Taneli Törmä
Alien
performances in Kumma
Fri. 19 October 2025 6:30-7:10 p.m. (opening night)
Sat. 18 October at 12:30-2.30 p.m.
Sun 16 November at 3-5 p.m.

ALIEN – Kuopio is an ode to dance and the courage to dance in public spaces. What do different movements - movement alone or together, at the same or different paces - evoke in us as individuals and as a group? How do passersby react to dancing in a public place? Is it weird if we dance in public?

These questions drive the artwork ALIEN – Kuopio. The choreography of the piece is inspired by various community dances, such as club dances and folk dances performed in a circle. There is something unspectacular about both. Both dances are danced for personal enjoyment and are not intended to be performed for an audience. The essential thing is to experience and do something for yourself together with others.

Whether you dance for yourself or are one part of a circle dance, you are part of a shared large wave of movement – ​​a chain. ALIEN – Kuopio is inspired by this. The artwork aims to strengthen community and communal experience. A moment danced in a public space becomes a moving and vibrant work of art - an abstract and ritualistic act for the people with whom we share the moment and the public space.

ALIEN - Kuopio is a pop-up dance piece choreographed by Taneli Törmä, performed by dancers Virva Torkko-Muñoz, Katja Mustonen and Mimmi Herd, with Törmä himself acting as a backup dancer. The sound design of the work is by Esa Mattila and the production is by Dance Theatre Minimi.

Taneli Törmä is a dance artist, choreographer, dance film maker and curator whose 20-year career has taken him to Italy, Denmark and Germany, among other places. He has worked in repertoire groups and as a freelancer, and for the past decade has focused on his own productions under the name LOCATION X. LOCATION X's projects have been presented in over 20 countries. In August 2024, Törmä started as the artistic director of the Kuopio-based Dance Theatre Minimi.