ANI DOSHEVA 2018-19 YEAR 2

Finnish Tango : A Phantom Trace

Following the tradition of frozen-lake Tanssilavas, the Finnish tango dance centre sits on a scenic island in south Helsinki. The design of the different spaces has a series of specific moments carefully curated to enrich its teaching and preservative value. The building acts as if a teaching device itself exploring three different methods of teaching: looking, touching and choreographing.

Firstly, through a series of framed views throughout the building the visitor is thought of the tango steps following fragmented moments of the dancer’s body in their building journey. Secondly, Finnish tango is a very intimate dance. A touch between the partners could be a ritual sign or just a guiding step for the next step in the choreography. In this notion, the design consists of concrete body imprinted moments within the structure of the building to allow further physical understanding of the dance and its tradition. Thirdly, a dancer is like a tool, creating an amazing variety of motional traces in space. Preserving these could be done by re-experiencing and ‘re-dancing’ the choreography. The building itself aims to achieve this by using tools that not only define the cast through their motion but are also embedded in it as a organically developed structure. Providing the most suitable tools and choreographs for each space enables the visitor to read and feel within the skin of the building the history of Finnish tango.

Tutors: Thomas Pearce, Greg Storrar