Guest teachers

Summer 2023 visiting teachers are Nicholas Ziegler, Anandah Kononen and Maria Nurmela.

Nicholas Ziegler

Nicholas Ziegler is the former Lead Principal Dancer of the Finnish National Ballet and now works as an Artistic Coordinator of the Youth Company for Finnish National Ballet.

Nicholas started his education at the University of Music, Drama and Media in Hannover,and graduated in 1997 from the University of Arts in Munich, Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung. His first professional engagement,1997, was with the Semperoper Dresden from where the journey took Nicholas to the Finnish National Ballet in 2001.Shortly after, he was promoted to dance main roles of the classical repertoire such as Swanlake, Nutcracker,Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, La Bayadère and Onegin. He also took great pleasure in performing contemporary works by Dawson, Duato, Elo, Fonte, Forsythe, Kylian, Naharin, Neumeier, Ratmansky and others. His career took him on tours to Denmark, England, Finland, Italy as well as Japan, Macau, Russia, Singapore, and Switzerland.

Nicholas received the Pro Dance award in 2004 and the Edvard Fazer award in 2008.

Alongside his active dancing, Nicholas has worked as a repetitor for the Finnish National Ballet, coaching works by Patrice Bart, David Bintley, John Neumeier and Jerome Robbins.

During the season 2017/2018 he successfully completed his studies as Professional Teacher at the University of Applied Sciences in Hämeenlinna.  Since the funding of the Youth Company of the Finnish National Ballet in 2013, Nicholas is involved with mentoring and coaching the young artists during their first years as professionals. From season 2019/2020, Nicholas took the lead as artistic coordinator of the Youth Company.

Anandah Kononen

Coming soon.

See here in Finnish

Intermediate course 31.7.–11.8.2023 (2 weeks) FULLY BOOKED!

Minimum 2,5 years (adults)/ 3,5 years (teens) of previous studies required.
Teacher: 31.7.–4.8. Anandah Kononen & 7.8.–11.8. Nicholas Ziegler
Course number.: 23160
Classes: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri at 18.00-19.30
Studio: LEI5
Course fee: 135 €

Maria Nurmela

Marias’ classes are based on somatically oriented dance as well as release technique. Maria also draws inspiration from her many years of experience in the works of choreographers also known as dance artists, such as Tero Saarinen and Susanne Linke, as well as her own interdisciplinary and multi-sensory work processes.
Marias’ classes are divided into two parts. The first half is about researching the potential of one ‘s own body, such as kinetic chains and connections, the flow of movement and the possibilities of one’ s own movement capacity. During the class, the range of motion increases from the center of the body toward the periphery, off-balances, spirals, and drops. The second part of the lesson consists of various improvisation / composition tasks, from which the course participants’ own choreography is built during the course.
Maria’s lessons have been described as interesting artistic and flowing entities with varying choreographic material and various improvisational and composition tasks.

Contemporary – Intermediate course 3.8.–7.8.2022 (2 weeks)

Minimum 2,5 years (adults)/ 3,5 years (teens) of previous studies is required.
Teacher: Maria Nurmela
Course number.: 23175
Classes: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri at 19.15–21.15
Studio: LEI6
Course fee: 106 €