Gala

Kuopio Dance Festival culminates in the Gala!

Curated by Kenneth Kvarnström, the artistic director of Kuopio Dance Festival, the Gala evening brings together the stars of dance to Kuopio.

The Gala is a classic event of the festival, filled with the joy of dance. During the evening, you will experience a wide range of dance styles by brilliant dancers. The host will be the charming disco dance teacher Folke Rundqvist, known from a popular Finnish TV show Putous!

The programme features Compagnie Hervé Koubi with excerpt from the piece What the Days Owe to the Night. The performance is a breathtaking blend of capoeira, martial arts and contemporary dance.

Flamenco is seen in Alhama performed by Spanish EFAD (Compañia de Danza Española y Flamenco) and singer Antonio Campos. The piece transports the viewer to the heart of the Reqonquista (it. “Re-conquest”. It was a historical period on the Iberian Peninsula during which territories were reclaimed by their former rulers.) Through vigorous and expressive movements, the dancers embody the struggle and determination of those who sought to reclaim the lost city.

National talent in the Gala will be showcased by Misa and Natasha Lommi and Kinetic Orchestra. Martin Nudo and Hye Ji Kang from the Finnish National Ballet will perform two pieces Ballet 102 and Spring Waters. Additionally, Ballet Finland will present Carmen?!, a festival commission from 1993, featuring participants from the festival’s boys dance camp.

In the summer of 2025, Kuopio Dance Festival will expand to Olvi Arena, which will also serve as the venue for the Gala.

Hervé Koubi – What the days owe to the night © Liliana Mora

Misa ja Natasha Lommi – The Duet © Aksinja Lommi

Ballet Finland – Carmen?! © Isma Valkama

Performances:

Compagnie Hervé Koubi presents an excerpt from What The Day Owes To The Night, a breathtaking blend of capoeira, martial arts, and contemporary dance.

Inspired by Algerian author Yasmina Khadra’s novel of the same name, the piece traces Koubi’s own personal lineage as a French-Algerian choreographer.

After learning about his family’s Algerian roots, Koubi returned to the country of his ancestors to collaborate with streetdance performers from across the Mediterranean basin. What emerged is “a creation of poetic beauty” (The New York Times), a meditative yet strikingly athletic work about the ties that bind us.

Credits:
Choreography : Hervé Koubi
Performers : Dancers of Compagnie Hervé KOUBI
Music : Maxime Bodson , Hamza El Din par Kronos Quartet, Jean-Sébastien Bach, musique Soufi
Lights : Lionel Buzonie
Costumes : Guillaume Gabriel

“Alhama” is a choreographic piece that transports the viewer to the heart of the Reconquista.
Through vigorous and expressive movements, the dancers embody the struggle and determination of those who sought to reclaim the lost city.

The choreography reflects the emotional highs and lows of battle, from the fury of the contest to the hope of rebirth.

Combining elements of Spanish dance and flamenco, the piece celebrates the culture and history of Spain while evoking the indomitable spirit of those who fought for their land.

Credits:
Choreography: EFAD Spanish Dance and Flamenco Company
Performers: EFAD Spanish Dance and Flamenco Company
Singing: Antonio Campos
Choreographic Advisor: Manuel Liñán
Musical Direction: Antonio Campos
Costume Design: Nuria Morales
Lighting Design: Olga García (AAII)

Kenneth Kvarnström’s beloved classic Carmen?! returns to the Kuopio Dance Festival after a break of more than 30 years, performed by Ballet Finland!

The work premiered at the festival in 1993. Since then, it has been performed with different formations and in different formats around the world, usually with four male dancers and always without the female lead Carmen.

This version has been spiced up with some new spices. The music is set to Rodion Shchedrin’s dramatic and lush Carmen suite.
Also on stage will be the festival’s students of the boys dance camp.

