We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Pelastakaa Ballerinat ry association. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Pelastakaa Ballerinat ry below.
Pelastakaa, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
In our dance association Pelastakaa Ballerinat ry, community spirit is the key factor of our association, as well as the fact that there are so many dancers of different ages in our community. It brings a broader perspective to our operations and indeed creates more dimensions. During the pandemic, we were not able to perform, but our strong community helped us continue and inspired us to keep the creativity alive together through the challenging times. Now it’s time for us to celebrate on August 3, 2024. We will finally gather again on the Hällä stage to celebrate our 10 years of dancing, together. Current global challenges affect to all of us and therefore to our association and it can be seen as well in our very current choreographies, which are inspired by e.g. the climate change and artificial intelligence.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Pelastakaa Ballerinat ry was founded 10 years ago, when the teacher of our adult ballet group and head of the dance school, Elwa Molin, had to retire and it also eventually led to the dance school having to close its doors for good. At the time, there wasn’t really a place for us older dance enthusiasts who still wanted to dance on pointe, dance ballet for real and perform. So with the leadership of Annukka Salonen and Paula Merikoski, we had to save the ballerinas, literally. And that is where the name of the association comes from, “Pelastaakaa Ballerinat” means in finnish to save the ballerinas.
We also organize workshops for other types of dance styles e.g. contemporary dance, jazz and tap, which are also part of our repertoire in our next performance in August 2024.
In short we are a non-profit association and our motto is that dance belongs to everyone: regardless of age, skills, size, gender, nationality or any other limiting factor. Anti-discrimination and equality are important cornerstones of our association. Our group currently consists of 9 to 11 dance enthusiasts of various ages between 20 to 60 years old and besides all different dance levels they represent, we also have a few professionals. Some are involved in varying degrees, some train more closely. But in the dance studio and in the performances, we are all equal.
When we have at least one person from each age decade, it only makes us stronger. Our community includes young singles, mothers of small children and a few grandmas and everything in between. Everyone can dance and perform according to their own level and strengths. We also boldly combine different dance styles, a ballerina can be a cheerleader or the fouettes of the Swanlake’s Black Swan can also be modified for tap shoes. However you want, there are really no limits.
In addition to dancers, we also have other support members and supporter members. Our dear, former ballet teacher Elwa Molin taught us in our association as her own health allowed, until she had serious illness 2015 and she passed away in 2017. Since then, we have had several ballet teachers and choreographers, e.g. Klaara Haapanen, who is our current ballet class teacher and Emmi Salonen, who was the main choreographer in our previous performance Dance Through the Walls in 2019 and also teaches workshops when she is visiting from New York City. Emmi and Klaara will be the main choreographers, with Emmi taking also in responsible of the directing, for our upcoming 10 year anniversary performance.
In August Tampere will be flourishing and full of people working in and interested in art and culture, when the biggest and longest-running theater festival in the Nordic countries, Tampere Theatre Festival arrives in the city. So it’s now, if ever, the time to celebrate the 10-year period of our great dance community and what is a better way to do it, than create and dance together in our “Life Is Now” dance performance on August 3rd, 2024!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three most important features of our association’s 10-year journey have been:
– The people and the strong support of community has kept us together and made us endure even when there have been difficult times.
– Ballet is a very disciplined form of dance, but it can be done respectfully to the art form without a wrinkle on the forehead. The joy of dancing is important.
– We all have a strong desire to perform and also create on our own, not just dance other people’s choreographies.
Few advices:
When founding an association or community that is for dance enthusiasts, you must dedicate yourself to the community with all your heart. And this applies to the whole community, it’s not just about going to weekly dance classes, but being an important part of the association. All individuals are important in their own way and together create a whole association.
We have to try to keep the bureaucracy as small as possible, so that it doesn’t cover up the real work, but of course funding has to be taken into account.
It is also worth acquiring as much support as possible, specifically financial support must be acquired, because otherwise it is difficult for non-profit associations to operate.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
A few things that come to mind, first of course, funding. It creates challenges, although some funding is obtained from hourly fees and membership fees so that operations can continue. But if you want to organize a performance, you need supporters and grants, which are difficult to get. We of course have applied for several grants for this year too and to support our upcoming performance. Fortunately, the city of Tampere has partially supported our association every year.
And then another thing, why is performing so important? It can be difficult for an adult dancer to be able to perform through dance schools, even if they want to. If they are past of a certain age, size or just simply dancing for joy, it becomes hard to get a chance to get on stage and it really does not make any sense to us.
But with us you can always join us as your true self and if you feel that you want to get on stage and perform, we are here for you. That is a big challenge and our association tries to answer that challenge as best as possible.
Contact Info:
- Website: pelastakaaballerinat.com
- Instagram: pelastakaa_ballerinat_ry
- Facebook: Pelastakaa Ballerinat ry
