Choreographer Jenni-Elina von Bagh has been chosen as Zodiak's new artistic director. Von Bagh will take up her post in February 2023
During the application process, Jenni-Elina von Bagh convinced with her knowledge of the production environment, her vision for curating and her interpersonal skills. Based on her education, work experience, and mentoring experience, she has excellent opportunities to develop Zodiak’s artist and audience relationships.
- Jenni-Elina recognized and related her thinking to Zodiak's strategic challenges in the coming years. She had a clear vision for a balanced development of Zodiak’s artistic programme and its relation to different audiences, says Nina Numminen, Chairman of the Board of Zodiak.
Jenni-Elina von Bagh has worked as a dancer in working groups of distinguished choreographers, and has been attached to major dance groups both domestically and internationally. As a choreographer, she has created language for contemporary performance, which attaches to the many practices and dramaturgical means of contemporary dance and performance. In curating, von Bagh seeks radical new thinking in forms that are also of interest outside the art community.
- The field of contemporary Finnish dance is unique and Zodiak has done a great job for it. Zodiak’s artistic policy should be articulated in the sense of the intrinsic value of art and in art that enables bold and innovative thinking. I believe that the position of contemporary dance in Finland will be strengthened and deepened; it reaches an ever-widening audience and also a stronger fiscal position, Jenni-Elina von Bagh says.
A total of six people, three women and three men applied for the position of artistic director. The term of office of the Artistic Director, beginning at the beginning of 2023, is three years, with an option of two additional years.
