Celebration

Premiere 29.8.2026 | other performances 2.9.–4.12.2026.

Inspired by Violeta Parra’s music, Celebration is a hypnotic and meditative two-act piece that combines contemporary dance, live music, visuality and myths.

“Celebration brings together the last twenty years of my 40-year career as a dance artist and the important fellow artists with whom I have shared this journey.

I spent my early youth in the 1970s. My most vivid memory from that time is the military coup in Chile in 1973 and the massive solidarity movement that followed, the experience of solidarity and community, and the songs of Violeta Parra, which have resonated in my heart ever since.

That entire decade later took shape as dance. Into small, somewhat rough images and dance pieces that resemble myself.

Violeta Parra’s songs are the spark for the work Celebration, in which lived life is transformed into dance, movement, and a series of dreamlike, surreal scenes. Into a colorful stream of images. Into a celebration.” – choreographer Ari Numminen

An early kickoff premiere to the 30th anniversary 2027

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Open rehearsal Tue 2.6. at 4-5 pm

Audience Outreach

OPEN REHEALSAL
Tue 2.6. 4-5 pm

Come and have a peak how the upcoming performance will be!

ARI NUMMINEN, ARTIST INTERVIEW
Tue 2.6. 5 pm

The creator of Celebration is the legendary choreographer and dancer Ari Numminen, who has embarked on a somewhat nostalgic, perhaps surreal, yet distinctly personal journey to create Celebration.

Ari and journalist Anne Flinkkilä meet after Juhla’s open rehearsal and delve into Ari’s life, art, memories, and the present day: who exactly is this man who wanted to become a dancer because he couldn’t learn to play the guitar?

Ari was a young man in 1973 when a military dictatorship took power in Chile. That time is unforgettable, as is the music of Violeta Parra. It has inspired Ari in the work Celebration. We also hear what Ari was like in 1998, when Laila Kinnunen’s legendary “Josef Josef” played in the work Hääkeikka, or how, in the 2013 work Triumfi, Jouni Kaipainen’s atonal music propelled Ari’s approach to dance onto entirely new paths. What are Ari’s fears and hopes today—will light or darkness prevail?

Ari’s storytelling on the Hällä stage on June 2 at 5 p.m., immediately following the open rehearsal.

“The Celebration has it all: the 1970s, Violeta Parra, my own youth, idealism and its demise, and, despite all the darkness, a glimmer of hope in the present day.” – choreographer Ari Numminen.

Working group

Choreography Ari Numminen
Dance Suvi Eloranta, Anniina Kumpuniemi, Samuli Roininen, Mari Rosendahl
Music Minja Koski, Tuomas Luukkonen, Petri Tiainen

Costume design Tiina Helin
Light design Sari Mayer
Sound design Henri Puolitaival

Photos Harri Hinkka