Portfolio

PERFORMANCES

Animal Being (2021-2022)

”Let’s roll up our sleeves
and be smooth
and wicked.”

Redreaming of kinship with our fellow creatures
as uncles and cows

Animal Being is an investigation that takes a closer look at our connection with other animals, in relation to human development and growth.
Animal Being drops into the conversation and the experience between the human and animal world, and again deeper into the struggles for freedom, ethical surrealities and surges of wild vitality.

Animal Being, a performance, envelops us in these odd, often invisible dramas with humour, reminiscence and the gentle question: might there be other ways?

Performance, concept: Jonna Lehto
Light design and spatial design: Sofia Palillo
Sound design: Bráulio Bandeira
Costume design: Moa Larsdotter Persson
Sound technician: Riku-Pekka Kellokoski
artistic dialogue: Jenni Kokkomäki, Pia Lindy, Virpi Alise Koskela, Georgie Goater

Filming and sound recording: Michel Nader Sayún
Video: Jenni Kokkomäki

Photos: Visa Knuuttila
Supported by: Taiteen edistämiskeskus, Helsingin kaupunki, Pohjoismainen kulttuurikeskus

Performed in Pixelache Helsinki 2021 Festival and in April 2022 at Oranssi Cultural Center.

Katras (2021-2022)

An urban flock, a dance between four performers of diverse embodiments, encountering each other and their surroundings through movement, a score, spontaneity and listening. Following what emerges in the space of togetherness, the dance is always new. Co-composed from histories and the present moment, Kellokoski’s playful sound accompanies the casual suspense and timeless ease of the glimmering urban flock.

Performed in Espoo-päivä, Tapiola 2021 & 2022 ja Liikkumisen riemua kaikille! Vammaisten päivän aamutilaisuus, Helsingin kaupungintalo, 2021, Helsinki Päivä 2022, Joensuun Parafest 2022.

Concept: Sally Davison
Performers: Siiri Tiilikka, Jonna Lehto, Kadar Khristan, Georgie Goater
Sound: Riku-Pekka Kellokoski
Photos: Jussi Ulkuniemi, Anu Päivinen

Re: (2020)

Re: is a performance that looks into the experience of memory
is a common ground yet a celebration of individuality
creates a space for details that can be recognized
blurs the line between a truth and a lie
is an imprinted landscape on the skin
is an invitation to you by five artists
Performers: Folke Narin, Ruben Nagore, Jonna Lehto, Annimaria Koivunen
Anna Jaanisoo
Performed in August 2020 at Tervasaari Amphitheatre, Helsinki.
Photos: Ilmari Fabritius

Losing the Concept(s) of Self – but Still Talking (2020)

Losing the Concepts 4 kuva Jenni Kokkomäki

Losing the Concepts 1 kuva Jenni Kokkomäki

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Losing the Concepts 5 kuva Jenni Kokkomäki

Losing the Concepts 6 kuva Jenni Kokkomäki

Working group: Teemu Päivinen, Jenni Kokkomäki, Jonna Lehto, Gabriele Goria, Miro Mantere, June Horton-White

Kallio-Lehti 1.4.2020:

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001 IMOUS – Teknoshamanistinen pikkujouluistunto (2017)

001 imous esitys -Kuva Jenni Kokkomäki 1

001 imous esitys -Kuva Jenni Kokkomäki 2

The performance is a peek into the 100-year-old subconscious of Finland.
Performers: Jonna Lehto, Teemu Päivinen
Live looping and sound manipulation: Miro Mantere
Videos: Jenni Kokkomäki
Concept: Teemu Päivinen

Losing the Concept(s) of Self – but Still Talking and 001 IMOUS – Teknoshamanistinen pikkujouluistunto are parts of The Autopsy of Democracy performance trilogy led by artists Teemu Päivinen and Jenni Kokkomäki from the theatre company Pluckhouse. The Autopsy of Democracy is investigating the death of democracy and it`s cause. During 2017-2020 the working group extended an anarcho-carnivalistic gaze upon the core elements which democracy is supposedly based on. Does such a system truly based on equality of rights and operation exist, or is democracy rather a textual wrapping paper for a less flattering order?

