JOUNI JÄRVENPÄÄ & MAIJA REETA RAUMANNI

We think of planets that carve their inevitable orbits, relaxedly. They are perfect. The space around them is dense, filled with everything. We imagine ourselves there. We are there, and all this is true. The planets are true. 

Planets do not lie is a dance performance inspired by the actualities of perceiving space. It is a dance of emptiness, devoid of earthen and personal loads. The meanings and connotations flash into and out of existence akin to falling stars, free from the chains of symbols and words. The presence is immediate. The gravitational arcs drawn into the space by the bodies of flesh, sound, and light put out all that is petty, low, and hierarchical.

PLEASE NOTE! The performance is not wheelchair accessible. The audience will be located on the stage where the access is via staircase.
Age recommendation 13+
Content warnings contains scenes with loud noises and flashing lights 
Duration 40 minutes

Choreography and dance Jouni Järvenpää and Maija Reeta Raumanni
Lighting design Antti Helminen
Sound design Anssi Laiho
Production Ehkä-production, Jouni Järvenpää and Maija Reeta Raumanni
Supporters Arts Promotion Centre Finland, City of Oulu/Oulu Valistustalo Fund, and City of Turku
Pre-photos Even Minn
Performance photos Satu Kemppainen
Premiere 7.3.2025 Contemporary Art Space Kutomo, Turku

The choreographer-dancers Jouni Järvenpää and Maija Reeta Raumanni’s work Planets do not lie premiered at Contemporary Art Space Kutomo in Turku in March 2025. In July of the same year, the piece was adapted to the exhibition space of the Oulu Art Museum as part of the museum’s collection exhibition Imagine Abstract. In addition to Järvenpää and Raumanni, the artistic working group includes lighting designer Antti Helminen and sound designer Anssi Laiho. Planets do not lie is the fourth joint work by Järvenpää and Raumanni searching for the abstract in dance. Their previous works are Arrangements of Ruins and Visions (2013), The White Whale (2015), and The End (2017). 

Jouni Järvenpää is a choreographer and dancer originally from Oulu, Finland. He graduated as a Dance Maker from the School for New Dance Development (Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten) in 2002 and has since then created dozens of choreographies and collaborated with various artists in many cross-art projects. In Finland, his artistic work has been seen, e.g., in the programs of Barker Theatre, Ehkä-production, JoJo – Oulu Dance Center, Zodiak – Center for New Dance, Tampere Dance Current Festival, and Full Moon Dance Festival. During the years 2020–2023, Järvenpää worked as the artistic director of Kajaani-based Routa Company, where he established the model for employing dancers, which received the Union of Dance and Circus Artists Finland’s Dance Fame Award 2021. At the moment, he works as a freelance choreographer and dancer, and studies architecture at the Oulu School of Architecture at the University of Oulu. 

Maija Reeta Raumanni is a freelance dance artist and somatic movement practitioner (SOLU – Somatic Movement Education, 600 hours) originally from Seinäjoki, Finland. She graduated as a choreographer from the School for New Dance Development at the Amsterdam University of the Arts in 2007. Since graduating, she has worked as a choreographer, dancer, performer, and teacher in various working groups, collectives, and communities in Finland and abroad. In her artistic practice, she values sustainable and research-oriented working methods, creative collaboration, mutual interaction, and unending curiosity. Her long-term interest in the somatic approach and embodiment is much integrated into her activity as an artist, teacher, and fellow human being in the everyday. 

Antti Helminen holds a Master’s degree in Lighting Design (University of the Arts Helsinki, 2013) and a Bachelor’s degree in Performance Art (Arts Academy of the Turku University of Applied Sciences Arts Academy 2003). The recipient of the 2023 Valosäde Award, he has worked multidisciplinary and internationally in the field of (light) art since 1997. 

Anssi Laiho is a sound designer, composer of electronic music, and sound artist who lives and works in Oulu, Finland. His works draw influence from various genres of electronic art music, such as musique concrète, electroacoustic music, and sound art. Laiho uses both traditional and experimental instruments in his compositions. Over the past 20 years, he has worked as a freelancer, during which time he has developed his own distinctive working methods. Sound localization and spatialization (that is, placing sound in speakers arranged according to a specific design, or creating movement of a sound source within the stereo image or in a surround speaker system enveloping the audience) are among Laiho’s particular areas of interest.