In the choreographed piece by Mirva Mäkinen, dance artists Rebecca Laube-Pohto and Mimmi Salo, founding members of the Keskellä Collective, along with Helsinki-based dance artist Pinja Grönberg perform. The music is provided by Tapani Rinne with lighting design by Lasse Saari.

“Keep Searching” is a dance piece centered on physical dialogue, contact, and closeness. The work is based on partnering, touch, and the proximity between dancers.

“Keep Searching” is a commissioned piece by dance arts doctor and choreographer Mirva Mäkinen for the Central Finnish collective Keskellä. The performance is partially improvisational, where three dancers and a musician have the space to make choices within the pre-determined structure of the work and rhythmically pace the piece in a meaningful way. The dance trio’s mutual listening and presence expand the complexity of movement dynamics, which opens up possibilities for partnering toward fluid dance. Through touch, sensing, and sharing body weight, the dancers engage in a physical negotiation where falling, reaching, rolling, and softly lifting each other vary. The onstage musician, Tapani Rinne, reacts to the dancers sometimes by deliberately expanding the space, sometimes by bringing the listener intimately close.

The name “Keep Searching” reflects the exploration of movement and the corporeal conversation between the dancers. The physical dialogue and auditory space take the viewer on an approximately one-hour-long exploratory journey.

Choreographer and dance doctor Mirva Mäkinen works broadly as a teacher, choreographer, and dancer. Her expertise lies in contact improvisation and improvisation. Mäkinen completed her dissertation on the somaesthetics of contact improvisation in 2018. She has taught dance internationally in about 40 different countries.

Musician Tapani Rinne is a composer and producer known for his experimental and innovative style in playing the saxophone and clarinet. Rinne is a founding member of RinneRadio.

Pinja Grönberg is a Helsinki-based freelance dance artist. She graduated with a Bachelor of Dance Arts from Stockholm University of the Arts in 2017. Pinja has worked in the field of contemporary dance as a dancer and performer with various choreographers and ensembles.

The Keskellä Collective, based in Jyväskylä, is a multidisciplinary contemporary dance collective that produces traditional stage works as well as dance in new forms of expression.

The artistic directors of the Keskellä Collective are Mimmi Salo and Rebecca Laube-Pohto, dance artists who have returned to Jyväskylä after seeking influences from around the world. They aim to create adaptable art in the Central Finland region and invite artists from different fields to work with them.

Photo: Iida Liimatainen