Auraco 20 Years

🥳 Auraco turns 20 years old this year! What a journey these past 20 years have been! We’ll be walking down the memory lane throughout the whole year 2026 on our social media channels.

And wait, we’ll have something special coming up later this year – stay tuned! 🤫

Pictured in this photo collage, from top left:

• 🟢 Impulses II (2006) with Kati Lehtola, Päivi Aura and Eero Vuorinen, photo by Tuuli Vuorinen-Oras
• 🟠 Tutt(i)uuS (2012) with Minni Ilmonen, Kati Lehtola and Päivi Aura, photo by Tuuli Vuorinen-Oras
• 🟠 Harvest Dance (2012) with Minni Ilmonen, Kati Lehtola and Päivi Aura, photo by Jorma Airola
• 🔵 Moon Maiden (2007) with Takako Matsuda, photo by Patrick Oras
• 🟢 Mr. Kookaburra and Kukkaroo (2015) with Kati Lehtola, Jouni Bäckström and Sami Zimmermann, photo by Miia Kota
• 🟣 Witch’s Shop (2022) with Tomas Kasprzyk, Eliska Kasprzyk and Kati Lehtola, photo by Minna Hatinen
• 🔴 In This Moment (2007) with Minni Ilmonen, Raisa Vennamo, Kati Lehtola, Päivi Aura, Pietari Padilla and inhabitants of Riistavuori elderly centre, photo by Piia Veikkanen
• 🔵 Me-Me (2009) with Kati Lehtola, Päivi Aura, Lieve Hermans and Philippe-Marcel Iung, photo by Winter Chiang
• 🟠 Embrace (2024) with Heidi Tiainen and Veera Katila, photo by Minna Hatinen
• 🟠 Tuntu (2017) with Oskari Turpeinen, Maria Autio and Heli Hartikainen, photo by Anita Murphy
• 🟤 Travel 1:100 (2015) with Kati Lehtola, photo by Ronald Spratte
• 🔵 Whoopsie-Daisy, Where Are You? (2018) with Jouni Bäckström and Kati Lehtola, photo by Juha Hilpas

Small Size, Big Citizens 2009–2014

A big part of our international work has been several EU co-funded projects. We’ll start our 20th anniversary memory lane with the five EU projects that we have been part of.

🔵 First the first: EU Culture-program, Small Size, Big Citizens 2009–2014. The project’s aim was to support the rights of young children to enjoy the arts, to be part of artistic processes fostering their emotional intelligence and helping them to develop their sensibility skills. The project had 11 partners.

🍁 In Small Size, Big Citizens Auraco was Annantalo Art Centre’s local partner in Helsinki. Our main contribution to the project was a performance called Echoes, which was produced together with Auraco, Annantalo, Ateneum Art Museum and Theatre de La Guimbarde (BE). It was performed in Ateneum’s hall in October 2010.

Echoes was an interactive dance performance for babies from 0 to 3 years old. Dance, music and visual arts had dialogue together and with the audience. Fragments from several art works from Ateneum’s collection were reflected on the back drops.

Echoes’ performers were dancers Päivi Aura, Kati Lehtola, Lieve Hermans / Raisa Vennamo / Annika Sarvela, and musician Philippe-Marcel Iung. The visual realisation was by Ateneum hall and Annantalo Arts Centre.

🎨 Additionally, we held workshops in Finland, Belgium and France, had presentations of the work in museums with little children, and participated in meetings of the international Echoes museum project.

🎭 Finally, Päivi had a pop up solo performance called Avec Renoir in the closing event of the museum project in Limoges, France in April 2014.

Photos on top: Avec Renoir, photos by Javier Abad
Below: Echoes, photos by Kia Oramo

Grundtvig program 2010–2012 Parenthood/education/culture/art

👧 This was a project between parents, artists, early childhood and culture professionals and college researchers. It offered a very special view into the partner countries’ early childhood state as a whole. Auraco was one of the five partners.

🔸 This project had artist residencies, a great variety of events, workshops and performances for children, parents and educators. All this was followed by a researcher from the University of Lyon.

🎭 Auraco’s project production Petit Câlin (2012) was a co-production with Kanneltalo, Helsinki. The idea and the name of the work were based on the French phrase petit câlin, which means embracing a newborn baby, its first hug. Movement in a tightly controlled space, the human voice, and lighting transported the audience from one state of emotion to the next. Performers were dancer Takako Matsuda and musician Philippe-Marcel Iung, lighting by Keijo Vainio.

🌴 The project took us to an unforgettable visit in Martinique (overseas France), where we had a great opportunity to get acquainted with this Caribbean island’s art, culture and education.

