Hanna Järvinen

Dr Hanna Järvinen is the Head of the Performing Arts Research Centre and University Lecturer at the doctoral programme of the Theatre Academy of UNIARTS Helsinki, Finland. She is also Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Dance at De Montfort University, Leicester, and holds the title of Docent in Dance History at the University of Turku. The author of Dancing Genius (Palgrave Macmillan 2014) and eight edited books as well as a number of articles and book chapters, her research combines dance scholarship with performance studies, history, cultural studies, and artistic research. In particular, she has been interested in authorship and canonisation, postcolonialism and decolonisation, and questions of materiality and contemporaneity in art practice. She enjoys making performances and collaborating with artists and her recent research projects include the Swedish Research Council workshop project Spectral Collaborations (2019–2020) and the Academy of Finland project How to Do Things with Performance (2016–2021).

Job description

As Head of the Department, I am responsible for directing the Research Centre, appointing doctoral candidates and their supervisors, and giving various permissions related to pre-examination of doctoral research projects.

As University Lecturer, I teach mostly courses in writing research expositions and epistemology for doctoral candidates, in particular on issues related to my interests in queering and decolonising dance and performance studies. I supervise doctoral work and teach regularly at MA programmes of the Theatre Academy.My principal research interests include histories of authorship, art practice, and canonisation, in particular questions of inclusion and exclusion. Most recently, I worked as Senior Researcher in the Academy of Finland research project How to Do Things with Performance?, 2016–2021; and co-PI of the Vetenskapsrådet-funded workshop Spectral Collaborations with Karmenlara Ely Seidman (Østfold University College, Norway) and Cecilia Lagerström (Gothenburg University, Sweden). I also hold honorary positions of Docent in Dance History at University of Turku and International Fellow at De Montfort University, Leicester. I am an alumna of the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (2004–2007).

Introduction

My monograph Dancing Genius: The Stardom of Vaslav Nijinsky came out from Palgrave Macmillan in 2014 both as a printed hardback and as e-book. In addition, I have edited and co-edited several collections and textbooks, an issue of Ruukku: Studies in Artistic Research, and published extensively in academic journals and also some professional publications. With Emily Wilcox (William & Mary) and Thomas F. DaeFrantz (Northwestern), I edit a new book series, 21^st Century Dance, for Bloomsbury Methuen. 

I have been active in a number of national and international academic societies and served in the boards of the Society of Dance History Scholars and Dance Studies Association as well as the Finnish Society for Theatre Research. With Rosemary Candelario (University of Texas, Austin), I co-convene the Choreography & Corporeality working group of the International Federation for Theatre Research; and with Lena Hammergren (Stockholm University), I co-convene the Nordic Forum for Dance Research Dance History working group.

Recent research publications

See https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9081-9906

”The World of Art in the Russian World: Post-Soviet Rewritings of Russian Ballet.” Forthcoming in Annelies Van Assche, Dunja Njaradi, Igor Koruga, and Milica Ivic, eds. (Post)Socialist Bodies: Uncovering Legacies in Dance. London:  

Bloomsbury

”Aesthetic, Hygienic, and Natural: Dancing Whiteness, 1890-1920.” Forthcoming in Victor Ladron de Guevara, Roberta Mock, and Hershini Bhana Young, eds. Routledge Companion to Bodies in Performance. London: Routledge 

Miten tehdä esityksellä? Esimerkkejä esityksen monimuotoisuudesta. (How to do with performance? Examples of the multifaceted character of performance.) Forthcoming in 2024 from Tampere: Vastapaino 

“Staging a “Children’s Classic”, Teaching Racism: Pippi Longstocking (2005/2019).” Forthcoming in Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance, 2: 2023 

”Appropriation, Abstraction, and Appraisal: Modernist Legacies of Contemporary Dance.” In Adrian Curtin, Nicholas Johnson, Naomi Paxton, and Claire Warden, eds. The Edinburgh Companion to Modernism in Contemporary Theatre. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press 2023 (in print) 

(with Lena Hammergren, Petri Hoppu, Elizabeth Svarstad, and Astrid von Rosen) “Choreographing Histories: Critical Perspectives on Dance Histories in Nordic Dance Practices and Scholarship.” Nordic Journal of Dance 14:1, 2023 (in print)

“Taiteellisen tutkimuksen dekolonialisoinnista eli miksi miettiä taidetta muutenkin kuin Eurooppa-keskeisesti?” (On decolonising artistic research or why think of art in ways other than the usual Eurocentric manner?) In Laura Gröndahl, ed. Taiteellinen tutkimus. Teatterikorkeakoulun julkaisusarja 76. Helsinki: Taideyliopiston Teatterikorkeakoulu 2023 https://disco.teak.fi/taiteellinen-tutkimus/ 

(with Kirsi Monni & Riikka Laakso) Näkökulmia tanssitaiteen historiaan ja nykypäivään. Helsinki: Taideyliopiston Teatterikorkeakoulu 2022; English translation forthcoming in 2023 

“On ‘Contemporaneity’ in Ballet and Contemporary Dance: Jeux in 1913 and 2016.” In Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel & Jill Nunes Jensen, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet. New York: Oxford University Press 2021 

“From Historical Materiality to Performance: Choreographic Functions of the Costumes in The Rite of Spring (1913).” Studies in Costume and Performance 6:1, 2021 

”Decolonise Nordic Dance.” In Solveig Styve Holte, Ann-Christin Kongsness & Venke Marie Sortland, eds. Koreografi/Choreography 2021, Oslo: Dansens hus 2021 

“Historical Materiality of Performance: On the Costumes of The Rite of Spring (1913).” Studies in Costume and Performance 5:2, 2020 

“Ballets Russes and Blackface.” Dance Research Journal 52:3, 2020; Spanish translation of this article by Eugenia Cadús, Sofía Rypka, Ana Pellegrini, Ayelen Clavin, Aldana Iglesias, Belén Arenas Arce & Irene de la Puente is forthcoming in 2023

“Materiaalin muisti: Kevätuhrin puvustuksen kertomaa.” (Material’s memory: Stories from the costumes of The Rite of Spring) Tua Helve, Outi Lahtinen & Marja Silde, eds. Muisti, arkisto, esitys. Näyttämö ja tutkimus 8. Helsinki: Teatterintutkimuksen seura 2020 

(with Annette Arlander, Tero Nauha and Pilvi Porkola) “Miten tehdä asioita tutkimuspäivillä? katsaus ’Miten tehdä asioita esityksellä?’ (2016–2020) hankkeeseen.” (How to do things in research days – an overview of the project How to do things with performance) In Tua Helve, Outi Lahtinen & Marja Silde, eds. Muisti, arkisto ja esitys. Näyttämö ja tutkimus 8. Helsinki: Teatterintutkimuksen seura 2020 

(with Tero Nauha, Annette Arlander & Pilvi Porkola) Performanssifilosofiaa.Nivel 12. Helsinki: Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts 2019, simultaneously published online: https://nivel.teak.fi/performanssifilosofiaa/