What kind of learners are there in your group?
"When you look at a child differently, you see a different child" Dr. Stuart Shanker
Today, in the continuing education of art and primary school teachers, we focused on more diagnoses such as the spectrum of autism, e.g. asperger's syndrome and intellectual disability. During the day, we gathered movement ideas and exercises from the perspectives of special learners of different ages. Today, the stories also take you away and the objects inspire you to move.
Organized by Hurja Piruetti and Musiikkiopisto Arkipelag and funded by the The Board of Education, the third training course of the continuing education "Elever med särskilda behov inom dans- och rörelseundervisning" (students with special needs in dance- and movement education) started today in Karjaa. Specialeducation teachers Terhi Järnström and Sari Koponen lecturing today, and Ulla Koho and Katja Köngäs inspiring to get moving.
Hurja Marina was responsible for serving.
This week class classteachers, language teachers and Hurja Piruetti's dance teacher have participated in Dance language! -workshops where they got to try out how dance can be integrated into primary school language teaching.
The workshop leaders PhD student Kaisa Korpinen (Turun yliopisto) and Janna Westerlund (Hurja Piruetti) shared experiences of interdisciplinary teaching and multi-professional collaboration in the project "Dance language!" and presented video material created in the project.
The video material offers concrete tools for bodily and art-based language teaching in the lower grades of primary school and it is available on the website of the University of the Arts (https://sites.uniarts.fi/sv/web/ellaresearchproject/kieliä-tansien-) as part of the research project "Embodied Language Learning through the Arts” (ELLA).
There is power in cooperation!
Today (September 9, 2022), together with the city of Raasepori and the University of the Arts, we tested the meeting technology of the new Culturehouse Fokus by organizing the Performing Arts Education Vision 2030 seminar together. The participants of the seminar envisioned and shaped the future also physically in the lobby of the cultuehouse before the afternoon information attacks.
The seminar was implemented in cooperation with Hurja Piruetti, the city of Raasepori and the University of the Arts.
On September 7, 2022, we received the "Certificate for the sustainable development of the educational institution". The sustainable future indicators assess how the educational institution promotes forward-looking and socially reforming practices in its teaching, operational culture and management. The awarding of the certificate is based on an external assessment carried out by an auditor trained by the OKKA foundation. Länsi-Uusimaa Tanssiopisto Hurja Piruetti is the second educational institution that organizes basic art education, after Pirka's civic school, to which the certificate has been granted.
"As a pioneer, Hurja Piruetti has bravely taken on a role that other educational institutions that provide basic art education can also adopt," says auditor Kaisa Lindström in her feedback.
Our dancer friend, long-time board member of Hurja Piruetti, former chairman and our respected costume designer Johanna Lahtinen passed away after a short and difficult illness on 22 July 2022.
Johanna worked in Hurja Piruetti as a member of the board and as an active member of the association for more than 20 years; first as a dancer's mother, later as an active dance enthusiast and costume designer. She was also Hurja Piruetti's first adult to complete the extensive curriculum of basic art education. Johanna, who worked in the background of many of our performances, was a passionate fan of dance and had a wide range of art and culture knowledge, an advocate of justice and an important mentor for the instituts activities over the decades.
Among us, Johanna was also a respected teacher colleague and an artistic soul. Creativity was visible in her visual skills and pedantic approach in working to support the dancers and also the teachers in addition to costume design. The day job as a lecturer of visual subjects at the Salo vocational college and the activity in various ventures and projects emphasized her curious and also brave nature and always encouraging her fellow sisters. The trace of his work belongs to the history of Hurja Piruetti.
Johanna radiated joy and energy around her without forgetting her spontaneity.
Johanna was missed by a large group of dance friends.
We welcome new and old hurja students to start the fall semester from August 15, 2022 at all our locations.
There are dance and circus art courses for people of different ages and skill levels. Do you want to dance, move and do circus for your own pleasure, or do you want to pursue something more goal-oriented?
Come and get to know our activities at the start of the fall semester. New students can try for free.
We offer basic art education in dance and circus arts. If you are unsure about the classes / levels that suit you, send a message to
Registration and course selection at https://uusi.tanssikoulut.fi/hurjapiruetti/fi
Come try it and cheer along!