Guiding principles
Form is the first venue in Finland dedicated to dance. The opening season will take place in the beginning of 2022.
History
The first initiative was given in 1930’s. The association that started advocating the idea further was founded in 2010. In 2014 the Jane and Aatos Erkko foundation granted 15 million euros to the project and in 2015 the Finnish government and the city of Helsinki committed to the project’s funding. At that time, the decision was made to start the construction work of Dance House Helsinki. In 2017 the project plan was completed and the architectural plan was released. In 2019 construction work started at Cable Factory alongside with recruiting and programme planning. In 2020, the Dance House Helsinki Association changed its name to Form.
Building and facilities
Form will be located in the Ruoholahti district in Helsinki, next to Cable Factory. Construction work started at Cable Factory in October 2019.
The core of Form consists of the Erkko Hall with 700 seats, the Pannuhalli stage with 250 seats and an Event Square. There will also be restaurant services and an atmospheric club space. The renovated rehearsal studio located at Cable Factory is already available for rehearsing dance pieces and performances, organising dance workshops and for dance school use.
Dance House Helsinki is looking for a Head of Technical Department with full working proficiency in English (Finnish appreciated), and strong track record of the technical development of performing arts venues.
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The project Europe Beyond Access supports disabled artists to break the glass ceilings of the contemporary theatre & dance sectors. At the lab hosted by Holland Dance Festival, the following question stood central: How can we create dance and performing arts scenes that are more diverse and that support the work of disabled dancers and artists?
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Over the course of the summer, EDN member Lokomotiva (North Macedonia) conducted the first edition of its International Summer School. We highly recommend diving in the resources made available online by Lokomotiva to reflect on contemporary practices of performing arts in relation to activism, social movements and self-organization.
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Dampfzentrale (EDN member) is looking forward to see you in Bern, Switzerland for the 12th edition of its festival.
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The Atelier took place at Cable Factory in Helsinki in February 2016. Organized by Dance House Helsinki, it focused on the sharing of best practices of international co-operation from the viewpoint of creation and dissemination. The main question was: what are the current and future strategies and models of co-production to best support artistic creation and its international dissemination and touring?
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Tiia Lappalainen, Press Manager at Dance House Helsinki learns about presentation of season in front of audiences and work with video during her Carte Blanche in Lyon.
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EDN Members were invited to discover the Baltic dance scene at the Baltic Dance Platform that was held as a part of the international contemporary dance festival “New Baltic Dance” (May 2-11). It is a combined platform among 3 countries – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Annette van Zwoll reports on the first Baltic Dance Platform, and on the connections with EDN.
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By taking part in a nomadic bus trip to several locations in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia and Bulgaria, EDN members connected with Nomad Dance Academy – Balkan network for contemporary dance and got acquained with the potentials of the region.
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Many dancehouses in Europe have been created over preexisting buildings: convents, factories, industrial sites, brick houses, distilleries, to name some examples. This Atelier at CSC Bassano del Grappa took place in a series of meetings aimed at considering and tracing the European, as well as the international, dancehouses history.
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EDN’s Encounter Brazil took place from 5th November to 9th November in Sao Paulo during the Festival Contemporaneo de Sao Paulo. Form's director Matti Numminen, one of the 5 EDN members taking part in the visit, shares his impressions.
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