A talk with Janina Rajakangas

Welcome to CODA and Black Box teater, Janina! Can you introduce yourself to those of us who don't know you from before?
Thank you! I am very happy to be here, thank you for the invitation. I am a Helsinki-based choreographer, I work with both communities and professional dancers. I am interested in deconstructing the structures of patriarchy by bringing on stage the people who are not our everyday heroes like young women and girls, the elderly or children.

What are some of the main ideas and themes your work revolves around?
My work mainly stems from what my loved ones go through. I wonder if a show can function as a ritual for change, as I usually have a need for change as the starting point.. I make work in dialogue with performers on subjects they have agency in. A trilogy I just finished explores themes such as paternal relationships (Meadow 2021), the sexualization of teenage girls (Venus 2022), and inclusivity as choreography (Dancer 2023).

Where did you find inspiration for your work with Dancer?
Dancer started from a need to ​​be able to do more inclusive work as a choreographer. I live now and have lived in my childhood in a neurodiverse family. I wanted to make a piece that was more accessible to neurodivergent dancers than my earlier works. I also wanted it to somewhat portrait the experiences I was being let into by my child living with ADHD and Tourette's syndrome.

When discussing neurodivergent experiences with Fri Nilas Lindell (Social media and experiential knowledge on neurodiversity in Dancer) I understood that neurology can amongst other things be rhythm and pace. We made dances, texts and music out of experiences of finding common speed or not, being at ease with the rhythm of the society or structures surrounding you or having to work very hard to fit into it. Therefore rhythm and pace has a big role in the piece.I worked closely with sound designer Tuuli Kyttälä and the dancers to create a soundscape of clapping thumping and spoken text and movement to communicate experiences of belonging and not belonging.

Tell us a bit about how you work with accessibility (both in the choreographic process and with the audience)
In Dancer, I worked on accessibility with Jasmiina Sipilä, who has worked at Live Vocational College, a special education institution in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Jasmiina leads dancer training, which is targeted at individuals who need special education, individual support and guidance in their studies and employment. We created a structure where Jasmiina was the dancers support person during the making of the show. She had both group and individual sessions in order to support everyone in the process.

With audience we try and give enough information beforehand to support audiencing Dancer. At the start of the show we encourage audience members to regulate the sensory load during the performance in different ways. We wrote instructions for the performance together with Jasmiina Sipilä, and dancers Aino Laine, Tinja Nerkko and Miika Luukko that are meant to make it more accessible. We have places for standing, a possibility to change seats, hearing protection are available. If needed, the audience can leave the space and come back.

A solo work is often the result of a collaboration with several others. Can you tell us a bit about how you work with your artistic collaborators? - and what is it like to work with you?
I have worked with the sound designer of Dancer, Tuuli Kyttälä, for a while. We have been interested in combining dancers making sound to Tuulis composed sound. Tuuli is present in all rehearsals from the start and also gives dancers voice coaching. On lighting and spatial design I worked with Mateus Manninen, who I worked with for the first time, we were interested in connecting the dancers with the audience in order to choreograph something that would make it clear that the issue touched us all and we were the society surrounding and creating these issues.
Both the dramaturgy of the space and the dramaturgy of the costumes in Dancer are key to the piece. On costumes I work with Kirsi Gum, who also makes films. We love working on expectations and breaking them. Building something unified in order to break it with movement.
In Dancer as you hear from the title of the piece the dancers have been the source of inspiration! This is the first time I have worked with such a large cast and many of them for the first time. And…I don’t know how it is to work with me, you need to ask someone else! I have really enjoyed working with this bunch, we are all passionate and precise and wild and humble at the same time.

Why is contemporary dance important in 2024, and what is dance art’s most important task?
I am making a piece with children at the moment and I can see that contemporary dance offers a fabulous place to exchange experiences intergenerationally. The fact that we are all physically engaged in making dances, playing rhythms and singing together makes us try and find a common ground, respect one another and see peace as the best way forward. In dance, we create beauty, reach towards each other and connect our lungs, talebones and hearts. And from there we understand how valuable we all are.