📷 From top left:
Workshop photo by Agnes Desfosses
Petit Câlin photo by Rene Korpela
Martinique photos by Kati Lehtola and Harri Lehtola

Erasmus+ Growing up in Europe 2014–2016

This was a two-year mobility project of the Erasmus+ program. It had two interrelated activities: sharing experience about child care systems in partner countries and implementing innovative work methods in education. Auraco was invited to this project as an art education specialist. There were 12 partner organizations from four countries.

Diakonia College of Finland was Auraco’s local partner and took care of the educational exchange of the vocational students. We also collaborated with Annantalo Art Center and Päiväkoti Kaivopuisto in Helsinki.

The project featured international meetings, organizing and hosting a 3 days art education seminar in Helsinki, activities concerning education and vocational experience and student exchange, surveys, case studies, interviews and workshops.

Two week residency in Voiron and nearby cities in France gave us a deep dive into the French child care system and vocational education of children’s caretakers.

Photos from top left:
Workshop in Voiron, photo by Tuuli Vuorinen-Oras
Tuuli’s workshop collage in Annantalo, photo by Kati Lehtola
Seminar in Helsinki, photo by Kati Lehtola
Day care center in France, photo by Kati Lehtola
Kati in France, photo by Päivi Aura
Kati and Päivi in Grenoble, photo by Harri Lehtola

Small Size, Performing Arts for Early Years 2014–2018

👶 Small size, Performing Arts for Early Years was a large-scale co-operation project co-financed by Creative Europe Program. The project aimed to promote the productions and visibility of performing arts for the early years in Europe and world wide. The project focused on children from 0 to 6 years old, especially on little children under 3 years old. It was a European networking project for theatres and cultural centres that produce programmes for children.

🟢 Auraco was one of the 17 partners from 15 different European countries. All the partners strongly believed that children – even the youngest ones – have the right to be viewed as valuable spectators.

🟠 The project included Wide Eyes -productions, mentoring projects with European and outer-European theatres and companies, Small Size Days, artistic directors meetings, workshops, general meetings, festivals and visits.

🎭 Auraco produced three performances:

🌺 Mr. Kookaburra and Kukkaroo in 2015, with performers Jouni Bäckström, Kati Lehtola and musician Sami Zimmermann. The performance was directed by Päivi Aura, music composed by Sami Zimmermann, costumes were by Piritta Kämi-Conway and lights by Keijo Vainio.

🧡 Tuntu in 2017, with dancers Maria Autio and Oskari Turpeinen/Kalle Lähde and musician Heli Hartikainen. The music was composed by Heli Hartikainen, Sami Zimmermann and Michael Ferrie. The performance was directed by Päivi Aura, costumes were by Piritta Kämi-Conway and lights by Pasi Pehkonen.

🔎 Whoopsy Daisy, Where Are You? in 2018, with performers Jouni Bäckström and Kati Lehtola. The direction was by Päivi Aura and Kati Lehtola, sound design by Jouni Bäckström.

👧 Our mentoring partner was Sproutheatre Project from South Korea.

🎡 During the project we collaborated with Kanneltalo, Annantalo and Bravo! Festival 2018 in Helsinki.

📷 Photos from top left:
Mr. Kookaburra and Kukkaroo by Miia Kota
Tuntu by Tuomo Härkönen and Anita Murphy
Whoopsy Daisy, Where Are You? by Juha Hilpas

Mapping – A Map on the Aesthetics of Performing Arts for Early Years 2018–2023

Mapping was Auraco’s second large-scale co-operation project co-financed by Creative Europe Program. Mapping was an artistic research project focused on creating sensory-based relationships with very young children, from 0 to 6 years, through performing arts. From 2018 to 2023, 18 theatres and festivals from 17 countries worked together to investigate artistic means in theatre for the little ones, accompanied by scientific research.

During the project the partners created theatre productions and participated in workshops and festivals as well as in six book writing projects. Several partners organised festivals especially for very young children. Partners also investigated artistic means with regard to the different modes of sensory reception they addressed in four working groups: Sound, Image, Text and Movement. Auraco was the leader of the Movement group. Professors Young Ai Choi and Yoona Kang from the Korea National University of Arts were the researchers associated with the Movement group.

And of course, there was the Covid-19 pandemic! All the existing plans had to be changed and the project was prolonged for one year, but finally the project was successfully completed. We really learned how to use online meetings and workshops!

Auraco’s artistic production was The Why Mix, which premiered after several cancellations in January 2023. The rules and restrictions of the pandemic affected this production a lot – but we made it! During The Why Mix’s process, Auraco had a residency period at Annantalo Art Centre, where the premiere also took place.

The Why Mix was directed by Päivi Aura, choreographed by Päivi Aura, Kati Lehtola, Veera Lamberg and Maria Autio, the music was composed and played by Heli Hartikainen, and performed by Veera Lamberg, Maria Autio and Heli Hartikainen. The costumes were by Piritta Kämi-Conway and lighting by Nicolas Salo.

