Laulu väelle Vellamon

What happened to Aino after she drowned and entered Vellamo’s kingdom?

Laulu väelle Vellamon (A Song for Vellamo’s Folk) is a contemporary dance work grounded in Finnish mythology and myths of water. It draws on the story of Aino in the Kalevala, on the oral poems behind the character, and on how that story still resonates.

Elias Lönnrot constructed Aino from several Finnish and Karelian oral poems. In the Kalevala she is forced to become Väinämöinen’s wife, but chooses to drown herself instead. The piece imagines what happened to her in the realm of the water spirits.

The narrative unfolds in three parts: Lönnrot and a colleague contemplating the creation of Aino; Aino’s story as told in the Kalevala and imagined forward; and the company’s own onstage conversation about what the epic means today. Dance, singing, theatre, puppetry and music meet, and the ending invites the audience to join a waltz with Vellamo’s folk.

The piece opened Teatteri Sujo’s residency programme, which I started and lead, and was named by Iisalmen Sanomat the most artistically significant work of the summer in Upper Savo.