Stretch 2019 Turku encounter helps dance professional to find new perspectives to their profession

In October, 17th to 20th, Turku will become the Finnish capital of dance, when 250 contemporary dance professionals from different countries get together to develop the future. Stretch Turku 2019 is a four-day event exploring the position of a dance artist in the midst of the changing society. At the same time, international New Performance Turku Festival will be organized. The festival invites citizens to participate in creating a new folk dance for the future of Turku.

What does multiprofessionalism mean in practice and how we should start thinking differently about our skill sets? What does working internationally mean in times of climate change?  Climate issues and sustainable development are the common thread of Stretch and the New Performance Turku Festival program. The keynote panel on Saturday 19th, will focus on climate change and actions around it, with Ben Twist from Creative Carbon Scotland as the keynote speaker. The discussion will be followed by workshops with the aim to discover concrete actions and tools.

Furthermore, the world is changing at the level of cities, their inhabitants and communities. Leyya Mona Tawil, a Palestinian-Syrian dancer and performer based in New York, has been invited to Turku to work on a new kind of folkdance idea with the locals. The outcome is a unique folk dance of Turku City, Turku Future Folk Dance. It will be performed and danced together with Turku people in the city centre on the 19th of October at 5pm.

Stretch 2019 Turku builds on the Keðja community born out of dance professionals’ encounters in the Nordic and Baltic countries for over ten years and counting.

“We have witnessed that these encounters generate connections and collaborations,” says Katarina Lindholm, manager of international affairs from the Dance Info Finland. “There are not many events like this for dance artists and other professionals of the field,” she points out.

“Creating a sustainable dance field is one of our main principles – strong connections between dance professionals in neighboring and nearby countries and a strong community help us in reaching this goal,” she states.

Read more and see the programme: Stretch 2019 Turku 17.–20.10.2019 http://www.kedja.net/stretch/

Stretch 2019 Turku organizers:

The Regional Dance Centre of Western Finland and Dance Info Finland 

Main partners: City of Turku and New Performance Turku Festival.

The event is supported by: Nordisk Kulturfond, The Finnish Cultural Foundation Varsinais-Suomi regional fund and the Finnish-Danish Cultural Fund.

Partners: Kultur i Väst (SE), Norrlandsoperan (SE), Dansearena Nord (NO), Bora Bora (DK), Dance Atelier (IS), Estonian Dance Agency (EE), Contemporary Dance Association (LT), Artist’s Group ”Fish Eye” (LT), The Work Room (Scotland), Tanzfabrik Potsdam (GE) ja Dance Theater Ljubljana (SI).

The next STRETCH encounter will be held in Gothenburg in August 2020.