A major international event Stretch Further will be held at Oulu as a part of OuDance Festival at 7.-13.9.2026
Tale Næss is a playwright, dramaturg, and researcher with a PhD in stage text from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. She works across many disciplines and has published drama, poetry, and prose. Currently, she leads ArtLab at Davvi — Centre for Performing Arts in Tromsø.
Leena Kela is a performance artist, artistic director of the New Performance Turku Biennale, director of the Saari Residence maintained by the Kone Foundation, and a doctoral researcher at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki. Her works and research examine the interaction of corporeality and materiality in performance art. She makes performances and video works that twist and play with our relationship to everyday objects and phenomena. She has performed in numerous contexts in Finland and internationally at performance art festivals and exhibitions on all continents of the world except Antarctica. She is a Doctor of Fine Arts.
Eva Svaneblom (she/her) is a Tornedalian dance artist, based in Tromsø, Norway. Eva’s work takes many forms: from performances in gallery spaces or outdoors, to short videos on social media, and full-length productions in black box theatres. She works both solo and collaboratively, often across disciplines.
Eva’s artistic practice revolves around the situated body—how the body is shaped through encounters with its physical and sociocultural environments. She often works by playing with and reshaping stereotypes, where her Tornedalian background meets her queer identity. Aesthetics are a central part of Eva’s work, in choreography and performance, as well as in visual elements such as costume and scenography. She frequently uses popcultural references and seeks expressions that can speak to a wide audience. A common thread in Eva’s practice is collectivity and community— she explores how art can create shared spaces and foster understanding across different experiences.
Katrín Gunnarsdóttir is an Icelandic choreographer and a professor at Iceland University of the Arts where she is program director of BA in Contemporary Dance Practices. Her work focuses on soft encounters, using embodied listening and affective labour of the dancer to create intricate choreographic landscapes. Katrín has choreographed for Iceland Dance Company, FWD Youth Company and has worked as a movement director at The National Theatre of Iceland, The Icelandic Opera, Theatre Republique in Copenhagen and Toneelgroep Amsterdam. Katrín´s works and collaborations have been awarded the Icelandic Performing Arts Award (Gríman) and been selected by international platforms such as Ice Hot Nordic Dance Platform and Aerowaves.
Petri Kauppinen is a versatile dancer and performance artist, expert, and dance teacher from Oulu. He has worked for over 30 years in the roles of dancer, choreographer, director and writer in various communities, theatres, and organisations
Üüve-Lydia Toompere is a freelance artist working in Estonia and Berlin, whose earlier productions have primarily focused on exploring social contexts. Her practice is about actively engaging society and people in her performative works. She has gained the most attention for the club dance workshop “Techno Praxis” and the performance “supersocial,” which involves theatergoers as participants. Recently, however, Lydia has also become interested in the club, fetish, and pole dance scenes. In these worlds, she performs as her alter ego, Fluxxious. In her first full-length solo production at the Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava, the artist introduces a completely new alter ego Flex, putting on a new persona and unveiling a fantastical world through the newly created body. Flex and Fluxxious are Toompere, but in her most extreme form. These personas fit better into the contemporary information-soaked, competitively attention-seeking world than just simply Lydia.
Pirjo Yli-Maunula is the artistic director of Oulu-based production group Flow Productions. She is specialised in directing immersive, site-specific performances.
Laurynas Žakevičius is an executive director, producer, choreographer, performer, and mentor at Low Air Vilnius City Dance Theatre. With over 20 years of experience across cultural, academic, and public sectors, he combines artistic vision with strong leadership and production expertise.
Since 2012, he has led Low Air, shaping it into one of Lithuania’s most prominent contemporary dance companies. He actively develops performances, international collaborations, and emerging talent, while managing complex projects, budgets, and touring activities.
Laurynas is engaged in international networks, including Studiotrade and Internationale Tanzmesse NRW, strengthening global exchange. He also contributes to cultural policy as a board member of the National Association of Creative and Cultural Industries and a council member of the Lithuanian Contemporary Dance Association. He has developed over 100 projects applications with extensive activities in 25 countries and received a number of major national awards for artistic and cultural work.
