Ruska Ensemble is a Finnish group of performing arts founded in 2010. The group wants to create theatre that breaks walls between fields of art, brings people together and gets its inspiration from a person as well as from a community.

 

The group is concerned about the ecological and cultural future of the Arctic region. Therefore it wants to create a platform where indigenous people are brought together and everyone has a chance to speak up their mind in their own disappearing language. The aim is to strengthen our identities and to find alternative ways to approach and perceive the world. The focus is on the future of the Arctic people and their Northern environment.

 

Ruska Ensemble's first production was a collaboration with Kokkola City Theatre, The Last Morning Star (2011). The first part of a trilogy handling Arctic matters, Áillohaš - The Son of the Sun premiered at The Finnish National Theatre in 2014. It was a collaboration with The Finnish National Theatre and the Norwegian Beaivváš Sámi Našunálateáhter. The second part of the trilogy is called Arctic Odyssey and it premiered at The Finnish National Theatre in 2017. Collaboration was in between The Finnish National Theatre and the Greenlandic national theatre, Nunatta Isiginnaartitsisarfia. The third part of the trilogy will see daylight in 2020.

Ruska Ensemble's assosiation is supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

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JARKKO LAHTI

Artistic director

Actor

Director

ARI-PEKKA LAHTI

Artistic director
Playwright
Director

NADJA RÄIKKÄ

Technical director

Visual designer