Sorry, your browser doesn’t support embedded videos. Stories Project Stories 22.04.2026 The Stage for Contemporary Performance Brings Together Different Makers, Art Forms and Audiences From left to right, Anna Maria H?kkinen, Riikka Thitz, and Erno Aaltonen photographed at studio Pasila. Photo: Katariina M?nnikk? TEXT Heidi Horila Share: The pilot project for Helsinki City Theatre’s Stage for Contemporary Performance was sparked by a petition from performing arts professionals working in the independent field in 2019. They hoped that Helsinki City Theatre would share its resources, such as rehearsal and performance spaces and technical equipment, with independent artists. What Is It About? The two-phase pilot project for Helsinki City Theatre’s Stage for Contemporary Performance (2021–2023 and 2024–2025) has been funded by Kone Foundation. The goals are to make Helsinki City Theatre’s resources available to independent performing arts professionals, to increase dialogue between institutional theatre and the freelance arts sector, to diversify Helsinki City Theatre’s programme, and to reach new potential audiences. The Stage for Contemporary Performance is located at Helsinki City Theatre’s studio Pasila. Spring productions have been selected through an invitation-based curatorial process, while summer artist residencies are open to applicants through an open call based on live meetings. Choreographer Anna Maria H?kkinen and set designer Erno Aaltonen pose together with curator Riikka Thitz on the studio Pasila stage. The set includes a pink sofa, an American-style fridge and a comfortable-looking armchair. It could have been lifted straight from the set of a familiar television show. The team, which includes both freelance dancers and Helsinki City Theatre actors, is currently working on a piece drawing from the genre of 1990s TV sitcoms. Somatic Sitcom is part of the Stage for Contemporary Performance pilot programme. “We were invited to take part. Riikka approached me, and we talked about what kind of work we were planning together with Erno and dramaturg Emil Santtu Uuttu,” H?kkinen explains. Dialogue is one of the cornerstones of the project. The pilot has sought to critically examine theatre and performance production practices, and to bring together artists and working groups from different parts of the performing arts field. One key element has been carrying out selection processes through conversation rather than written applications. “We wanted to move away from the traditional written application format, where an applicant’s ability to describe their work in writing has historically carried a lot of weight,” says curator Riikka Thitz. Artists and working groups are selected for the summer residency, which is self-funded, through an open call based on live meetings. The residency programme has run throughout the pilot and will continue in the future. Photo: Katariina M?nnikk? ”We want to offer diverse audiences new kinds of content that may not previously have been part of the theatre’s repertoire.” New Kinds of Performances for Diverse Audiences The concept of contemporary performance is both fluid and multidisciplinary. The Stage for Contemporary Performance does not represent a single performing arts tradition; Studio Pasila’s programme has featured dance, puppet theatre, and work that pushes beyond the boundaries of conventional spoken theatre. Thitz, who has been involved in the project from the start, explains that in addition to the conversation-based selection process, monthly curatorial meetings have been introduced where artists and working groups can present their work ideas and receive feedback. Potential works go through several rounds of discussion, both internally and with the artists. Decisions about which works are selected for Studio Pasila are made by a dramaturgical committee consisting of Helsinki City Theatre director Kari Arffman, the director of the theatre’s Swedish-language stage Lilla Teatern, the director of Helsinki Dance Company, and the theatre’s own dramaturgs. “We try to find makers who have a clearly articulated desire to work on larger theatre stages. At the same time, we want to offer diverse audiences new kinds of content that may not previously have been part of the theatre’s repertoire,” Thitz says. Audience numbers have grown as the pilot has progressed. Photo: Katariina M?nnikk? There has been a great deal to learn along the way, on both sides. Building Mutual Understanding The Stage for Contemporary Performance originally launched in 2019, when a group of independent performing arts professionals submitted a joint petition to Helsinki City Theatre, calling on the theatre to share and open up its resources, including spaces and technical equipment, with the independent field. Kari Arffman, who was already director of Helsinki City Theatre at the time, received the petition. “It was clear that if any it had to be Finland’s largest theatre that takes responsibility for improving the position of independent field artists and creating more sustainable working conditions,” Arffman recalls. The productions within the Stage for Contemporary Performance are built on Helsinki City Theatre’s own terms and practices, and there has been a great deal to learn along the way, on both sides. According to Arffman, the clearest priority has been building mutual understanding and improving communication. “There have been certain preconceptions on both sides, both in the independent field and in established institutional theatre. Through the collaboration this project has made possible, I think we have managed to break down some of those tensions,” Arffman says. He notes that performance art that does not fit neatly into the category of traditional theatre drama sometimes uses difficult and abstract terminology — and in the same breath acknowledges that good communication also means having the courage to admit when you don’t understand something. Arffman therefore requires artists selected for the Stage for Contemporary Performance to articulate their work clearly. “Even though we are presenting new kinds of performance formats, the works and their descriptions need to offer audiences something to connect with and relate to.” Both Thitz and Arffman note that the pilot project enables experimentation with new ways of working between different parties, and learning through trial and error. The different starting points of performance art and theatre have sparked a great deal of conversation. A Space for Creating a Shared Language Working on Somatic Sitcom alongside dancers Eséte Sutinen and Hanna Ahti, as well as the theatre’s own actors Juha Jokela, Vappu Nalbantoglu and Antti Timonen, has been a rewarding experience for Anna Maria H?kkinen. Rather than the psychological approach typical of actor training, Somatic Sitcom is built around physical tasks set by H?kkinen and the playful choreography that has emerged from them. The different starting points of performance art and theatre have sparked a great deal of conversation during the creative process, including around set design. “In theatre, set elements such as doors are usually representational and functional: a door looks like a door and you can actually walk through it. In our choreographic work, we focus on the weight and feel of objects. Through these different approaches we are searching for and building a shared way of working and a shared language for the piece,” says Erno Aaltonen. In addition to the working time and space resources provided by the Stage for Contemporary Performance pilot, H?kkinen has developed the work with the support of rendezvous, an artist community she co-founded with five other artists. H?kkinen and Aaltonen emphasise that within the independent field there are many different ecosystems, and that there is a certain reciprocity between working there and working in a publicly funded institutional theatre. “My previous work in the independent field, and the structures built there and for it, such as our community having its own studio space, are part of what makes it possible for me to now work within an institutional theatre context,” H?kkinen says. Contact Stage for Contemporary Performance curator Riikka Thitz, riikka.thitz@hkt.fi Contemporary performances are forms of present-day performing art in which different art forms combine with each other and sometimes with other fields, such as research. In relation to the history of their art forms, they explore new perspectives on how performance can be created. Makers of contemporary performance often approach stage space, the performer’s craft and the relationship between performance and audience in original ways.