Photos: Jenni Kokkomäki

We rise at eight (2019)

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Video by Jenni Kokkomäki. Galleria Huuto, Helsinki 2019.

Videos: Jenni Kokkomäki
Music: Miro Mantere
Performers: Akseli Aittomäki, Ida Backer, Alena Dittrichová, Suvi Hänninen, Hanna Iitti, Timo Jokitalo, Jenni Kokkomäki, Aarni Korpela, Jonna Lehto, Miro Mantere, Minja Mertanen, Teemu Päivinen and Juha Sääski
Butoh instructor: Minja Mertanen
In addition to Kokkomäki, the videos were filmed by Jonna Lehto and Teemu Päivinen.
Höyhentämö – Pluckhouse took part in the production of the video.

Oiva Avio (2019)

A short performance Oiva Avio was performed in Vapaan Taiteen Karkelot at Vapaan Taiteen Tila.
Performers: Annimaria Koivunen, Paula Kovanen, Jonna Lehto, Hanna Saari, Denisa Snyder
Sound design: Timo Tikka
Director: Anna Jaanisoo
Photos: Anna Jaanisoo

Lentua Kollektiivi 19

”Ei rikossarja, vaan luontosarjan vierellä kulkeva dramaturgia.
Mikään ei ole tavanomaista, ei ole takkia, jonka taskuja on kolunnut vuosikaudet.
Paloja vai kokonaisuuksia?
Puut ei muuta.”
Lentua Kollektiivi 19 is a working group of 3 dance artists who were sent to a island residency at Lentua Nature Reserve organised by Kuhmo Dance Festival Joutsentanssi 2019. Performance Something is missing from the picture was created out of that experience.
Concept and performers: Sanna Fromm, Riina Hannuksela, Jonna Lehto
Light design: Tuomas Laitinen
Technics: Elmeri Kinnunen
Photos: Jonna Lehto, Ia Samoil (stage photos)

Patella – floating bone (2018-19)

”I wish I could separate different body parts together and apart. Some of them are hanging in the air. You can allow them to look at us. Or they are even watching. Humans and objects, what’s the space in between us. Laughing bones, you can see the limits on my skin. Dream-like, we sense together. Wordless flying into a bellyflop.”
– performers
Patella – floating bone is a performative artwork created in collaboration with the KAAOS company by dance artist Georgie Goater (NZ) and theatre artist Elina Sarno (FI), originally as their dissertation work at Theatre Academy Helsinki. A curious array of objects and materials immerse the shared space between performers and audience, suspending hyper-textures of unique qualities in sound, body, light, voice, object and movement. The materiality of each difference is a feast for the senses, equally dissolving the notion of difference itself. Hypnotic and playful, Patella – floating bone welcomes you as you are, and invites you to enter the calls of your sense responses.
Scenographic design by Ia Ensterä, lighting design by Sofia Palillo and sound design by Georgie Goater. Performed in Move Fest Košice 2019, Slovakia and Theatre Academy, Helsinki 2018.
Photos: Diana Dobrescu, Aapo Juusti
TRAILER

LUDE ja puremia kolmessa ajassa (2018)

HIT Helsinki’s 10-year anniversary play Lude ja puremia kolmessa ajassa is about the life of the Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky.
Screenplay and direction: Anna Jaanisoo
Composition: Annimaria Koivunen
Choreography: Jonna Lehto
Costume design: Aino Simola
Set design: Helena Okkonen
Photos and projections: Ilmari Fabritius
Lighting design: Jorma Tapola
Sound technician: Tanu Kallio
Production: Pauliina Alanko, Katariina Saarela
Performers: Aki Haikonen, Emmi Hatjasalo, Toni Jyvälä, Annimaria Koivunen and Jonna Lehto
Choir: Ilari Ahtiainen, Heli Hakala, Topi Hurtig, Kristiina Laire, Lumi Lehtonen, Erkki Leinonen, Timo Nousiainen, Katariina Saarela, Jaana Salomäki, Merja Suutala

Pond (2017-18)

