ARJA TIILI'S PROVOKING AND HILARIOUS WORKS MAKE YOU WONDER

Arja Tiili’s works baffle, frighten, awaken, thrill and make one laugh! Arja (b.1972) is finnish choreographer whose works are eclectic collisions of styles and traditions,  bravely mixing genres from breakdance to contemporary dance and martial arts, from political theater and rapping to video art. She has a knack for revealing the most intimate, secret traits of the human spirit. Her work often depicts our dark side: madness, violence, loneliness, greediness… but always with a sense of humor that is recognizable.

“My performances are destined to everyone with own thoughts and emotions.” - Arja Tiili.

ARJA TIILI DANCE COMPANY is now btf-hybrid theater

Arja Tiili Dance Company’s new name is BTF- Hybrid Theater and it has been transferred to Break the Fight Oy/Ltd. Arja Tiili Dance Company’s background association’s Intomieliset ry (Eager Minds) activities have officially ceased 5.3.2024. All stage performance and audience outreach activities are still available at Break the Fight Oy/Ltd. Break the Fight Oy/Ltd. is subsidized by Arts Promotion Centre Finland and City of Helsinki. 

Arja Tiili Dance Company was a groundbreaking and unprejudiced dance group that combined dance with other performing arts. The group produced bold, politically aware pieces and workshops, which opened up different ways to see and experience the world.

"I like to mix up and confuse with my performances" - Arja Tiili.

A critical point of view to community and society, in which we live in, is important. Arja Tiili Dance Company’s most important goals were to renew dance art, to support multiculturalism and to fight racism. We continue the fight for social justice and against school bullying under Break the Fight Oy/Ltd.

Break the Fight! BTF Art Business Model

TOURING PERFORMANCES

Break the Fight - Burn the Floor! (2022)

The dance-music piece was premiered as part of Arja Tiili's 30th anniversary as artist celebration and Break the Fight! Gala in Oodi’s Maijansali on September 30, 2022.

The core message of the work is the joy and happiness of rhythm and dance, which is ignited by the success of one's own body in movement, rhythm and producing movement. The work combines modern dance and street dance as well as live music, drums and saxophone. A music-dance performance is a dialogue and plays with music, bodies, gravity and rhythms.

Break the Fight - Burn the Floor! breakdances against school bullying and takes the message of non-violence to schools through performing arts and hip hop culture on school tours.

The performance can be modified in terms of content to suit different grade levels for elementary, middle and secondary schools. The duration of the performance is 30 min. The performance can be done in 45 minutes of one lesson indoors. The performance was selected for the LIVE2 tour project for 2023-24. Read more about LIVE2 and how to get the performance to your school.

"The dance piece I saw at Arja Tiili's 30th anniversary artist party was so great that I had chills for a long time after the performance. In dance, I have always been touched by redefining the limits of human physicality. When Kimmo Korpela, Roman Tinovskyi-Hibalov and Pinja Grönberg presented their skills, gravity stopped for a moment. At the same time, the piece spread calmness and a strange feeling that right now everything is just fine. Thank you Arja Tiili and Break the Fight – Burn the Floor!” - Yle, Liisa Vihmanen

Concept and direction: Arja Tiili

Dance and movement material:

Pinja Grönberg, Kimmo Korpela and Roman Tinovskyi-Hibalov

Drums: Benjamin Nylund

Saxophone: Antti Vauhkonen

Lights: Jere Mönkkönen

Production: Arja Tiili Dance Company / Intomieliset ry. 2022

Break the Fight! - Breakdance against school bullying is a set of art education activities launched by Arja Tiili and Arja Tiili Dance Company in 2014, which includes workshops and professional dance works that school children can watch and perform together with professionals from art and hip hop culture. In workshop work, young people's thoughts and opinions can also take an artistic form under the guidance of a professional. We will be happy to perform at various district and village events as well as festivals or shopping centers.

More information: Break the Fight! and Arja Tiili Dance Company

Break the Fight - Inclusion! (2020)

Break the Fight - Inclusion! is a dance-music performance featuring a professional dancer and a break dancer and three schoolchildren. Break the Fight - Inclusion! the show features world-renowned Spy Award winner b-girl Taija T-Flow Hinkkanen and professional dancer Lauri Laxa Peltonen, who is also responsible for the show's sound design and live guitar playing. The beatboxer is Jere Isku Pehkonen, who has been active in Break the Fight! since 2015, both as a beatbox and dj workshop instructor and as an artist in various events and performances.

The long-time dance artist and Break the Fight! art activity developer Arja Tiili is the director and in charge of the concept of the show. The show wants to raise thoughts about belonging, about what it means to belong to a group and a community. How does it feel to belong and how to get and give a feeling of working together and belonging.

Concept and direction: Arja Tiili

Dance and movement material:

Taija T-Flow Hinkkanen and Lauri Laxa Peltonen

Guitar: Lauri Laxa Peltonen

Beatboxing: Jere Isku Pehkonen

Production: Arja Tiili Dance Company / Intomieliset ry. 2020

This recording features the rap artist Teddy, who performs the theme song of the Break the Fight activity "Joko rikotaan riidat". In this recording, Jussi Sirviö aka Focus acts as the show's DJ. The performance was selected for the LIVE school tour project for 2022. Teddy, Focus and school children are not part of the team of the LIVE school tour project.

Break the Fight! - Breakdance against school bullying is a set of art education activities launched by Arja Tiili and Arja Tiili Dance Company in 2014, which includes workshops and professional dance works that school children can watch and perform together with professionals from art and hip hop culture. In workshop work, young people's thoughts and opinions can also take an artistic form under the guidance of a professional. We will be happy to perform at various district and village events as well as festivals or shopping centers.

More information: Break the Fight! and Arja Tiili Dance Company