Basic Information

There are five Regional Dance Centers in Finland: Regional dance center in Northern Finland, Regional dance center Kuopio, Central Finland regional dance center, Regional dance center of Western Finland and Zodiak Center for New Dance / Regional dance center in Helsinki. The main aims are to socially and regionally promote the equal availability and reachability of dance, to increase the working possibilities of dance artists in their own artistic field and to increase co-operation and support professionalism. The Ministry of Education is committed to fund the network until 2009.

Kuopio is a city with about 90 000 inhabitants. It is situated in Eastern Finland and surrounded with thousands of lakes. Air journey from the capital city Helsinki takes about an hour. Kuopio is known as a vivid student city with an active cultural life, that includes happenings, cruises, summer theatres, fishing, winter activities and of course the famous, internationally known Kuopio Dance Festival every June.

Other big Eastern Finland cities are Joensuu, Mikkeli and Savonlinna. Eastern part of Finland has a beautiful and clean nature, with lots of forests and lakes. About 580 000 people live in the area. There are plenty of cultural events, for example Opera Festival in Savonlinna, Ballet Mikkeli, Lieksa Brass, Imatra Big Band Festival and others. Dance is a popular hobby, and about 50 professionals of dance work in the area.

An association called Tanssitaiteen tuki ry maintains the Regional dance center Kuopio. Financially involved are cities of Kuopio, Joensuu, Outokumpu, Pieksämäki, Iisalmi and Varkaus. In Northern Carelia the Regional dance center activities are realised by another association, Pohjois-Karjalan tanssin keskus ry. Vilja Ruokolainen works as a producer at the center. The office is situated in Kuopio.