How can the perception of nature echo in a theatre space?
The installation-like stage work In the Waning Light II aims to create a space where the audience can—as in nature—find paths for concentration, slowing down, and awakening the senses. The work explores what aspects of nature and the embodied perception of it can be present in a human-made environment.
As part of a multidisciplinary series combining artistic and scientific approaches, the work brings together a group of professionals from the fields of dance, performance, spatial arts, and ornithology. The work is produced by Dance Company Off/Balance, with Milla Koistinen, Tatu Rönkkö, Salla Salin and Paul Valikoski as the design team. Next to exploring one’s relationship with nature, the work is inspired by author Helen Macdonald’s essays on birds and the scientific perspectives of ornithologist Mia Rönkä, who is part of the working group. Through these texts, In the Waning Light II deals with departure, disappearance, and loss—themes found and present in nature.
Dance Company Off/Balance was founded in 2010 in Jyväskylä, Finland. Through its active and sustained work, it has established itself as one of the most significant professional dance companies in the Central Finland region. Between 2010 and 2026 Off/Balance has produced dozens of productions, several school tours, community engagement projects, audience development and arts education initiatives, training, and workshop programs, as well as festivals. More than 50 professional artists from various disciplines have collaborated with the company. In its productions Off/Balance often combines dance with other art forms in a bold and open-minded way. Its works have been created for a wide variety of performance environments.
Central for the work of choreographer Milla Koistinen are repetition, pedestrian elements, gestures, stillness and movement, order and chaos, and the transition from real to imagined spaces—ranging from the recognizable and everyday to the strange and poetic. Her creations span stage productions, installations, and site-specific performances. The Berlin- and Helsinki-based Finnish choreographer holds an MA in Dance from the Theatre Academy in Helsinki and an MA in Choreography from HZT Berlin. Koistinen’s works have been presented at venues and festivals, including Radialsystem, Dance House Helsinki, Tanzhaus NRW, & Espoo Theatre, Amos Rex, Szene Salzburg, Fabriktheater Zürich, Dampfzentrale Bern, Tanz im August, SPRING Performing Arts Festival, Moving in November, and Faerderbiennalen.
Koistinen has been a guest teacher at institutions such as the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD), the Iceland Academy of the Arts, Tanzhaus NRW, Sasha Waltz & Guests, Tanzhaus Zürich, Uniarts Helsinki, Carte Blanche, Unusual Symptoms, and HZT Berlin. In the spring of 2019, she was invited to lecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. In 2020–2024 Koistinen’s work was supported by apap FEMINIST FUTURES—a project co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. In 2025–2027 Koistinen is working with the support of Arts Promotion Centre Finland.
Paul Valikoski studied violin at the Glenn Gould Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Since 2006 he lives and works in Berlin as an instrumentalist and composer. Interested in collaborative performance settings, Valikoski plays as a member of Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, and as a regular guest with Ensemble Resonanz in Hamburg, as well as several other chamber orchestras. He has collaborated among others with Susanne Kennedy, Martin Eder, Sasha Waltz & Guests, FC Bergman, Sabrina Hölzer, Mouse on Mars, Anika and Jim Jarmusch, Georg Nussbaumer, and André de Ridder/Stargaze. Since 2017 he has worked closely together with choreographer Milla Koistinen as a sound designer.
Tatu Rönkkö is a drummer and percussionist whose repertoire consists of traditional percussion instruments, everyday objects, and electronics. He emphasises originality, experimentation, and improvisation in both his playing and his compositions. Rönkkö is one of the founding members and composers of the Finnish-Danish band Liima. He has performed with Nils Frahm, Ecerklang, Islaja, David Moss, Kalle Kalima, Jimi Tenor, Raoul Björkenheim, and Verneri Pohjola. His solo concept I Play Your Kitchen has been played in the kitchens of individuals around the world. Currently, Rönkkö works mainly with his bands Liima and Skalle & Sharon, his duo Raoul Björkenheim & Tatu Rönkkö, and Elektroinstallation KALIMA & RÖNKKÖ GMBH.
Salla Salin is a Finnish artist based in Helsinki, Finland. Salin has graduated with an MA in performing arts in 2005 and with an MA in visual art in 2024. Her practice is informed by investigations on the structures and concepts of reality, reflecting an understanding of space as a complex web of relations varying from concrete physicality to temporal, ethical, ecological, and political dimensions. Working via several media, both as a solo artist and in various collaborative projects, she creates art which manifests mostly in large scale immersive installations and/or interdisciplinary projects. She has been awarded with several artistic grants and her work has been widely exhibited and performed both in Finland and internationally.
Elina Häyrynen is a freelance dance artist based in Helsinki, who has been working in the dance scene in Finland and abroad since 2007. Häyrynen has studied at the Amsterdam University of the Arts and the Theatre Academy in Helsinki (Master of Dance, 2009). She is currently working as a dancer at Tero Saarinen Company. Häyrynen has also worked as a dancer with Susanna Leinonen Company (2008–2019) and in works by Johanna Nuutinen, Milla Koistinen, Veli Lehtovaara, Anni Rissanen, Panu Varstala, and Simo Kellokumpu, among others. Elina is one of the founders of the Jyväskylä-based dance group Off/Balance and works as the group’s second artistic director and dancer. Häyrynen is also a member of the multidisciplinary TARGET Helsinki ensemble.
Anna Virkkunen is a Helsinki-based dance artist and performer. Virkkunen graduated as a dancer from the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in 2015. She has worked as a performer in a variety of different ensembles in Finland and elsewhere in Europe. Virkkunen has danced in works by Doris Uhlich, Sebastian Zuber, Vera Nevanlinna and Ervi Sirén, among others, and has performed in productions at Zurich Opera House and Stockholm City Theatre. Her passion is to work in multidisciplinary art projects where different artistic disciplines and professionals come together. In addition to her work as a performer, Virkkunen works as a facilitator in the UrbanApa mentoring group for young artists and teaches yoga and dance. In addition to dance, she has studied Finnish literature and theatre studies and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 2014 from the Department of Finnish Literature at the University of Helsinki.
Mia Rönkä is an ecologist, science journalist and editor, author, poet, and the new Chair of the Conservation Advisory Forum for Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF). Her work as a researcher, journalist and artist is guided by a central interest in the relationship between humans and nature. This is a theme she enjoys exploring across disciplines. She hopes that CAFF’s outreach activities will transcend borders, as she believes that there is a reason for everyone to be interested in Arctic ecosystems and biodiversity.
Maria Sirén is a Helsinki-based costume and textile designer. She has designed costumes for various theatre and dance productions and has worked in the field of film and opera.