Pond is a small retreat, where we gather around water and give ourselves into it.
We float, we give in to the water, we get heavy, in the water, waterlike.
Kaaos Company’s performance Pond is a collaboration between choreographer Maija Mustonen and designer Erno Aaltonen. Pond premiered in the programme of Mad House Helsinki in January 2017. Since then it has been performed at ANTI Contemporary Art Festival, Kuopio, 2017 and List án Landamæra Festival, Reykjavik, Iceland, 2018.
**Working group**
**Performance and choreography:** Sally Davison, Georgie Goater, Jonna Lehto, Gunilla Sjövall, Sanna Valkeapää, Noora Västinen
**Performance concept and direction:** Maija Mustonen
**Lightning and sound design:** Erno Aaltonen
**Lightning design in Kuopio:** Sofia Palillo
**Costume design:** Venla Korvenmaa
**Costume consultation:** Laura Haapakangas
**Producer:** Riikka Thitz
**Production:** Kaaos Company
**In collaboration with** Mad House Helsinki, Hotelli Korpilampi & Ruohonjuuri
**Supported by** Kone foundation, City of Espoo
Photos: Saara Autere, Pekka Mäkinen
TRAILER

Uneksivat puut (2017)

Performance combining puppetry and contemporary dance is based in comic album *La Maison où rêvent les arbres* (Casterman 1995) by belgian artist Didier Comès. Three dancers and two puppeteers along-side musician are forming site-sensitive stage work about our relationship with forest, change and nightmares.
**Dramaturgy and directing:** Mira Laine
**Choreography:** Mirva Keski-Vähälä
**Costume design**: Reija Stenius
**Puppets made by** Anna Sucksdorff
**Sound design:** Riku-Pekka Kellokoski
**Light design:** Jari Piitulainen
**Performers:** Jonna Lehto, Satu Wiinikka, Outi Ivaska, Tommi Rikkinen, Petra Haapio, Riku-Pekka Kellokoski
**Original translation:** Soile Kaukoranta
**Graphic design:** Mark Ståhle
**Photos**: Reija Stenius, Mikko Keski-Vähälä

Vaelluksia Lähiöissä-Tracing Suburbia (2017)

Tracing Suburbia is a long-term site-and context specific art project in which the main focus is on urban suburbs. This participatory art project is lead by Helsinki-based choreographer Pia Lindy and a team of artists. Tracing Suburbia is an artistic transition from the stage / art contexts to every day (and night) live/s of urban suburbs.
Artists:
choreographer Pia Lindy,
photographer-Community artist
Annuska Dal Maso,
musician Olli Kari,
dance artists
Jonna Lehto and Heini Nukari
Photos by Annuska Dal Maso from site-specific performance Pitkin Poikin with Musician Olli Kari, Jakomäki, Helsinki.
www.tracingsuburbia.com

La Famiglia – I know I put it somewhere (2016)

Solo work ”La Famiglia – I know I put it somewhere” dives into the multiple effects, moods and meanings of family and nearness.
How we are linked and tied to each other, how we communicate and express ourselves inside this small but big unit, what is the sense of separation that occurs in oneself as an outsider in the family, how do we see the world through the values absorbed in the family. Or do we break those habits and values?
The performance is a collaboration with artist Ragnheiður Maísól Sturludóttir and costume designer Moa Larsdotter Persson.

Direction, performance: Jonna Lehto
Stage design: Ragnheiður Maísól Sturludóttir (IS)
Costume design: Moa Larsdotter Persson (DK)
Sound design: Juhani Saari
Lighting design: Juha Sääski
Artistic support: Pia Lindy, Jenni Kokkomäki
Photos: Visa Knuuttila, Jan Ahlstedt

The performance has been supported by Nordic Culture Point and City of Helsinki Cultural Office.

