Katja Koukkula & Jussi Väänänen

We are a dancer-choreographer couple. Eighteen years ago, we began our joint career as competitive ballroom dancers. In 2005, after retiring from our 12-year competitive career, we wanted to continue dancing in a different environment and with new ambitions and so, the transition to theatre was a natural and necessary solution. We are currently fascinated by the expressive potential of on-stage partner dance and are on an extremely interesting expedition to find a new identity for partner dance in the dance art world.

At the Saari Residence, we are working on our new duet called AFTERTASTE, commissioned by and premièring at the 2012 Pyhäjärvi Full Moon Dance Festival. We will be creating new material, sketching an outline for the structure and nature of the performance, and utilizing both old and new work methods in order to discover a fresh perspective for working on the performance. Momentary help will be provided by choreographer Jaakko Toivonen who, as director/dramaturge/counterforce and armed with tough questions and demands, will help us to be more profound and versatile, and will prevent us from falling back on solutions too familiar or too easy.