Through the solo Sketched Story in Single Images performer Myrsky Ylänen and director-choreographer Jana Unmüßig engage in experimenting with staging a text by the same title, authored by Unmüßig. The text gives insight into the incidental life of the main character, Sanni, who navigates the fields of boredom, nonchalant disinterest, witnessing hares, to-dos, and her body. The solo picks up on Unmüßig’s long-lasting dedication to her minimal, raw choreographic vocabulary, yet now adds the telling of a story. Myrsky Ylänen performs the body of the text in a minimal form of expression, almost plain, while letting his body sink into blank pages at times.
Choreographic Convention parcours 5, 6, 7
Jana Unmüßig has navigated the field of choreography and dance by developing group works from the position of choreographer-director, 2007–2015. Her works were presented among others at Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Kampnagel Hamburg, Impulstanz Vienna, Zodiak – Centre for New Dance Helsinki, and Springdance Utrecht. During her freelance career, she held residencies, amongst others at Movement Research New York, Tangente Montreal, and was a choreographer in residency at K3 – Centre for Choreography Hamburg, 2011/2012. That same year, she started venturing into testing different articulations of her artistic practice that had been left invisible till then – which led to exploring different forms of collaboration, a series of paintings, performance works and short video essays. By now, she recognizes that she feels most at home in writing (fiction and non-fiction). In writing, she can best sustain an intimate relationship with language-based meaning-making by means of words, silence, and the body. Jana’s educational path resulted amongst others in a D.E.U.G in Arts du Spectacle from Sorbonne University Paris, training in dance and choreography at SEAD, Salzburg, a MA in Choreography from HZT Berlin during its pilot-phase, and a Doctor of Arts from Uniarts Helsinki’s Theater Academy. There she has worked as a lecturer in Choreography since 2020.
Myrsky Ylänen is a performer, artist, and Master of Theatre Arts graduate from The University of the Arts Theatre Academy Helsinki, working within different collectives. In this collective work, they treat the body, voice, and presence as materials, renewing a silent agreement with the audience at each live encounter and letting the unfolding exchange become part of the composition. Ylänen’s solo praxis consists of sound art and video art, often combining layers of audiovisual media with site-responsive, performative elements. The sites are found as real-world counterparts to recurring images, dreamed or waking, that persist until they are given form. Central to their practice-led research is a pre-symbolic dialogue, attending to what language cannot reach.
Ylänen has performed at venues and festivals including Sediments Festival, Hessische Theaterakademie Werkschau, and Kiasma Theatre at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma. Their video art has been exhibited at UUS Festival and their sound art in the exhibition Eight Ways to Hear at Lapinlahden Lähde, Helsinki.
Duration: approximately 30 min
Direction, text: Jana Unmüßig
In collaboration with, performance: Myrsky Ylänen
The text Sketched Story in Single Images will be published by Errant Bodies Press in winter 2026.