Milla Koistinen: The Individual, the Group, and Questions of Endurance
Milla Koistinen draws from the world of sport in her new performance series exploring endurance. The series continues Koistinen’s thinking on the significance of the individual and the group, topics she has also explored at major festivals and key stages throughout Europe, when touring with her pieces Magenta Haze, Breathe and the newest GRIT (for what it’s worth).
Dance artist and choreographer Milla Koistinen’s latest work, GRIT (for what it’s worth) premiered at Helsinki’s Moving in November festival in 2024. It has also been staged in Bremen and will next be seen at Berlin Tanzfabrik on May 16–17. The aesthetics of the piece take inspiration from the world of sport, which Koistinen sees as a good metaphor for society more broadly. Physicality is a major factor when it comes to endurance and resilience, but Koistinen is particularly interested in the mental stamina also involved.
Koistinen started exploring the theme last spring with students from Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD). The work continued in Bologna, Italy, with a three-week choreography lab, where Koistinen tested out the theme with just under twenty people in the form of an outdoor piece. The performance series officially launches with the solo piece GRIT, with Koistinen already thinking ahead to the second part, which will take the form of a group piece in 2025–2026. She is keen to emphasize that this will not just be a group version of the solo piece, but its own unique work on the same theme – endurance.
This is not the first time Koistinen has worked on independent solo and group pieces on the same theme, with Magenta Haze and Breathe both being parts of the same series. The individual and the group intrigue her: “Being by yourself or in a group brings different things to the table – and to the stage. I’m interested in the individual’s existence within a group and, reciprocally, how the absence of a group is visible in a solo piece.”
On the heels of communality and empathy
GRIT delves deep into what resilience really is. One stage element of the piece is a huge rubber sheet. It raises the question, how far can a person stretch physically? And what about mentally? How do you rise up out of the depths after a failure or breakdown? Or how do you keep going in a politically restricted environment that makes your own work almost impossible?
“I would like to believe and hope that communality might be how we get through this. Individualism has been dominant in recent decades, and then the pandemic separated us completely from each other,” Koistinen ponders. Competing against each other is an intrinsic part of sport, as is the friction it creates. With an eye on her future group piece, Koistinen is interested in the question of what we are left with if communality does not provide that support.
She has also explored the issue of communality in previous works, which were completed in the aftermath of the pandemic. Her solo piece Breathe takes place on a football pitch, with the performers at times a long way from the audience. Magenta Haze, on the other hand, incorporates the audience fully as a part of the performance and space. GRIT is Koistinen’s first frontal piece in a long time. “This is a long way from a sense of community,” Koistinen laughs, but the piece continues exploring the idea of empathy, which is a key factor in audience relations for her. The experience of empathy is also integral in sport; after all, we viscerally feel and empathize with the achievements of the athletes even from the home sofas. “In sport, you have a very direct audience contact, but at the same time it’s a very introverted and concentrated activity.” This provides excellent material for a dance piece.
At the interface of dance and sport
Milla Koistinen does not have much background in competitive sport herself, but she sees the world of sport as a miniature version of society: “There are a lot of faults, but of course plenty of good things too. The sense of authority and rules are tough in sport, and it can be tricky to incorporate your own ideas into such a rigid structure. On the other hand, encouragement, teamwork and trust are key if you want to achieve success.”
The physicality of the sports world is fairly clear to see in GRIT, as Koistinen makes use of the language of movement, captured from athletes’ feats, and the moments leading up to and following on from them. Koistinen also interviewed professional athletes for the piece.
Alongside movement material that takes its form from sport, Koistinen has also incorporated political rhetoric. “Lots of people think that sports are not political, or at least shouldn’t be. You hear the same things in the arts, even though you would expect there to be more openness there,” Koistinen ponders. Political rhetoric and forms of protest are elements Koistinen incorporated in her piece, One Next To Me, in 2019. “It’s difficult to avoid political themes, as the big issues in society are so present in the moment right now and artists’ everyday existence.”
Despite the themes, GRIT is not just a gloomy performance, it also incorporates a lot of adrenaline and euphoria. Koistinen believes that the issue of resilience and how to cope with the current situation can be approached in many ways. “GRIT doesn’t end with a glimmer of hope, but it doesn’t end in gloominess either,” Koistinen promises, quoting Bob Dylan: “It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.”
In 2025, Koistinen will be directing a new piece at Theater Bremen for the group Unusual Symptoms, dealing with hope and community, and a new piece for Dance on Ensemble in her second home city of Berlin, bringing together dancers of different ages.
The article was originally published in the Finnish Circus & Dance in Focus 2025 magazine.
Text: Heidi Backström. Translation: Claire Ruaro.
Main Image: Milla Koistinen: GRIT (for what it’s worth) © Ilkka Saastamoinen
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