Bone Garden

Bone Garden is a full-length folk dance theatre piece by dance artist Elena Vuoksiola and composer Kaisa Ristiluoma. The work showcases folk dance and northern Finnish folk music as bold, expressive art rooted in tradition yet unafraid to create something new. At the heart of the piece are contemporary folk dance, folk singing, and live folk music.

Script, Direction, Choreography: Elena Vuoksiola
Composition, Music Rehearsal: Kaisa Ristiluoma
Lighting Design: Mika Ryynänen
On Stage: Folk Dance Group Pähiät

Premiere: August 19, 2026 at Valvesali, Cultural Centre Valve (Hallituskatu 7, 90100 Oulu)
Additional performances: August 20–21, 2026 at Valvesali

The performance features Pähiät, an Oulu-based folk dance group known for their thought-provoking and emotionally resonant stage productions. More than anything, Pähiät dances to feel and express. The group, based in the Oulunsuu Youth Association, includes around twenty dedicated folk dancers and professionals. They are joined on stage by a live band composed of professional musicians.

Bone Garden draws inspiration from well-known places and landscapes in Oulu, where emotional traces of death and lived lives are still present. Local history, legends, and Finnish mythology also serve as sources of inspiration. The work approaches death through a range of emotions and as a threshold between known reality and the spirit world. Death is seen not as an end, but as a passage—a beginning of something new.

The artists’ work on the production has been supported by the Samuel Huber Art Foundation, Finnish Music Creators’ Fund, and Oulun Valistustalo.