For professionals

Morning classes for dance and performing arts professionals are among the core activities of the company. Follow our social media accounts to get the latest updates on new classes and workshops!

Liisa Pentti has a long history of teaching both dancers and actors. At the moment her interest in teaching is focused on the concept of “alchemy in improvisation” and on her personal movement practice. How does our use of imagery and our instinct for imitation shape our dancing? To what extent can we go beyond the norms and patterns embedded in our dance to challenge and refresh the familiar pathways while moving? These questions are explored in her workshops. Liisa also teaches contact improvisation - mostly as a tool for finding means of touch in movement, for creating physical presence and skill and for defining boundaries in a physical dialogue.

Liisa Pentti has more than 10 years of experience working with people on the autism spectrum. A youth group led by Pentti has put on two performances, presented at Zodiak - Center for new dance in Helsinki in 2018 and 2021. Currently the company runs two weekly dance classes for this demographic. Their aim is providing a sense of independent artistic agency to the participants through movement and dance, often relying on non-verbal communication. Liisa Pentti regularly trains dancers in her methods and is available for giving workshops on the pedagogy and ethos involved in this work. 

Audience Engagement Work

The purpose of the group’s audience engagement work is to reach different kinds of publics and to bring dance to areas and audiences who don’t often get to experience it. In conjunction with tour performances the group organizes free, low threshold workshops.

Get to know contemporary dance

The group initiated the Get to know contemporary dance format in 2020 with the purpose of showcasing contemporary dance in low threshold spaces and connecting with new audiences. The event, held yearly at Helsinki Central Library Oodi, consists of workshops and performances. In 2024 the theme of the day will be dance and music improvisation.  

Community Work

Liisa Pentti +Co’s longest running and most established form of community work are dance lessons for young people on the autism spectrum. They have been organized regularly since 2015 in cooperation with Zodiak – Center for New Dance. Starting from Fall of 2022, the lessons will be executed wholly as part of the group’s own work. In addition to weekly dance classes the group has produced two full-length works with the faction, Too much, too young in 2018 and Neljä x Duetto + 1 in 2021. 

In the Spring of 2022, the group made a teaching visit to the Kinapori senior centre’s memory disorder patients and held a workshop at the Helsinki Girls’ House.

Dance classes for people of autism spectrum 

Plenty of activities take place during the classes, the most common being exercises combining dance and music that aim at producing individual movement. The exercises are based on Liisa Pentti’s 40-year experience with contact improvisation, the Todd Alignment technique and Body-Mind Centering© methods.

There are two different groups you can join: Group I independently or with your own assistant. Group II is for dancers who are able to work independently.
Once again this year, there will be two groups, meeting once a week on Thursdays at 17:00 and 18:00.

This autumn, two new weekly groups will be organised for people with intellectual disabilities who are interested in dance, in cooperation with the KV57-association. The dance classes will be held on Wednesdays at 17 and 18, and are supported by the City of Helsinki.

The classes for the autumn season 2024 will start in September.

Available places and more information can be obtained by emailing info@liisapentti.com.