Sat 18.10.2025 12.30–14.30
Sun 16.11. 2025 15–17
KUMMA
Kauppakatu 35

ALIEN – Kuopio is a pop-up dance piece directed by Taneli Törmä. Since 2019, it has been developed with local dancers in five different countries. Each edition is inspired by the previous ones. Now the work is being created in Kuopio for the dancers of Dance Theatre Minimi and will be performed throughout the city of Kuopio in the fall of 2025 in honor of it’s 250th anniversary and is part of the KUMMA / M_itä? Contemporary Art Biennial.

ALIEN – Kuopio is an ode to dance and honors the courage to dance for oneself in public spaces. What do different movement qualities and moving alone or together at the same or different speeds trigger in us, both as individuals and in a group? And how will the people who pass by react to it? Is it really so alien to dance in public?

These questions drive the creation of ALIEN – Kuopio, which is why the choreography has been influenced by various communal dances, such as club dancing and traditional circle dances. Both have something non-spectacular yet shared: they are danced for one’s own enjoyment and not intended to be performed for an audience. To experience and move for oneself, or together with others.

Whether you dance for yourself (for example, in clubs) or are part of a circle dance, you are part of a shared wave of movement—a chain. ALIEN – Kuopio draws inspiration from this; whether the movement is individual or in unison, it seeks to strengthen community and collective experience. In this way, a moment of dancing in public space becomes a moving and vibrant artwork—an abstract and ritualistic act for the people with whom we share the moment and the public space.

The ALIEN concept was developed as part of a Big Pulse Dance Alliance co-production, produced by New Baltic Dance in Lithuania and the Dublin Dance Festival in Ireland, and co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe program.

Choreography Taneli Törmä
Dancers Virva Torkko-Muñoz, Katja Mustonen, Mimmi Herd and Taneli Törmä (understudy)
Sound designer Esa Mattila
Production assistant Anu Kauppi
Production Dance Theatre Minimi
Photos Petra Kuha
Supported by Kuopio250-anniversary – City of Kuopio and  M_itä?  Biennale of Contemporary Art
Former sponsor Big Pulse Dance Alliance – European Union Creative Europe Program
Performances are organized in collaboration with KUMMA / M_itä? Contemporary Art Biennale, Café-Restaurant Salacavala, Original Sokos Hotel Puijonsarvi, Kuopio Museum, Kuopio Quarter Museum, Tahko – Luontofest, Palad Showroom, Muuruvesi Church, Karttula Library, and Kuopio City Theatre
Duration 40 min / 80 min / 120 min
Special thanks to Harri Kuorelahti, Thomas Schaupp. Kuopio City Theatre Costume department and Oona Pappila.