Transit tour

Tero Saarinen has made a prominent international career as both dancer and choreographer. He has created more than 40 works, for Tero Saarinen Company and other distinguished dance companies. Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT1), Batsheva Dance Company (Israel), Ballet Gullbenkian (Portugal), Lyon Opéra Ballet (France), GöteborgsOperans Danskompani (Sweden), Ballet National de Marseille (France), Ballet de Lorraine (France), National Dance Company of Korea and Finnish National Opera and Ballet among others have featured Saarinen’s works in their repertoires. He has received numerous prestigious acknowledgements as an artist both in Finland and abroad.

As a choreographer, Saarinen is known for his distinctive movement language and insightful fusions of the classic and the contemporary. His choreographies have often been described as total artworks. Recent productions include ’Morphed’ (2014) with Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jean Sibelius’s ’Kullervo’ (2015) in collaboration with the Finnish National Opera and Ballet, ’Zimmermann Trio’ (2018) with Susanna Mälkki and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and ’Third Practice’ (2019), a creation based on Claudio Monteverdi’s music performed together with The Helsinki Baroque Orchestra.

Sebastian Fagerlund has established himself as one of the most prominent European composers of his generation. Works by Fagerlund have been commissioned and performed by numerous major orchestras, outstanding conductors and musicians all over the world. His output spans opera to chamber and solo works, the most significant pieces being his operas and works for orchestra. A highly virtuosic instrumental feel and strong sense of musicianship is noticeable in all of his works.

His principal works include ’Clarinet Concerto’ (2006), after which his career properly took off. In 2011, he received the Teosto Prize for Ignite for symphony orchestra 2010). In 2016/17, Fagerlund was Composer in Residence at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Holland. His opera ’Höstsonaten’ (’Autumn Sonata’) premiered in the Finnish National Opera’s 2017/18 season to great critical acclaim, in Finland and abroad. During 2013–2019 Fagerlund was the artistic director of the RUSK Chamber Music Festival in Jakobstad, Finland. Fagerlund’s music is available on record label BIS.

IC-98 is an artist duo consisting of Patrik Söderlund and Visa Suonpääää. IC-98’s projects take the form of installations combining research, text, drawing and animation. Internationally they are best known for their animated film installations, which combine classical drawing and digital effects, often depicting landscapes shaped by interlaced forces of nature and technology, navigation and exploitation, climate and migration. IC-98 represented Finland at the Venice Art Biennale 2015. They often collaborate with other art forms such as poetry, music or architecture – and this time, dance.

Lighting and set designer Minna Tiikkainen has made a significant international career in performing arts in Europe. Her strong yet minimalistic work often has a substantial significance for the totality of the performance. Besides Tero Saarinen, her recent collaborators include names such as Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Jefta van Dinther, Deborah Hay, Mette Ingvartsen and Kate McIntosh. Tiikkainen received her MA in Lighting Design in 2002 from Theater Academy of Finland and received the Säde award from the Finnish Association of Lighting Designers.

Teemu Muurimäki is best known for his international fashion design career including Paris, Milan and Sydney. His employers include brands like Giorgio Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Bottega Veneta and most recently, Finland’s iconic design houses Marimekko and Turo.

In his freelance work, he focuses on made-to-measure gowns for high profile celebrity events and weddings. Muurimäki designed costumes for Tero Saarinen Company’s ’Morphed’ (2014) and ’Breath’ (2018), and has worked also with opera and musical theatre.

Tuomas Norvio is a sound designer and sound artist. His background is in electronic music, and nowadays he works between different art forms and genres. He is interested in rhythmical and arrhythmical masses of sound, using acoustic and sampled sounds as a material of his work, as well as immersive sound.

Tuomas has made sound and music for contemporary dance and circus, installations, documentary films and different artists. He has worked with a vast array of artists like Kimmo Pohjonen, Tapani Rinne, defunensemble, Pekka Kuusisto, Circo Aereo, Johanna Nuutinen and Tero Saarinen Company. He has been credited for his work with Säde and Teosto prizes.