Jarkko Lehmus

Dramaturg, Dancer

Jarkko Lehmus has a Master’s Degree in Dramaturgy from Goldsmiths College (London), and a second Master’s in Art Management and Politics from Birkbeck College (London). He has also studied dance and theatre at the Ballet School of the Finnish National Opera and Ballet (Helsinki), Millennium Performing Arts (London) and Guildford School of Acting (Surrey). Lehmus was a soloist with the Scottish Ballet in 2003–2009, and in 2005 he received a Herald Angel Award for Excellence for his performances of Ashley Page’s works at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He has also collaborated with the Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre and the Finnish National Ballet. In addition to classical soloist works, he’s performed in works by e.g. William Forsythe, Siobhan Davies, Richard Alston and Stephen Petronio.

Lehmus has a wide artistic background from physical theatre and musicals to neoclassical ballet and conceptual performance art. He is currently working as Director at Cirko – Center for New Circus and does freelance work as a dramaturg, choreographer and director in performing arts. Previously Lehmus was the Artistic Director of Jojo – Oulu Dance Centre. Before his role as Dramaturg in Nuutinen’s Hz (2022), Lehmus worked as visiting dancer in many of TSC’s creations (2011–2018).

“Dramaturgy does not show itself as a separate part of a performance. Instead, it lives in between all of the performance’s elements, such as performers, objects, space, movement, light, and sound. As a dramaturg I deal with the qualities and relationships of those components and the structures, experiences and possible meanings emerging from them. On the one hand I try to look at the creation-in-progress from the audiences’ perspectives, and on the other I’m a critical friend; a “meta-artist” working with the work of the creative team’s other artists.”

lehmus.works