Raksa – Tanssia työmaalla (2016)

RAKSA – Dance at the Construction Site is a site-specific performance combining contemporary dance, butoh dance and physical theatre. Kalasatama environmental art project. Sysinä&Stara. Helsinki
Direction, concept and scenography: Reija Stenius
Choreography: Mirva Keski-Vähälä
Producing: Johanna Raaste and Yusuf Albekoglu
Dance: Sally Davison, Mirva Keski-Vähälä, Jonna Lehto, Terhi Lilja and Reija Stenius
Sound design and music: Riku-Pekka Kellokoski
Poster and photography: Mikko Keski-Vähälä
Webpage, program and video: Bastian Salmela
www.tanssiaraksalla.wordpress.com/teos/
TRAILER

Chinese Whispers (2016-17)

Chinese whispers plays with interpretation using dance, object theatre and text. We journey through the landscape of language both physical and metaphysical to perhaps momentarily find our own “understanding”. Performed X Dance Festival, Helsinki and Integroidun tanssin ja teatterin päivät, Turku, Finland.
Dancers: Jonna Lehto, Gunilla Sjövall
Choreography/Costume design: Sally Davison
Sound design: Juhani Saari
Production: Kaaos Company, DanceAbility Finland ry
Photos: Ismo Helén

Ha Blah Wah (2015)

A spin through movement and sound. Six dancers juxtaposing movement, sound and time in a rolling landscape of surrounding space. Cooperation project between Suomen CP-liitto ry and DanceAbility Finland ry. Celebrating 50 years of the CP-Liitto organization.
Dancers: Sally Davison, Jonna Lehto, Veikko Mattsson, Juha Nikkinen, Juhani Saari, Mirja Sormunen
Costumes: Reija Stenius
Sound design: Juhani Saari
Video: Sally Davison
Photos: Reija Stenius, Ismo Helén
Producer: Emma Susi
Tuotanto/Produced by: DanceAbility Finland ry ja Suomen CP Liitto ry, Päivätoiminta Supported by: Helsingin kaupunki/Kulke
TRAILER
REHEARSAL

Philosophical Garden (2015)

Philosophical Garden- Audiovisual Installation with Live Art was a collaboration between Finnish and Icelandic artists in Akureyri in Northern Iceland. Working group created an audiovisual installation and organised a live art happening in Gallery Deiglan. In the opening event Kaaos Company presented an excerpt from their piece InfloreSense and also performed in the Botanical Garden of Akureyri.
Curator: Mari Krappala
Visual art: Laura Miettinen
E-mail Conversation piece: Mari Krappala, Karl Guðmundsson
Fabric installation: Rosa Juliusdottir and Karl Guðmunðsson
Costume design: Jonna Jónborg Sigurðardóttir and Brynhildur Kristìnsdóttir
Kaaos Company performers: Mirva Keski-Vähälä, Jonna Lehto, Gunilla Sjövall, Silke Schönfleisch, Lau Lukkarila
Kaaos Company artistic director: Sally Davison

Photos: Sally Davison

INfloreSense (2014)

An interactive improvised dance performance in The Winter Garden, Helsinki, Finland on Nov. 28th-30th, 2014. There are five different dancers representing each different sense: smell, sight, touch, taste and hearing. All the costumes are made from recycled materials collected during the seven week working process, reshaped and reborn.
Concept & choreography: Sally Davison
Production: DanceAbility Finland ry
Producer: Emma Susi
Dancers: Jonna Lehto, Laura Lukkarila, Silke Schönfleisch, Gunilla Sjövall, Mirva Keski-Vähälä
Guardian: Jussi Ratia
Costume design & photo: Reija Stenius & Sally Davison
Video: Sini Haapalinna
Sound & music: Antonio Alemanno
Supported by: Taiteen Edistämiskeskus, Kulttuuriyhdistys Suomen Eucrea ry
TRAILER
DOCUMENTATION

Duettoja Välittämisestä (2014)

In the *Duettoja välittämisestä* professional dancers were working with non-professional people. The project was reflecting on meanings of care and interactions between people.
4 Duets were: Jonna Lehto & Johanna Tujula, Jonna Lehto & Tuula Sarivaara, Heini Nukari & Jaana Herttua sekä Heini Nukari & Petri Rovio
The project was led by dancer, choreographer Pia Lindy.
Photography: Annuska Dal Maso
Production: Johanna Fredriksson

Pulla Kuuppanen (2014)

Pulla Kuuppanen. Loikka tanssielokuvafestivaali 2014.

FACILITATION&DIRECTION

DanceAbility Finland

Since the year 2015 Jonna Lehto has been working as a DanceAbility teacher in DanceAbility Sunday workshops for adults, DanceAbility children’s classes and DanceAbility Finland’s outreach programmes Informance and UnseenSeen.