Credits:
Choreography: Kenneth Kvarnström
Music: Bizet-Shchedrin: Carmen suite
Trainer: Jouka Valkama
Performers: Vilhelm Bjerser, Samuele Ninci, Eero Vesterinen, Eemu Äikiö ja poikaleiriläiset

A dialoque of trust, freedom, and finding one’s own voice between two sisters guides the audience through the festive Gala evening of the Kuopio Dance Festival!

Misa and Natasha Lommi perform a powerful, touching, and energetic duet. The two dancers, leaning on each other in turn, become stronger as they journey toward a shared goal.

Credits:
Choreography and performers: Misa Lommi, Natasha Lommi

Springs Waters is an energetic and ethereal pas de deux that conjures up the first days of spring. Recognized for its highly athletic factor, this short piece features the agility of Les Grands Ballets’ dancers in a choreography that is literally astounding.

Credits:
Choreography: Asaf Messerer
Music: Sergei Rachmaninov
Performers: Martin Nudo, Hye Ji Kang

Ballet technique first developed in the culturally elite European structures of courts and state monarchs, whose patronage paved the way for unique creative signatures to emerge. Beyond the iconic late 19th-century classical works such as «Swan Lake» and «Sleeping Beauty», the 20th century saw the emergence of choreographic voices that resemble our contemporary understanding of ballet and dance.

Hot on the heels of «Ballet 101», his ‘ballet of dummies’ introduction to the classical technique, dancemaker Eric Gauthier’s sequel «Ballet 102» pays homage to the broad spectrum of 20th-century choreographic voices, with a particular focus on the ‘pas de deux’ or duet form. With a tongue-in-cheek salute, Gauthier blatantly paraphrases iconic imagery from the masters of choreographic innovation.

From Vaslav Nijinsky’s rejection of balletic tradition and his scandalous «L’Après-midi d’un Faune» to the narrative dramas of Kenneth Macmillan’s «Romeo and Juliet» or John Cranko’s «Onegin», all the way to Michael Jackson’s unmistakable moonwalk and the disco grooves of Saturday Night Fever, «Ballet 102» is sure to get you up to speed… and with a good laugh at the same time.

Credits:
Choreography: Eric Gauthier
Music: Jens-Peter Abele , Eric Gauthier
Performers: Martin Nudo, Hye Ji Kang

Like There’s No Tomorrow is a five-part Groundhog Day-style pastiche inspired by the Dali Atomicus photograph. The piece repeatedly returns to the same initial situation, evolving forward five times. Its aesthetics feature the iconic flying chair from Dali Atomicus, while the photographic quality is reflected in the use of freeze frames.

The work is fast-paced, full of skill and movement. The chair duet presented at Kuopio Dance Festival is one of the most high-energy scenes in the piece, combining breathtaking speed with the technical virtuosity characteristic of Kinetic Orchestra.

The gala will also feature Kalle Lähde’s solo Sheriffi, a piece from Like There’s No Tomorrow, choreographed by Lähde himself.

Credits:
Choreography: Jarkko Mandelin and the dancers
Music: Janne Hast
Performers: Jacob Börlin, Oskari Turpeinen ja Kalle Lähde
Costumes: Maria Siren
Light design: V-V Siven

Another duet in the gala is performed by Jacob Börlin and Kalle Lähde from Jarkko Mandelin’s work Silence. Silence is a co-production between the Helsinki City Theatre, Kinetic Orchestra, and Dance Theatre Minimi. It premiered on October 16, 2024, at Helsinki City Theatre. The piece is a dance performance about an orchestra that plays movement.

The dance group forms an orchestra inspired by the tradition of classical music, striving to bring the concerto’s movements to life.

For the gala, the duets have been merged into a longer, continuous piece, performed in costumes designed by Maria Sirén for Like There’s No Tomorrow, with lighting inspired by Veli-Ville Siven’s original LTNT design.

Credits:
Choreography: Jarkko Mandelin and the dancers
Music: Janne Hast
Performers: Jacob Börlin and Kalle Lähde
Costumes: Maria Siren
Light design: V-V Siven