Production Details / Press Releases
„Nonfiction” is a live documentary, which is based on the three weeks we spent in Palestine. It will be presented as accurately as possible, exactly as the participants remember it and as the film presents it. In Palestine we worked with the local children and created two different versions of the piece. We did one version for nearly 30 children, and another one for three Finnish dancers and for five local kids. The exchange between the cultures and our dance backgrounds was a concrete starting point and the common interest we all shared. The piece, which we perform in Europe is the result of our journey, experiences and the encounters we had.
Milla Koistinen, FI (1980), has graduated from the Theatre Academy of Helsinki, Finland in 2004 with MA in dance. During the studies she danced in the works of Kenneth Kvarnström, Marjo Kuusela, Ervi Sirén, Sanna Kekäläinen and Arja Tiili. Between her studies she lived in Paris in 2002-2003. There she followed workshops and classes in Atelier de Paris and in Ménagerie de verre with many teachers and choreographers.
In 2006 Milla moved to Brussels and took part to the new creation and one replacement of Les Ballets du Grand Maghreb (Ana Stegnar and Saïd Gharbi). After that she worked with the author, director Peter Verhelst and made a creation Utopia GmbH / Hangende Tuinen with him in NTGent (Johan Simons). In October 2008 she presented her solo Hands Full of Silence in Finland. Currently Milla is working with Hiroaki Umeda with whom she has performed now twice in the Fullmoondance–festival, in the Red Brick Warehouse in Yokohama, Japan and in La Maison de la Culture du Japon, Paris.
In 2009 she participated the creation of Mental Finland by a Finnish director Kristian Smeds. The piece was presented in KVS Brussels, The Finnish National Theatre, Vilnius National Theatre, Le Maillon, Strasbourg and in Hafenhalle in Linz. In 2010 Milla worked with Cie Heddy Maalem in France and toured in France and in Austria and with Christine Gaigg in Steirischer Herbst in Graz. During and between her work she has taken several workshops with Nigel Charnock, Mathilde Monnier, Tero Saarinen, Karine Ponties, Benoît Lachambre, Ted Stoffer, Arja Raatikainen, Katri Soini, Tommi Kitti, Damien Jalet, Martin Nachbar and with many others in Finland and abroad.
In the summer 2010 Milla was one of the danceWEB scholarship recipients in Impulstanz Vienna. There she participated in the workshops by Jonathan Burrows, Inaki Azpillaga, Ivo Dimchev, Ko Murobushi, Francesco Scavetta, Benoît Lachambre, Peter Jasko etc. Milla Koistinen has been a guest teacher in the Theatre Academy of Helsinki, in the university of Tampere (in the actor’s department), in the conservatory of Tampere, in Marameo, Berlin, in Espace Catastrophe in Brussels and in PAC, Ramallah.
Esete Sutinen, FI (1981), has graduated from The Theatre Academy of Helsinki, Finland in 2005 with MA in dance. She has worked among others with Marjo Kuusela, Sanna Kekäläinen, Daksha Sheth Dance Company, Paula Tuovinen, Alpo Aaltokoski, Dominique Porte, Arja Tiili, Virva Talonen, Tommi Kitti, Marjo Kuusela and Petri Kekoni. In 2009 Esete was performing in Virva Talonen’s piece Special Cases, commissioned by The Helsinki Festival.
Vera Tegelman, FI (1981), has graduated from The Theatre Academy of Helsinki, Finland in 2009 with MA in dance. She has worked among others with Jorma Uotinen, Yuval Pick, Marjo Kuusela, Heli Meklin, Paula Tuovisen, Tommi Kitti, Teemu Kyytinen and Elina Pirinen. In 2009 Vera was performing in Virva Talonen’s piece Special Cases, commissioned by The Helsinki Festival.
Lennart Laberenz, DE (1976), is an independent filmmaker, writer and reporter. He has studied history, philosophy, social and political science in Berlin, Havana, Mexico City and Buenos Aires. He has graduated with MA in 2006 from Humboldt University, Berlin. Lennart is writing for daily and weekly papers, as well as magazines, and his reportages and critiques appear in numerous daily, weekly and monthly publications. He is a cameraman, producer, cutter and documentary filmmaker. He has worked among others with Christoph Schlingensief, Kristian Smeds, Milo Rau, Ulf Aminde and Juan Dominguez.
David Lipp, AT (1978), is a composer, musician, sound designer and visual artist. He is working as a freelancer in several projects in Vienna. He was mixing several films and documentaries and as a visual artist he is doing illustrations and also works for exhibitions. David worked for Kristian Smeds as a sound designer for Kristian Smeds Mental Finland. At the moment David works in Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna.
Cast & Credits
Concept & Direction: Milla Koistinen
Created with and performed by: Milla Koistinen, Esete Sutinen, Vera Tegelman
On the video appear the children of Beit Ula Cultural Centre and Jussi Anttonen, Jenni Koistinen, Sofia Koski, Teppo Mäkynen, Janne Reinikainen
Sound design: David Lipp
Film: Lennart Laberenz
Supported by Finnish Cultural Foundation, Arts Council of Finland, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, City of Helsinki Cultural office, Beit Ula Cultural Centre, Terre des Hommes Italia, Cooperazione Italiana Sviluppo.
We would like to thank Jamal Talab, Leonor Crisostomo, Wafaa Al Amleh and the staff of BUCC, the staff of Yes Theatre Hebron, Omayma Alzwaeda, Safaa Alzawaeda, Seham Alshaer, Amera Alamleh, Renat Alstrahen and all the other children and residents of Beit Ula, Teppo Mäkynen, Jenni Koistinen, Janne Reinikainen, Sofia Koski, Jussi Anttonen, Theatre Academy of Helsinki, HfS „Ernst Busch”, HZT, Ingo Reulecke, Simo Kellokumpu, Vincent Roumagnac and our friends and families.
ada Studio in den Uferstudios
Video Documentation
The video documentation is produced on behalf of the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. The purpose of this contract is to document productions in the field of contemporary dance in Berlin. The master recordings are archived by the University Library of the Berlin University of Arts. Copies of the recordings on DVD are available for viewing exclusively in the reference collections of the following archives (at media desks in these institutions):
University Library of the Berlin University of Arts
Mediathek für Tanz und Theater des Internationalen Theaterinstituts / Mime Centrum Berlin
Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin (HZT)