Residencies

TSC Residencies offer space and time for multidisciplinary experimentation, movement-based research, and the deepening of artistic thinking. The annual TSC Studio Residency is designed especially for creating movement material and for developing or rehearsing a production for the stage. TSC Sound Residency offers artists access to the studio’s immersive sound system, transforming the space into a sound laboratory—an environment for exploring the interplay and intersections of sound and movement.

About the residencies

Designed for artists working in the field of performing arts – with a special focus on embodied expression – TSC Residencies support creative risk-taking, collaboration, and the development of new work.  Each year, we offer 1–4 week residency periods in for 2–4 artists, groups or collectives. We offer two different residency periods, TSC Studio and TSC Sound Residency.

The residencies are particularly aimed at providing a springboard for multidisciplinary projects and collaborations and at supporting especially freelance-based artists and collectives – thus contributing for the development of the dance field as a whole. The residency periods are fit for such as the creation of new works, rehearsing, or developing the artist’s individual movement language, choreographic material or artistic vision.

Both TSC Studio and TSC Sound Residency take place in TSC Studio, our bright nearly 200-square-meter rehearsal space. Learn more about the studio’s technical equipment.

Artists are chosen to take part in TSC Residencies through an open application process. The residencies entail a 1–4 week long working period in TSC Studio. Taking into consideration each residency’s particular goals and needs, the residency period can include customized events for audiences and artistic or production-related mentoring from TSC’s permanent staff members.

TSC Studio Residency

TSC Studio Residency is particularly suited for creating and rehearsing a production for the stage or for developing artistic thinking through movement language and choreographic material. The studio residency is ideal for creators who need a rehearsal space for their project – TSC Studio serves as both a testing ground and playground for the creative process, offering an inspiring environment for creative experimentation.

TSC Sound Residency

One of the residencies each year is dedicated especially for work focusing on the relationship between sound and movement. In TSC Sound Residency the studio is transformed into a sound laboratory, offering access to the studio’s exceptional immersive sound system. Sound residency supports sound-artistic and technical explorations, interdisciplinary projects, creative process or professional development. To take part in TSC Sound Residency, at least one team member should have expertise in sound technology. The sound residency is made possible with the support of Genelec, who has provided the studio’s immersive sound setup. For other residencies, access to sound equipment is determined on a case-by-case basis. 

Reedback on the residencies

“TSC Studio and its immersive sound system provided a lot of freedom for the layering of sounds, to which all members of the collective contributed with personal inputs. Creating the sound collectively gave it the most central role, which was further demonstrated by placing the sound station in the center of the space. Thanks to the amount of speakers, sounds could be layered and spread out quickly and effortlessly, which was super beneficial for the workflow. The sound system also guarantees that one can feel the sound in every square of the room.”

Sebastian Kurtén (Yumi Collective) TSC Sound Residency Artist
7 / 2022

”The residency acted as the starting point – and as a free playground – for the creation process of our new work. The space was wonderful and truly functional: the heated studio floor was really inviting and offered just enough traction and smoothness for our movement work, while the immersive audio system made the sound move together with the dancers.”

Sanni Giordani, Mostly Mass working group
TSC Studio Residency 3/2021

”We took a deep dive into the relationship between sound and movement, creating new sound material while also examining the shape of our new performance. The studio’s immersive audio system enables totally new auditory perspectives that might not even cross one’s mind in any other space. As young artists we are truly grateful to have had the opportunity to work in an environment that encourages you to dream big!”

Iida Hägglund and Maija Viipuri,
TSC Sound Residency 7/2021

Previous working groups

During its residency at TSC Studio, MP Collective will work on the third part of its Framing series, where dance, video, film, and sound art create immersive worlds. The group deepens its exploration of physical, sonic, and video artistry. They examine the interplay of movement, live projection, and video mapping, as well as the role of sound design as an interactive and participatory element in room.

The working group consists of Miikkael Kukkula, Olli Lautiola, Suvi Nieminen, and Ilona Salonen. Aimed at children and families, the piece will premiere in 2026 in Turku.

In Summer Sound Residency, the moving body acts as an instrument for music and composition. Charo Calvo, composer of electroacoustic music and former dancer, has just finished a research of two years about physical movement and sound spatial movement. At TSC Studio, Calvo is joined by sound designer Christophe Albertini and choreographer-dancer Bahar Temiz. The sound material generated by the movement will create a multi-channel composition incorporating acoustic and electronic materials.

