Exploring rest in Varjakka

Dance artists Anni Puuperä and Natalia Barua explore the concept of ‘rest’ and ‘care’ while visiting the village of Varjakka during their two-week residency with TaikaBox in Oulu, Finland.

Here are some insights gathered from the team during a sharing event at the end of the residency:

Anni and Natalia came together for the first of their two-week residencies from 17th – 28th July 2023 where they worked with their facilitator, Julian Owusu and the TaikaBox team, Tanja Råman and John Collingswood. Varjakka is a small village of around 400 households, set within a post-industrial rural landscape by the sea, giving Anni and Natalia an opportunity to connect and interact with the environment, the elements and the local people in a genuine and embedded way.

Meeting for the first time on the train from Helsinki, Anni and Natalia sat opposite each other in a small cabin as they made their 6-hour journey to Oulu. During that initial meeting, they realised that they shared similar values across their practice and their lives. They agreed that they had both reached a point where they wanted to slow down and explore the meaning of self-care when working in community-based projects.

They also discussed the impact and potential collaboration opportunities of ‘non-human’ objects and elements – the environment, the landscape, the weather etc.

As soon as they arrived in Varjakka they saw examples of rest and how work can be restful. They experienced and explored boundaries, care and privacy. They witnessed people protecting one another and understanding that sometimes there needs to be some distance in order to engage.

Across the first week, the TaikaBox team introduced Anni and Natalia to the environment and the community of Varjakka. They ate together, listened and danced together. Anni shares that they have been in the community’s homes and their gardens, They took trips with residents and invited them to share stories about the village’s history and their lives.

Tanja reflected on how there is space for dance to be incorporated into everyday interactions during the residency. It can exist alongside mundane activities without feeling odd. Anni shared a story about dancing with a local tractor driver who had a lot of stories – he spoke for around 20 minutes while she interpreted his stories into dance.

Tanja continued to share insight into why incorporating dance into this community feels particularly meaningful, as there is a prominent religion in the village that views dance as a sin. Julian reflected on how to incorporate dance whilst remaining respectful and says that the TaikaBox team has taken time to listen and understand the community, so they can find a way to bring dance and movement into the community context. The CROWD residency programme has been one way to do this and it’s starting to become an anticipated annual event for some residents.

Natalia shared that even if there were only small connections, one thing they wanted to do with the residents of Varjakka was encourage them to connect to themselves and their own bodies, their nervous systems. They tried this at the opening of TaikaBox’s new art space, Kalamaja, a converted fisherman’s hut where both Natalia and Anni were there with a book – they invited people to sit and write or tell their stories of rest and to recall the sensory memory of the last time they were well rested. For Natalia, this was still dancing because they were recollecting a physical state – it was a beautiful thing to be part of.

Anni and Natalia both felt that they would have a lot of reflections to share together on the train back to Helsinki and were looking forward to coming back together for their second residency at The Work Room in Glasgow, Scotland from 18th – 29th September.