Veli Lehtovaara - Kone Foundation

Dance artist Veli Lehtovaara explores the ecological poetry of dance and choreography notation. In particular, he studies the experience of energy in the body and the transition to post-fossil embodiment. The roots of his research lie in the body awareness practiced in dance and in techniques that orient and stimulate perception. Studying dance notation as an artistic method means examining not only dance, but also environmental philosophy and literary research.

In the transition to a post-fossil condition, the experience of corporeality, both our own and that of others, will inevitably change. We need to be able to dismantle the notions of corporeality that have emerged under fossil capitalism and, equally, the ways we experience the world through our bodies. The research will generate knowledge and methods for the choreographic representation and bodily structuring of an ecological transition. At the same time, it will create a language rooted in the body’s ability to sense things and the resulting experiences. The research also looks for ways in which choreography notation can serve as a structure for thinking at the intersection of poetic bodily experience and ecological-theoretical discourse.

Veli Lehtovaara has worked extensively in dance and theatre, both as a choreographer and performer. His works have been performed at major festivals and stages all over the world: the Liikkeellä Marraskuussa Festival and the Zodiak Center for New Dance (FI), Sadler’s Wells (GB), Festival d’Automne (FR), Festival d’Avignon (FR), NEXT Arts Festival (BE), Spring Performing Arts Festival (NL), Dança em Foco (BR) and Joyce SoHo (US). In 2022, Lehtovaara premiered his choreographic triptych Nimeämätön luonto | Nature Untitled in collaboration with sound designer and musician Jani Hietanen and visual artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila. It is a co-production with the Liikkeellä Marraskuussa Festival and the Zodiak Center for New Dance. The audiovisual installation derived from this work was produced for the exhibition Claws and Connections – All the World’s Senses (2024), organised by Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts.

Lehtovaara is working on his artistic doctoral thesis at Uniarts Helsinki. He has also worked as a guest teacher and mentor, as well as performing evaluation, expert and design tasks at Uniarts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy since 2019. Lehtovaara is also the Artistic Director of the Tanssin Aika Festival (Jyväskylä, 2024–2026) and the Co-Artistic Director of the Entirely Moved | Kaikki Liikkuu Association together with Janina Rajakangas.