funky Fossils
Funky Fossils is a Helsinki-based street dance collective that encourages people of all ages to dance.

17.30
Lotus Indian Dance Centre 

Lotus Indian Dance Centre is the oldest Indian dance school in Finland. It offers a wide range of Indian dance styles, from classical styles such as bharatanatyam and kathak to energetic folk dances such as bhangra and Bollywood. The programme will feature performances in these styles, and the audience will also have the opportunity to participate in a short Bollywood dance session and try out the dance for themselves!

17.45
Back 2 the Future
In this carnival of live music, dance, song, storytelling, rapping and freestyle, the audience will have the chance to alter the flow of the concert and jump into the rhythm. The journey will start from 1970s New York, move to Chicago of the 1980s and to Paris in the turn of the millennium, ending up in the future!

Performers: Simeoni Juoperi, Elias Niskanen, Linda Ilves, Joose Kyyrö, Arttu Rintakumpu

16.45 and 18.30
A Fistful of Funk
A Fistful of Funk is a performance combining street dance, theatre of the absurd and live music that explores themes of friendship, gender roles and masculinity through play, humour and virtuoso street dance. In the work, three lonely cowboys embark on an epic journey across the desert together. The journey combines 1970s funk dance with a text by playwright Juho Keränen, inspired by the toxic machismo and hypermasculinity of Sergio Leone’s Western films.

Creative team:

On stage: Akim Bakhtaoui, Wilhelm Blomberg, Jeffrey Kam, Sebastian Kurtén and Elias Ojutkangas
Choreography: Will Funk For Food
Performers: Akim Bakhtaoui, Wilhelm Blomberg, Jeffrey Kam
Sound design, musician: Sebastian Kurtén
Drummer: Elias Ojutkangas
Dramaturg, texts, voice over and voice-over direction: Juho Keränen
Costume design: Antrea Kantakoski
Production: Zodiak – Centre for New Dance, Wilhelm Blomberg, Akim Bakhtaoui, Nomadi ry, Nordic Soul ry
Supported by: Svenska kulturfonden, Konstsamfundet

Performed in English
Duration 30 min

Entry to the events is free of charge!

Categories

Dance, Theatre and Cinema, Music, Sports and Wellness