Words with Isadora - Preparing a new premiere in progress

Words with Isadora is Willman Dance Company’s premiere of the year, opening at the Kilta Gallery of the Wäinö Aaltonen Museum in Turku. The work is directed by Marjaterttu Willman, with choreography created by Willman together with performer Jonna Aaltonen. This solo piece made for Aaltonen celebrates the artist’s 30-year career. The sound design is by Mikko Väärälä. The production is carried out in collaboration with the Wäinö Aaltonen Museum and the Regional Dance Centre of Western Finland.

Words with Isadora explores a dance artist’s expressive journey over a long-performing career. What changes and what remains when the body travels through many different ways of moving over the course of decades? The theme is examined through a dialogue with Isadora Duncan. Duncan, a pioneer of early 20th-century new dance, profoundly influenced the later development of the art form. Words with Isadora reflects on the meaning of movement and the freedom of expression in contemporary dance, while seeking both differences and connections to Duncan’s early-century ideas.

In Duncan’s era, the arts were driven by a powerful search for new forms of expression. Presenting Words with Isadora in a gallery space enables an interdisciplinary dialogue. At the Kilta Gallery, the performance communicates with the visual art of Fanny Varjo.

During the first rehearsal weeks, Willman and Aaltonen have been reflecting on time—its relationship to artistic work and to womanhood in the arts. Does today’s dance artist still have to explain and defend the significance of their work in the same way Duncan did at the beginning of the last century?

Premiere Thu 6 November. Other performances 7–9 November 2025.

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