July 21st, 2010 - Thomas Freundlich joins forces with Skaala Opera Helsinki again, this time on the world premiere of the contemporary opera Madame de Sade by Juha T. Koskinen. Based on the play by renowned and controversial Japanese author Yukio Mishima, Madame de Sade is an endless labyrinth of metamorphoses, colours, and mental images. Delicate and erotically charged, it embraces the psychological complexity and suppressed emotions of both the characters and the author himself, portrayed in dance by Thomas Freundlich.

Madame de Sade will be premiered on August 11th, 2010 at the Korjaamo Culture Factory in Helsinki, Finland.

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July 2nd, 2010 -- The dance film North Horizon has received a warm welcome at more international dance and short film festivals.

In May and June, the film was seen at Il Coreografo Elettronico (Naples, Italy) and American Dance Festival's Dancing for the Camera series (Durham, NC, USA). Later in in the summer and early autumn, North Horizon will be screened at Gimli Film Festival (Gimli, Manitoba, Canada); Bangkok Indiefest (Bangkok, Thailand); and the Quinzena de Dança de Almada contemporary dance festival (Almada, Portugal). 

April 25th, 2010 -- New festival screenings for the dance film North Horizon by Thomas Freundlich and Valtteri Raekallio have been announced.

North Horizon will be seen at Ecozine International Film and Environment Festival in Zaragoza, Spain. The festival is held May 14th to 23rd, 2010, with the screening time for North Horizon to be confirmed.

The film will screen Sunday June 13 at 7 pm during the Dance Camera West Media Festival. The festival runs from June 4-27, 2010 in Los Angeles. Please see www.dancecamerawest.org for festival updates.

Later in the summer, North Horizon makes its South American debut at Dança em Foco, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (August 2010, schedule to be confirmed).

More info on the film: www.north-horizon.fi

March 28th, 2010 -- Thomas Freundlich is appearing as a guest on the talk show Voimala, broadcast on Wednesday, March 31st 2010 at 10 p.m. on Finland's YLE TV 1. 

The topic of the program is the power and possibilities of the web and social media in today's world. The other guests of the program are consultant Markus Leikola, media psychologist Anu Mustonen and researcher Sari Östman. The program will be rerun on Saturday, April 3rd 2010 at 12.35 p.m. and is accessible for viewers in Finland at YLE's online service Areena for one month after the broadcast.

More info on the program (in Finnish): ohjelmat.yle.fi/voimala

March 17th, 2010 -- TF and Valtteri Raekallio are performing a site-specific video dance improvisation as part of the Live@LOIKKA program of Loikka 2010 dance film festival. The performance will take place at the "Opintoputki" corridor of Kaisaniemi Metro station in Helsinki, on Thursday, March 25th 2010 from 2.30 pm to 3.00 pm.

Loikka 2010 will host the premiere screening of the dance film North Horizon in the festival's Fresh Domestic screening at Andorra cinema, Eerikinkatu 11, Helsinki, on Saturday March 27th at 9 pm.

March 8th, 2010 -- The first festival screenings for the dance film North Horizon have been announced. The film will be seen at Loikka 2010 (Helsinki), Tanssivirtaa Tampereella (Tampere), DMJ International Video Dance Festival (Tokyo) and Full Moon Dance Festival (Pyhäjärvi). For more info on the film, visit www.north-horizon.fi.

February 14th, 2010 -- Thomas Freundlich is conducting an open workshop/audition organized by Tanssille ry, a non-profit organization for professional dancers. The purpose of the events, held four times per year, is to provide an opportunity for dancers to work with the movement language and methods of invited choreographers, while also allowing other choreographers and artists to see the attending dancers in action, as well as to network in an informal setting.  

The workshop/audition is held at the Alexander Theater, Helsinki, on Tuesday, March 2nd 2010 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

More info (in Finnish): www.tanssille.net/tulossa.php

February 8th, 2010 -- Filming contemporary dance in the wilderness of Svalbard is not without its challenges, from near-freezing temperatures to potential encounters with polar bears. Thomas Freundlich and Valtteri Raekallio discuss the making of the dance film North Horizon in this video interview.

Full resolution version:
The Making of North Horizon

October 16th, 2009 -- Preview trailer of a new dance film by Thomas Freundlich and Valtteri Raekallio, filmed in Svalbard in 2008 and completed in January 2010.

Full resolution version:
North Horizon - dance film preview

More info on the project:
www.north-horizon.fi

August 13th, 2009 -- Thomas Freundlich is choreographing the musical theatre play Kirkan lahje for Kotka City Theatre. The play, based on the music of the late and legendary Finnish pop star Kirka, will premiere at theatre restaurant Kairo in Kotka on August 29th, 2009.

The production is written by Esko Janhunen and directed by Ilkka Laasonen. Click here to download the flyer (in Finnish).

March 22nd, 2009 -- Thomas Freundlich collaborates again with Skaala Opera Helsinki on A Madrigal Opera, a rarely performed chamber work by Philip Glass, set to text by Finnish poet Lauri Otonkoski. The piece, performed by six singers, two musicians and two dancers, will be premiered at Helsinki's Astoria hall on April 21st, 2009.

More info on A Madrigal Opera

In April, Thomas Freundlich also appears with Skaala Opera's guest performance of Turing Machine Opera at the NOA - New Opera Action festival in Vilnius, Lithuania.

November 29th, 2008 -- Thomas Freundlich is premiering a new solo, Futureproof, at the 13th International Solo-Dance-Theatre Festival in Stuttgart, Germany. The festival is held at the Treffpunkt Rotebühlplatz culture center from March 12th to 15th, 2009.

Futureproof is one of 18 dance works nominated for the competition. Mr. Freundlich's work was previously seen at the festival in 2005, when the solo Dreamcatcher, performed by Tanja Kuisma, was premiered there. Dreamcatcher won the 2nd Prize in Dancing and the Audience Prize of the 2005 festival.

More information on the 13th International Solo-Dance-Theatre Festival

More information on Futureproof   

September 6th, 2008 -- Actuator is guesting at the Tanssin Aika 2008 contemporary dance festival in Jyväskylä on Saturday, September 27th 2008. The work is performed together with Vera Nevanlinna's solo work News.

For more information on the festival (in Finnish), see www.ismodance.fi/tanssinaika.

August 18th, 2008 -- Thomas Freundlich is guesting with Helsinki Skaala Opera in the title role of The Manson Family Opera by John Moran. The production will be performed at the Lainsuojattomat 2008 theatre festival in Pori, Finland, on September 3rd, 2008.

Further information (in Finnish) will be available on the Lainsuojattomat festival home page.

Click here for more info on the production.

May 5th, 2008 -- Yle Television presented a 20-minute feature on Thomas Freundlich and the making of the Actuator dance work in the K-Reppu series. The program was broadcast on Yle TV1 on Tuesday, May 13th at 19:00, with a rerun the following day, Wed May 14th at 23:00.

March 24th, 2008 -- Thomas Freundlich is choreographing a new work for dancer and industrial robot. The piece, titled Actuator, will be premiered on May 14th, 2008 at the Z-in-motion festival hosted by the Zodiak Centre for New Dance in Helsinki, Finland.

Click here for more info.