Notable Kaaos Company pieces

Kaaos Company’s integrated dance performances transcend traditional boundaries of art, offering a transformative experience that redefines who can dance and what dance can be. Through a vibrant tapestry of embodied stories, we challenge societal perceptions, celebrating authenticity and inclusivity while crafting powerful, new narratives that inspire and connect

The Pond Retreat

Kaaos Company’s performance Pond was created in collaboration with choreographer Maija Mustonen and designer Erno Aaltonen. Pond premiered at Mad House Helsinki in January 2017 and has since been performed at ANTI Contemporary Art Festival in Kuopio in 2017 and List án Landamæra Festival in Reykjavik, Iceland in 2018.

Five women lay facing up in a pool. They are laying in different directions and hold onto the pool railing.

Click here to view a descriptive transcript

The Pond is a small retreat where we gather by the water and give ourselves over to it. Flowing and flowing, floating and heavy, in water and under water

Working group:

Performers and choreography: Sally Davison, Georgie Goater, Jonna Lehto, Gunilla Sjövall, Sanna Valkeapää, Noora Västinen
Performance concept and direction: Maija Mustonen
Lighting and sound design: Erno Aaltonen
Lighting design assistant: Sofia Palillo
Costume design: Venla Korvenmaa
Costume design consultation: Laura Haapakangas
Producer: Riikka Thitz
Production: Kaaos Company
In collaboration with Mad House Helsinki and Hotel Korpilampi
The work was supported by Kone Foundation and the City of Espoo.

Photos by Saara Autere, Pekka Mäkinen

Patella

Patella: floating bone is a collaboration between choreographer Georgie Goater, theatre artist Elina Sarno, and Kaaos Company. Premiering at the Helsinki Theatre Academy in March 2018, it was later featured at the X Dance Festival in June 2018 at Zodiak, Cable Factory. 

This immersive and accessible performance invites viewers to experience inclusive dance by moving freely around the space, touching materials, or simply witnessing the performance.

A woman crouches on the floor on top of crumpled up paper. There is a line of people behind her and the lighting is yellow.

Choreographers and performers: Elina Sarno, Georgie Goater, Jonna Lehto, Noora Västinen
KAAOS Company
Concept and direction: Georgie Goater, Elina Sarno
Producer: Aapo Juusti, Teak
Scenographic design: IA ENSTERÄ
Lighting design: Sofia Palillo
Sound: Georgie Goater
Stage Manager: Marja Zilcher, Teak
Set Design: Heli Hyytiä
Set Design: Työryhmä & Johanna Ilmarinen and Arja Nuppola
Rehearsal Mentor: Sally Davison, Gesa Piper
Photos: Aapo Juusti
Producer: Kaaos Company
Funded by Helsinki Theatre Academy, X Dance Festival 2018 and DanceAbility Finland Ry

Swan Song

SWAN SONG explores the nuances of space, time, and dimension through the interaction of dancers Sally Davison and Gunilla Sjövall, whose 15-year collaboration has shaped the Finnish inclusive dance field. With a combined 133 years of life, influenced by disability, age, and marginalization, both have continued dancing at an age when it’s typically abandoned, driven by their shared passion for making dance accessible. 

The performance is a journey of desires and motivations, shaped by the dancers’ biology, history, and society, culminating in change and release. Rehearsed remotely in 2021, the piece finally premiered in March 2022 after pandemic delays.

Two women are pictured in an open space with a rug in the middle of the area. One woman is laying face down next to the rug and the other woman is sitting in a wheelchair near the back wall.

Click here to view a descriptive transcript

When I die, life gets me.
Things become formless, wings shed their feathers and become featherless wings.
My hand, your hand – “I know this hand” – a featherless wing that carries the sky.
“I know what it is to listen to this hand. I feel the softness of skin.”
– Georgie Goater and performers (Sally Davison & Gunilla Sjövall)

Working group:

Performers: Sally Davison, Gunilla Sjövall
Mentors: Georgie Goater, Maija Mustonen, Rea
Sound design: Riku-Pekka Kellokoski
Lighting design: Sofia Palillo
Costumes and sets: Heli Hietala
Video and photo: Rea
Venue: Monitoimitila O.
Producer: Sally Davison / Raila Knuuttila

info@kaaoscompany.fi

Contact information

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Kaaos Company Logo in Black Font.

Kadar Khristan

To me dancing feels like I can go over the boundaries of limitation. Before I started to dance I always felt my boundaries and the state of my body, which often felt limited. When I began to dance I realized the limitations existed only in my mind.

The most important thing that dance has given me is the confidence to express myself and to be who I am. When I dance, I create new relations to myself, to others and to the space. Because dance has been so transformative for me, I want to encourage others to find the movements of body, mind and emotions, which connect us in our humanity.