Juily Chen (she/her) is a Chinese dance artist based in Glasgow, Scotland. Rooted in krump, her practice brings together street dance, theatre, choreography and structured freestyle to explore identity, belonging, emotional recurrence and transformation. Her solo Quagmire began as a seven-minute work at Shuffle Hip Hop Scratch Night and is now being developed into a longer theatre work. Juily helps lead weekly Braveheart UPR sessions, supporting the growth of Scotland’s krump community and its international connections. She has also performed across interdisciplinary and contemporary dance contexts in Scotland. As a Chinese/East Asian woman working within a Black American form, she approaches krump with care, respect and accountability. At Stretch Further, she brings an emerging artist’s perspective on how culture, migration, community and working environment shape artistic identity.
Her participation is supported by The Work Room’s International Bursaries programme.
Aliisa Rinne (she/they) is a dance and multidisciplinary artist originally from Savonlinna, currently living and working in Helsinki. She will graduate as a dancer from the Riveria Outokumpu Dance Department in autumn 2026. Her previous studies and professional experience in theatre and circus arts continue to inform her artistic practice, where different modes of expression intersect and merge. In her artistic and physical work, Rinne organically combines elements from various artistic disciplines, creating powerful visual worlds that explore existential and documentary themes.
Heli Ansio (MA, MTh) works as a Senior Specialist at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. She has done research, development, education and advocacy work on topics related to occupational well-being and safety in the arts and culture sectors for 15 years. Her publication topics include, for example, careers in art and culture, well-being at work among artists and other cultural workers, and occupational safety in the performing arts as well as other industries.
Liv Aira is from Jokkmokk, in Swedish Sápmi, and works as a dancer, choreographer, and artistic director. She holds a bachelor’s degree in dance and a master’s degree in choreography from the Institute of the Arts in Barcelona (2018).
Liv’s Sámi roots are evident in her art, which is characterized by spirituality, imagination, and an animalistic movement language. Liv is the founder and artistic director of the Invisible People Contemporary Dance Company, and she is currently touring with the company with the dance and joik production Ájttega and the children’s dance piece Akti Lij. She founded the Låvda – Sápmi screendance film festival as well as Skájdde, an indigenous cultural festival held in the Storforsen Nature Reserve. She has also recently launched the world’s first Sámi dance center near Jokkmokk.
Ina Christel Johannessen is the artistic leader and choreographer of the zero visibility corp., based in Oslo, Norway. Ina trained at the National College of Performing Arts in Oslo, where she has been teaching choreography classes.
zero visibility corp. began touring internationally in 2003 and has been invited to Sydney Opera House, Sadler’s Well in London, Mercat de Flors in Barcelona, Place Des Arts in Montreal, Movementos in Wolfsburg and Belgrade Dance Festival.
Ina has also worked with several international companies and institutions, among them Helsinki Dance Company, The Royal Swedish Opera, Scottish Dance Theatre, Iceland Dance Company, CCDC in Hong Kong, Cullberg Ballet, The National Theatre in Oslo, Norway, Dance and Theatre Academy of Helsinki, Finland, and the National College of Performing Arts, also in Oslo.
A very important part of Ina’s artistic profile and work has been the close relationship with the national company of contemporary dance Carte Blanche, based in Bergen. Since 1992, Ina Christel Johannessen has created fourteen full-evening works for the company.
Julian Owusu is an Oulu-based Ghanaian-Finnish freelance dance artist, spoken word poet, and dance educator. His work centers on community building, hip-hop, pedagogy, decolonial practices, and imagining the future. Julian’s artistic practice integrates dance, theater, poetry, music, and graffiti. In addition, he works on project planning and arts facilitation. He has taught in various contexts for nearly 20 years and has performed professionally since 2008.
He has authored articles on topics such as hip-hop dance and pedagogy. He serves as a member of the steering committee for the research network Hiphop-suomessa: Suuntaukset ja sukupolvet (Hip-hop in Finland: Trends and Generations).
He has also held numerous positions of trust within the arts and culture sector, including serving as a regional artist for youth culture, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Finnish Cultural Foundation, a board member and chair of the Nordic House in Reykjavik, and a member of the Ministry of Education and Culture’s working group on the future of culture.
