Dancing whirlpool

On the 1-st of March, 2013 Karelian College of Culture and Arts launched a project «Dancing whirlpool», which is financed by cross-border cooperation in the framework of the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument "Karelia" (PPP ENPI "Karelia").

The project is being implemented in partnership with North-Karelian college in Outokumpu (Finland) and the NCO "Karelian Resource Center of Public Organizations" (Petrozavodsk, Russia). The main aims of the project are: development of cross-border cooperation in the field of contemporary dance, developing a network of contacts between educational institutions in the field of culture and involvement of children and young people to participation in cultural events.

In the framework of the project a choreographic performance will be created by Russian and Finnish students and teachers with using the technique of contemporary dance. Students of two colleges are taking an active part in the development of the themes and the selection of music and lexical material for he future performance.

The first activity of the project was the arrival of teachers from professional college in Outokumpu to Petrozavodsk. Ulla Mäkinen, Head of the Choreography Department, and Vera Lapitskaya, college instructor, conducted two master classes on contemporary dancing for Karelian students. 

Being experts in the field of contemporary dance, Finnish teachers made Russian students acquainted with the peculiarities of this direction of modern dance which combines the elements of western dance (ballet, modern jazz) and eastern art movement (qigong, yoga, Tai Chi Chuan). And this is the sort of dance that has no peculiar form of style, because the main thing in it is self-expression. Specialists insist that contemporary is an intellectual dance that balances the state of body, mind and soul. The master classes were attended by more than 50 students from Karelian College of Culture and Arts. Finnish teachers mentioned a good level of Karelian students.

 

During the visit of the Finnish partners a working meeting was also held, on the basis of which the parts have agreed about the organizational and technical aspects of the project. Despite the fact that there isn't generally any thoughtout storyline in the contemporary style performances, Russian participants offered to fill the plot of future perofrmans with the subject of threads of fate, symbolizing the continuity of time and space, and to narrate the story on behalf of three female characters. This idea was approved by Finnish partners.

The next event of the project is the visit of Russian students and teachers to Outokumpu college, which will host the rehearsal session of the future performance. Russian teachers will also conduct master classes on classical and folk dance for Finnish students. The premiere of the performance will take place in Petrozavodsk in April 24, 2013 at the stage of National Theatre of the Republic of Karelia.

Oksana Konopleva