Maija Hirvanen
Choreographer, Artist, Researcher
Helsinki, Finland
Maija Hirvanen is a choreographer and performance maker. Her interests range from the relationship between art and different belief systems and ways of re-learning to questions of embodiment and the more-than-human approach in performance and choreography. She makes performances on stages and in places, writes, researches, and teaches.
Hirvanen’s work has been presented at festivals and venues such as Tanz im August/Hebbel am Ufer/Berlin, ImpulsTanz/Vienna, Sadler’s Wells/London, SPRING Festival/Utrecht, Seoul Performing Arts Festival, Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, SAAL Biennaal/Tallinn and Dansens Hus/Stockholm, Zodiak, Kiasma, Baltic Circle Festival and Helsinki Festival.
As a co-designer or invited artist, Maija has taken part in several international artistic laboratories such as TanzSalon hosted and planned with Meg Stuart, Moriah Evans and the Goethe Institute, FIT network of European Performing Arts Festivals' Global City Local City, Flying Circus Projects' Burmese Days in Myanmar and Singapore and Edge of Europe with Ong Keng Sen at Kiasma Theatre in Helsinki.
Maija is the Artistic Professor in Dance 2024–2028, an honorary title granted by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland. Currently, she is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of the Arts Helsinki/Theatre Academy, working on her artistic research on fungal choreography and performance.
Field of research | Area of activity
Expanded choreography, performance, fungi & art, mycology, artistic writing and publications, trans- and interdisclipinary research practices, ecology, artistic research
Keywords related to mycelial space
Fungal choreography and performance, artistic publications and fungi, artistic research
Related projects
Selected exhibitions
Fungi Feel, stage performance, premiere Kiasma Theatre, Helsinki, 2025
Hum, performance in an urban forest, premiere ANTI Festival, 2024
Mesh, stage choreography, premiere Hebbel am Ufer 2, Tanz im August Festival, Berlin, 2022
Life as We Know It, with Juha Valkeapää, premiere Baltic Circle Festival, 2020
Magic and Despair, stage performance, Kiasma Theatre, 2019
Art and Love, stage (lecture)performance, Zodiak – Centre for New Dance, 2017
Selected publications
Mycoscores / Choreospores (artistic publication, 2024)
Practical Performance Magic (with Eva Neklyaeva, 2023)