TANELI TÖRMÄ / LOCATION X – Projects

The lonely Snufking of Odense; Choreographer or artist?

Left, Snufking – character from Moomin / Right, I WOULD SAY (video), photo: Taneli Törmä

-How multidimensional can the profession of a dance artist be?

I have been questioning & surprising & researching my profession in past years. I want to see where my professional knowledge can reach. How open-minded can I be? And just dive into the new challenges of the different ways I can express myself. I would like to call myself “artist”, without specifying and giving limiting implications of what I should do.

I’m not formally educated in most of the things involved in my profession including fundraising, marketing my projects, producing them, film directing even choreographing and teaching in general also when doing community work with dance. I don’t see this as an obstacle, because I have such a diverse professional background in performing arts. Staying open-minded and curious opens new doors and helps me to each time expand my ways of doing my art projects in different locations. My career has been so different from what I was thinking 10 years ago when I graduated from the Finnish National Ballet School, where I did get a diploma for “vocational qualification in dance”.

-How to make choreography?

I could say my choreographies are somehow my artistic life diary from different paths of my life. I like to create a topic that a work group can deal with independently so they can give their own insights into the process, guiding us into the collaborative result. I am looking for opportunities where I can put myself in extreme situations out of my comfort zone, where I cannot do my artistic work in a traditional way. I am interested in following the initiation, moment, locations, collaboration partners and situations, in finding questions that you want to ask yourself at the moment and share to the audience. I don’t want to give the answers but I want to make the audience think or feel something.

Left, I WOULD SAY (performance), photo: Justin Markussen Brown / Right STORY OF … (performance & video work), photo: Taneli Törmä

–Structure or not?

In my past works I have tried both versions and I still don’t know what is better for me. Maybe I try to find the answer unconsciously how to do both.

What is a good collaboration?

How to be a leader – Directing and trusting in your own vision?
How to be part of the group – Surrendering into the differences?

Left, BEHIND MY SKIN (performance), photo: Daniel Buchwald / Right, LAYERS OF US (exhibition), photo: Taneli Törmä

-What is a free artist?

Is money directing what kind of art or choreography we are creating? Can we make art only for ourselves or do we need to think art is a product?

-Future?

I am already now interested in preparing my thoughts in how I could carry on with my profession still after 10-20-70 years. When my body degenerates can I still have a place on the scene here in Denmark? For some reason I haven’t seen aging bodies dancing here, and it made me question if I can make a method of collaboration that lasts until the end of my life.