Janna Haavisto

Two and a half years ago my six-year relationship ended and my world fell to pieces. At the same time, I received my master’s degree and turned thirty. Life had orchestrated an infamous crisis. The actual event and the fragmented moments leading up to it are fresh in my affective memory but the moment in time feels miles away. I am reconstructing my identity as a human being, a woman, an artist, a Finn, and a thirty-year-old. I have been adrift, depressed, travelled, lived with relatives, friends, alone and together, and I have done a lot of different creative work. It is now time to stop, avert my attention toward myself and to take better care of myself. My personal process appears to have taken a new turn. The idea of deconstructing it artistically has started to mature.

The Saari Residence is the perfect place for this artistic process. I have gained enough distance from the initial explosion. The feelings are no longer raw and the whole situation has gained perspective. I can retreat from everyday life and ask myself, who am I today? What have I grown into? Moreover, how do I reflect on and talk about my journey?

At the residence, my aim is creative work and the artistic process. My starting point will be my physicality and my body’s forms of expression. I will initially rely on improvisation and as the material evolves, I will utilise the divising-technique to tie it all together. My improvisation may be based on a movement, object, theme, picture, natural element, memory etc. The aim is to find a trigger and foundation for a new cross-disciplinary work that will also welcome the collaboration of the other residence guests. I do not want to tell an aristotelean story but to convey emotions and images so that the experience will be physical for the audience as well.

In the dance hall of the Saari Residence, there is a woman who is exploring the biggest tragedy of her life and all the paths it lead her down.

Janna Haavisto received her master’s degree from Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts in 2010. She is a freelance performer and theatre, circus and dance director. Her field of expertise is in physical expression and character work. Janna also has a degree in circus art from Turku Arts Academy (2001). She has also appeared in several TV-series and movies, and works as a voice actress and presenter.