What are some of the main ideas and themes your work revolves around?
My work mainly stems from what my loved ones go through. I wonder if a show can function as a ritual for change, as I usually have a need for change as the starting point.. I make work in dialogue with performers on subjects they have agency in. A trilogy I just finished explores themes such as paternal relationships (Meadow 2021), the sexualization of teenage girls (Venus 2022), and inclusivity as choreography (Dancer 2023).

Where did you find inspiration for your work with Dancer?
Dancer started from a need to ​​be able to do more inclusive work as a choreographer. I live now and have lived in my childhood in a neurodiverse family. I wanted to make a piece that was more accessible to neurodivergent dancers than my earlier works. I also wanted it to somewhat portrait the experiences I was being let into by my child living with ADHD and Tourette's syndrome.

When discussing neurodivergent experiences with Fri Nilas Lindell (Social media and experiential knowledge on neurodiversity in Dancer) I understood that neurology can amongst other things be rhythm and pace. We made dances, texts and music out of experiences of finding common speed or not, being at ease with the rhythm of the society or structures surrounding you or having to work very hard to fit into it. Therefore rhythm and pace has a big role in the piece.I worked closely with sound designer Tuuli Kyttälä and the dancers to create a soundscape of clapping thumping and spoken text and movement to communicate experiences of belonging and not belonging.

Tell us a bit about how you work with accessibility (both in the choreographic process and with the audience)
In Dancer, I worked on accessibility with Jasmiina Sipilä, who has worked at Live Vocational College, a special education institution in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Jasmiina leads dancer training, which is targeted at individuals who need special education, individual support and guidance in their studies and employment. We created a structure where Jasmiina was the dancers support person during the making of the show. She had both group and individual sessions in order to support everyone in the process.

With audience we try and give enough information beforehand to support audiencing Dancer. At the start of the show we encourage audience members to regulate the sensory load during the performance in different ways. We wrote instructions for the performance together with Jasmiina Sipilä, and dancers Aino Laine, Tinja Nerkko and Miika Luukko that are meant to make it more accessible. We have places for standing, a possibility to change seats, hearing protection are available. If needed, the audience can leave the space and come back.

A solo work is often the result of a collaboration with several others. Can you tell us a bit about how you work with your artistic collaborators? - and what is it like to work with you?
I have worked with the sound designer of Dancer, Tuuli Kyttälä, for a while. We have been interested in combining dancers making sound to Tuulis composed sound. Tuuli is present in all rehearsals from the start and also gives dancers voice coaching. On lighting and spatial design I worked with Mateus Manninen, who I worked with for the first time, we were interested in connecting the dancers with the audience in order to choreograph something that would make it clear that the issue touched us all and we were the society surrounding and creating these issues.
Both the dramaturgy of the space and the dramaturgy of the costumes in Dancer are key to the piece. On costumes I work with Kirsi Gum, who also makes films. We love working on expectations and breaking them. Building something unified in order to break it with movement.
In Dancer as you hear from the title of the piece the dancers have been the source of inspiration! This is the first time I have worked with such a large cast and many of them for the first time. And…I don’t know how it is to work with me, you need to ask someone else! I have really enjoyed working with this bunch, we are all passionate and precise and wild and humble at the same time.

Why is contemporary dance important in 2024, and what is dance art’s most important task?
I am making a piece with children at the moment and I can see that contemporary dance offers a fabulous place to exchange experiences intergenerationally. The fact that we are all physically engaged in making dances, playing rhythms and singing together makes us try and find a common ground, respect one another and see peace as the best way forward. In dance, we create beauty, reach towards each other and connect our lungs, talebones and hearts. And from there we understand how valuable we all are.

Dancer will be shown October 17–18 as part of CODA