Maria Nurmela

Maria Nurmela has been working as a freelance dance artist since 2002, collaborating with known choreographers including Theo Clinkard, Susanne Linke, Helena Franzén and Yuval Pick. Nurmela has danced with Tero Saarinen Company since 2003, plus worked as repetitor and teacher of TERO technique. In 2012–2016 she was in charge of TSC’s community outreach project Apollo tanssii.

Her own choreographic work consists of transdisciplinary collaborations and site-specific performances combining different theatrical tools, contemporary music and visual arts. Her latest co-productions include Sarastuksia (Dawnings, 2017), as part of of the official Finland 100 programme, and Susurrus (2017-), initiated with Australian choreographer Renae Shadler. Susurrus was presented among others at Tomas Saraceno´s exhibition ON AIR at the Palais de Tokyo Museum in Paris in 2018.

Alongside her artistic engagements  she  is working as a guest teacher at various institutions and special pedagogical projects. She is part time lecturer in the MA Degree Programme in Dance Pedagogy at University of the Arts Helsinki . Her artistry has been recognized by a Ballet/Tanz Year Book nomination as one of the most remarkable female performers of 2008, as well as by numerous grants and residencies, including Saari Residency and the Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship. Nurmela holds an MA in Dance pedagogy (University of the Arts Helsinki, 2007) and a BA in Dance (Folkwang University, 2002) and she has also studied Dance and Movement Therapy at Eino Roiha Institute (University of Jyväskylä, 2013–2014).