I enjoy working in a group and want to develop in myself abilities and skills, which haven’t yet reached their full potential. I am curious by nature and I get along with different kinds of people in international and multicultural settings. I began dancing with Kaaos Company in 2019 after having participated in the Sunday movement improvisation classes. I have also featured in Nella Turk’s piece in 2021 and in Marc Brew’s choreography, which was realised as a collaboration between CODA Festival and the Oslo Opera House in 2022.

Member of the board – 2021 – 2023
Performer in Kaaos Company pieces: Katras, Principia, Torotörö, Lilac Loop

Silva Laukkanen

I am Silva Laukkanen. I love dance. I love movement. I love diversity. I love the beautiful moments that are created in space by bodies telling stories. I want to expand the notion of who can dance and where dance should happen and I have a deep passion for community art and providing access to dance.

Chair of the board – 2021 –
Dance teacher, DanceAbility -method – 2003 –
Director of Integrated Dance at Art Spark Texas, Austin TX 2019 –
Co-founder of Tractus Art with Christelle Dreyer
Co-author with Emmaly Wiederholt – Breadth of Bodies; Discussing Disability in Dance
Podcast Host; DanceCast

Siiri Tiilikka

I am Siiri Tiilikka. I have graduated as a dancer from the Keskuspuisto vocational school (now known as The Vocational College Live). I have also practiced Flamenco for many years, and I am part of the music school Resonaari’s Class Beat band. I also do rhythmic gymnastics and play tennis, and in my free time I also sing karaoke. I can also create choreographies and I am a really talented dancer.

Performer in Kaaos Company pieces: Know Body, Patella – floating bone, Mirage, Katras

Sirpa Miettinen

Sirpa Miettinen acts as the association’s executive director. Sirpa has previously worked at a dance festival as a producer and executive director.

Sirpa has previously worked as a producer and executive director of a dance festival.

Noora Västinen

As a dancer and dance teacher Noora values listening sensitively to one’s own body, breath and their relationship to movement. Acceptance and kindness towards oneself, and play and joy shared together are central in Noora’s teaching.

In all her work Noora aims to advance equality and accesible possibilities to participate in society, art and culture – both as a creator and as an experiencer.

Member of the board – 2021 –
Dance teacher, DanceAbility -method – 2017 –
Expert and educator of inclusive and applied art
Dancer in Kaaos Company pieces – Pond, Patella, Alkemik Konnektions, Mirage, Principia

Sami Kekäläinen

Sami is a musician, dance enthusiast and multi-area freelancer based in Helsinki. His skills in music include singing, production and live performance. He makes rap music under the name MC Zen, and has a long-standing experience as a street musician.

A person motivated by curiosity and new experiences, he ventured to explore the world of inclusive dance in 2019. On this path he happily remained and found a cozy place of belonging in Kaaos Company. In addition to being an active participant in classes, he has created music for Kaaos Company performances and does various tasks such as translation work.

Member of the board – 2024 –

Music maker for performances – Mirage, Bird’s Song (Siiri Tiilikka’s solo performance)

Jonna Lehto

Jonna is a performance and dance artist who works with humor, communality and equality. She has been involved in Kaaos Company’s activity since 2014 in many different roles, such as as a performer, as a director and as a producer in performance and workshop projects. Currently Jonna is in the association board and teaches inclusive movement improvisation classes to both children and adults. Jonna enjoys making explorations in body language and imagination as she studies elements of curiosity and surprise.

Member of the board – 2015 – 2019, 2021 –
Teacher – 2015 –
Performer in Kaaos Company pieces: INfloresense, Chinese Whispers, Know Body, Pond, Patella – floating bone, Katras

Georgie Goater

Georgie Goaer (NZ/FI) is a Helsinki-based dance artist from Aotearoa, New Zealand. As a performer, choreographer and facilitator she is excited to collaborate in communities of different embodied perceptions. When each person is an expert in their own unique corporeality, dance and performace weave relative, balanced and inclusive practices for creating and experiencing art together. Senses, memory, imagination and play that is based on tasks are elements in Georgie’s artistic explorations.

She was proudly part of Aotearoa’s Touch Compass as a whānaua dancer and teacher in 2012 – 2016.

Kaaos Company artist – 2017 –
Dance teacher – 2020 –
Board member – 2021 – 2023

Gunilla Sjövall

In my youth I dreamt of myself as a dancer. However, it took almost 50 years before I dared to begin fulfilling this dream (one cannot dance with a wheelchair… right?). The barriers broke when in the summer of 2004 out of a lack of things to do I participated to Alito Alessi’s DanceAbility -course at the Täydenkuun tanssit -contemporary dance festival. This transformative experience was continued next summer, and in 2006 I traveled to Wien to complete the DanceAbility -teacher training in Alito’s guidance.

I would not be myself if I didn’t want to share the opportunities I have received with others. The result of this was the founding of DanceAbility Finland ry in 2008 and Kaaos Company in 2010. I have been the chair of the board in DAF for nine years and after that have remained active although in a less central role. I have danced in Kaaos ever since it’s beginning, the latest performance having been in the farewell(?) piece Swan Song (2022) with Sally Davison.

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