Project Afterlife by Jenni Kivelä & Kiltit ihmiset seeks ways to connect with the dead and asks whether it is possible to find a space where one can still be in contact with a late someone.

In addition to choreographer Jenni Kivelä, the creative team also includes dance artists Ninu Lindfors and Linda Holma, lighting and video designer Teo Lanerva, costume designer Liisa Pesonen, producer Inari Pesonen and sound designer Joonas Outakoski.

Musician-composers Maija Kauhanen and Hugh Sheehan form an artistic duo that uses the Finnish traditional instrument kantele together with electronics, home-made instruments, and human-computer interfaces. Their work explores the internal characteristics of sound, and experimental improvisation and performance processes. During their Sound Residency in summer 2023, Kauhanen and Sheehan conducted experiments in both the audience’s, and performers’ position, movement and gesture. Utilising TSC Studio’s immersive audio system, they explored the characteristics of spatial audio as thematic and motivic origin. Their aim was to devise material as a basis for future performances and recordings.

In January 2023 Dennis Nylund, Antti Uimonen and Anniina Tikka worked on their new project Post Breakers’ Revenge. During their Studio Residency they initiated their movement-based research to study the identity and movement language of aging breakdancers. Within the research group, they wanted to create more space in the breaking culture for people whose interests and values might vary through aging and changing life conditions.

In summer 2022, choreographer Suvi Kemppainen, composer Walter Sallinen and dramaturg Klaus Maunuksela worked towards their new stage work From a great height: a choreographic sonic ceremony that examines subsidence, transgression and love for grief. It is an eerie invitation into an underwater world of the hidden depths and transgressing powers, playing with the emancipatory potentials of lamentation.

In the second sound residency in July 2022, the multi-disciplinary Yumi Collective (Sebastian Kurten, Simeoni Juoperi, Antti Uimonen and Hamis Zzy) worked on their first staged work at TSC Studio. Inspired by the ‘Gömböc’ shape, their creation will examine balance and its reciprocative nature through sound and movement.

In January 2022 artist and choreographer Tiia Kasurinen worked on a new staged work SURFACE, together with a team. Kasurinen’s dance performance is a crooked fairytale and an antithesis for children’s stories; a humoristic, yet harrowing perspective on existing under the gaze. SURFACE will premiered in Kuopio City Theatre on 24 November, 2022.

In April 2022 contemporary circus artist and founder of Nuua Company, Olli Vuorinen, was developing an upcoming solo piece Blueberry Burdock, directed by Thomas Monckton. With the “curiosity of a juggler”, Vuorinen’s aim was to study new means of object manipulation and expressions of bodily movement.

Collaborations

Anette Toiviainen‘s and Iiris Puustinen’s residency periods in spring 2023 marked the beginning of a new collaboration between Tero Saarinen Company and Amos Rex, aimed at supporting and elevating emerging artists in the field of performing arts. Dancer Anette Toiviainen’s Duet was created during a time when human contact happened through safe distancing. This solo performance explores the juxtaposition of life and inanimate objects, loneliness, and longing. Iiris Puustinen’s 3, 2, 1 (The Walk) emerged from the choreographer’s curiosity in exploring the potential intersections between dance and fashion. These works were showcased in the spring as part of the Generation 2023 exhibition in the performing arts program.

TSC began a new collaboration with Kiasma Theatre’s annual street art and culture festival URB, and Nordic Hiphop to the Stage, an international project funded by Nordisk kulturfund and Nordisk kulturkontakt, that aims to build an institutionally backed network for collaborations in the sphere of street culture and performance arts. In March TSC provided an artistic residency at TSC Studio for dancers Hamis Zzy and Siiri Korkeamäki. During their two-week residency, Hamis and Siiri created movement material for their new solos that are part of URB’s EU funded Be Part project. Their works are to be seen on 7–9 June at URB’s programme at Stoa Helsinki, as a part of a full evening performance, created by the French Art Move Concept and Nordic Hiphop to the Stage. Photo: Kansallisgalleria / Petri Virtanen

Carita Weissenfelt
Head of Production and Touring

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