Aino Kukkonen

Aino Kukkonen (PhD) works as a Visiting Researcher at the Research Institute of the University of the Arts Helsinki. Her expertise is especially related to the history of Finnish dance and theatre, as well as issues in contemporary dance. She is interested in historiography, the work of artists in institutions and in the free field, and art criticism. Kukkonen completed her PhD in Theatre Research at the University of Helsinki in 2014 on the topic of postmodernism in Finnish dance art in the 1980s. Since then, she has been a researcher at Helsinki Term Bank for Arts and Sciences and has curated exhibitions at the Theatre Museum in Helsinki. She also gives lectures and works as a theatre and dance critic. Her most recent books are Sinikka Gripenberg – Life of Dance in Photos (in Finnish and in English, 2023) and Operettiteatterin historia 1959–1995 (2024). She is currently researching the role of performing arts and professional dancers in the entertainment organised by the Finnish Defence Forces during the Continuation War (1941-1944). The two-year project is funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

LinkedIn