Practicing is a long-term process that focuses on the artistic process and the insights it generates, rather than on the finished performance. The work moves in directions that cannot yet be named or even imagined.
The process expands on Mustonen’s long-term corporeal and choreographic work, in which the almost imperceptible conventions and norms that influence being, dancing, and performing are brought to light and questioned. Choreographic tasks and experiments create space for subtle movements, the dismantling of sameness and moments of ending, disappearing, and leaving.
"As I dance, I practice “dancing through”. It means that I allow the dance to remain multiple and open. I try not to reduce it to a single, coherent form. I want to avoid removing from the dance those elements that are not immediately recognized as dance. I love the moment when one movement begins to become something else. It is like a bridge, a gap, an uncertain space. By paying attention to that transition, I move closer to the assumptions that shape perception and action. I resist the idea that one thing naturally or inevitably leads to another."
The project is supported by the Helsinki-based, artist-run associations i dolci and rendezvous.
Biography
Anna Mustonen
Anna Mustonen is a Helsinki-based choreographer and dancer. Her artistic practice is rooted in long-term, interdisciplinary processes that allow for reimagining ways of performing and collaborating. The relationship between dance and music, as well as the interplay between the body and its surroundings, are recurring themes in her work.
Since 2007, her works have been presented at stages and festivals for dance and performing arts, including Contemporary Art Space Kutomo (Turku), Zodiak – Center for New Dance (Helsinki), Helsinki City Theatre’s Stage for Contemporary Performance (Helsinki), Sidestep Festival (Helsinki), Baltic Circle Festival (Helsinki), Bolzano Antiqua Festival (Bolzano), and Moving in November Festival (Helsinki). Recent works include collaborations with harpsichordist Marianna Henriksson, such as Sfäärit (2025), Eros (2022), and Maria-vesper (2018), for which they received the 2018 Finnish State Prize for Performing Arts. Mustonen is a co-founder of the art association i dolci and the art community rendezvous.
