The Regional Dance Center of Eastern Finland (ITAK) is an organisation whose mission is to support, both socially and financially, the visibility and development of dance as an art in Eastern Finland and to promote its availability and accessibility in the region, in order to enhance employment conditions for professional dancer artists and to encourage networking between dancers and other parties.

As part of a 10-week European Spring tour, Creative Director of Dance Integrated Australia, Philip Channells will travel to this region in April after his week-long residency at ZODIAK – Centre for New Dance in Helsinki. He will work with ITAK’s Artistic Director, Tomi Paasonen who will be his assistant/translator throughout the workshop series in Kuopio and Joensuu.

For ITAK Channells will deliver Beyond Technique – Searching for Authenticity which is an open workshop suitable for people with different life experience, for people with and without disability and varying backgrounds and experience in the arts. Participants will gain an understanding of disability-inclusive dance practice while practicing methods for generating self-devised authentic starting points for choreographic practice.

The Beyond Technique – Searching for Authenticity workshop series will be conducted over three days in each regional location : Kuopio (Tuesday 15 – Thursday 17 April) and Joensuu (Tuesday 22 – Thursday 24 April 2014). Previous experience is not necessary.

For more information and to register your interest in this series email eeva.eloranta@itak.fi. To learn more about ITAK (in English) click here or email tomi.paasonen@itak.fi. or telephone 044 737 87 02.

For more information about the ZODIAK residency, click here