Essi Koivula
Essi Koivula is Tampere-born and based dance artist. In 2022 she graduated from Helsinki University of the Arts with bachelor’s degree in dance.
Koivula has worked as a dancer, dance teacher and choreographer. In her latest works she has been approaching themes like death, loss and sorrow trough movement and moving image. As a dancer she has worked e.g. with Ulla Päivikkö, Sanna Myllylahti, Matti Haaponiemi and Joona Halonen.
As an artist Koivula is interested in knowing how art can really touch and help us to understand the world and humanity better. She sees art as a sort of philosophical way to approach life, where there are rather questions than answers and where beauty and play can be found in unexpected things and places.
Project ALDA
ALDA is a poignant installation that erodes the boundaries between dance and visual arts. In ALDA, choreographer Katrín Gunnarsdóttir draws upon the history of women’s collective physical labour, in particular its relation to repetitive motions and song, to generate an event of intimate female assembly, convergence and coalescence.
The driving force behind choreographer Katrín Gunnarsdóttir’s current work has been the creation of movement language and imagery from softness, sensitivity, ever-changing movement and the integration of bodies with their environment. This piece is the culmination of many years of collaboration between the choreographer and designer Eva Signý Berger where art forms merge to create a rhythmic wave of experience.
When translated as WAVE, ALDA not only reflects on the form of movement but also refers to time and history, the old and the emerging new.
Dancers Wilhelmina Ojanen, Wilma Seppälä and Essi Koivula from Tampere, who are employed by the Pirkanmaa Dance Centre, will perform as part of the installation for a total of two weeks within the opening hours of the exhibition.
More information about ALDA’s choreographer Katrín Gunnarsdóttir: https://www.katringunnarsdottir.com/