Tia Teckenberg: “After a dance class, I always feel a little lighter and happier”

We interviewed Tia, who has gained experiences and insights from the contemporary dance courses at Helsingin aikuisopisto since 2018.

What is your own sporting history?
As a child, I did artistic gymnastics, but the sport was competitive and required muscle strength that I did not have. I gave up gymnastics, but later I realised that it gave me a foundation for all kinds of movement. I discovered dance as a teenager. Since then, I have danced in different forms about once a week, switching between styles and trying jazz, African dance, show dance, modern dance and dance improvisation. There have also been gap years in my dancing.

I have realised that I am very much a group exerciser and a lover of variety. For sensible reasons, as an adult I have also done independent workouts, yoga, swimming and the gym, but self-directed, performance-focused and repetitive exercise feels boring and is easier to skip. Last year I tried karate, and the best thing about it was also doing it in a group and the variety of the training. Dance, however, is the sport I have always come back to. In my thirties, I discovered contemporary dance and had a eureka moment – this feels most like me! I have done contemporary dance continuously for about 15 years, the last six of them at Helsingin aikuisopisto.

Why did you choose contemporary dance in particular?
Contemporary dance is a bit like a conversation with your own body and those of other dancers, and with the movements and the music. The movement language is varied and surprising, because it is often a little “off-kilter”. Contemporary dance has contrasts and rough edges. Finding a way into movement and expression that suits your own body and using your body’s own weight is more important than giving an aesthetically neat performance. In contemporary dance classes, you get to do fun and interesting movement and dance exercises that challenge your learning: listening to your body, spatial awareness, varied expression and movement, interaction with others, exploring movement and problem-solving. I like that the classes include both choreography and freer movement exploration and improvisation.

How did you end up at Helsingin aikuisopisto, and what are your experiences of the teachers?
I came to the courses at Helsingin aikuisopisto on the recommendation of someone I know. I did not know that dance as an art form was taught here. Here I found a truly brilliant teacher, Saara, whose classes I attended for many years, and now a great new teacher, Matti. Finding a good teacher who suits you always feels like a stroke of luck. Whether you enjoy a hobby and keep doing it depends a lot on the teacher.

The dance classes at Helsingin aikuisopisto have a fun and equal group spirit and a shared vibe, where everyone can be who they are and learn in their own way and at their own pace, but together. You can always ask the teacher to show you again how something went, and the teacher will show you. And your fellow dancers help. There is no grim performing, even though everyone takes it seriously. Shared insights and experiences often come up in the classes, and we always laugh.

What is the best thing about having a hobby as an adult?
Definitely the way different people from different backgrounds gather around a shared interest and get excited about the same thing. Together you can focus on just that and do not need to think about anything else. In a dance class, you only do and think about dance, so work and other everyday worries disappear from your mind, at least for the duration of the class. After a dance class, I always feel a little lighter and happier.

I will turn 50 next year, and I am happy to have had such a long relationship with dance in my life. You feel your age when learning new things and remembering movement sequences feels harder than before, or when your body resists more easily and warms up more slowly. With practice, however, you notice that you are learning and able to do many new things. This autumn, I also started trying a new dance style, street dance, which challenges me in a new way. And when you hear about active dancers aged 70–80, you can only stop worrying about your age and keep dancing!