Photos from top left:
The Why Mix by Minna Hatinen
The Why Mix by Minna Hatinen
Bodies in Space by Päivi Aura
Workshop photo by Kati Lehtola
Zoom meeting screenshot

Floating Boat

Let’s continue our memory lane with our international co-productions! First: Floating Boat.

Floating Boat, an interactive performance for babies and their parents, was Auraco’s first international co-production. This collaboration began in Helsinki in 2012, when Katariina Metsälampi from Annantalo introduced Päivi to a Korean theatre director and actress Hye Jin Bae.

Floating Boat premiered in Seoul, South Korea, on November 30th, 2013. It was performed by Hye Jin Bae, Jihye Park and Young Park, and choreographed and directed by Päivi Aura. The music was by Sira Huh and Janghyuk Ahn / Andrew Kim.

We brought Floating Boat to Finland in collaboration with Assitej Finland in 2014. It was also performed in Assitej Korea Winter Festival 2016 in Seoul.

This fruitful collaboration has continued ever since and has taken us several times to South Korea and them to Finland as well.

Floating Boat photos by Dondsik An

B Free

B Free, an interactive dance performance for babies (for ages 2.5 and under) was a result of a three-year collaboration between Auraco and CCDC Dance Centre in Hong Kong. This project started after we performed Me-Me in Hong Kong in 2015 and received an invitation to collaborate. The first residency period with a show case took place in 2016 and the second residency and premiere of B Free in 2018. This performance was the first ever dance performance for babies in Hong Kong produced by a local Hong Kong dance company.

B Free refers both to the baby’s freedom and being free. Without a story, text or language, dancers used movement and live music to communicate with the young audience, motivate them to move to the rhythm, and let them become performers. Parents were encouraged to interact with the music and their little ones, immerse themselves in the environment and enjoy the freedom of the performing arts.

The performances were part of the International Arts Carnival 2018 in Hong Kong with dancers Kati Lehtola, Alice Ma and Mary Jane Tang, and musician Tim Chan. Päivi Aura was the director, with artistic consultant Ronly Kong.

Photos:
Crew with B Free poster: CCDC staff member
Performance: Jacky Fung
Hong Kong view: Kati Lehtola
CCDC building: Päivi Aura
Rehearsals: Päivi Aura

Sproutheatre Project: Little Wonders

Collaboration with the Korean artists continued with a mentoring project called Sproutheatre Project that was a part of the Small Size Performing Arts for Early Years in 2016–2018. During the project we created three performances for babies based on movement, voice and music. They were performed in Seoul and at the Bravo! festival in Finland in 2018 under the title of Little Wonders with Jajang, Jajang My Baby by Sira Hur, Promenade by Mila Lee and Haejin Lee and Time Belly Button by Hye Jin Bae.

Photos by Aïna Canivet

Owl Forest, Little Pond, Leaf Boat

A coproduction with Korean Leaf Boat Theatre Company and Goyang Children’s Museum continued the long collaboration with Hye Jin Bae. Auraco’s Päivi visited Seoul, South Korea, as a guest choreographer.

The performance workshop Owl Forest, Little Pond, Leaf Boat is a co-production with Leaf Boat Theatre Company, Goyang Children’s Museum and Auraco. This performance workshop and showcase for babies and their caregivers is based on a cappella music, improvisational movement, and storytelling. Owl Forest, Little Pond, Leaf Boat is directed by Hye Jin Bae. The performance workshops were held on 13 and 14 Oct 2025, at the Goyang Children’s Museum with Lee Mila, Byun Chae-woo, Ahn Jang-hyeok, Lim Eun-joo, Lee So-sun and Kang Ji-wan.

A part of the artistic group also visited Jeju Island and its first festival for little children called Early Years Culture and Arts Festival. They gave a modified workshop for babies and their parents and Päivi participated as a speaker at the festival’s seminar called Baby Meets Artist.

Photos by Päivi Aura

Auraco is 10 years old! We are celebrating our 10th anniversary by posting pics and memories from these ten years and using hashtag #Auraco10.

Auraco’s first production Moon Maiden (Kuuneiti) premiered in 2007. Moon Maiden was also the first collaboration between Päivi Aura and dancer Takako Matsuda who has performed in other Auraco’s productions later on. The music was composed and played by Pekka Nylund.

Photo: Patrick Oras

We have performed in Chemnitz, Germany, several times: Me-Me in 2010, Petit Câlin in 2012 and Travel 1:100 in 2015. Outdoor activities seem to be part of the city’s charm!

An art exhibition with dance performances The Moon, the Stars and the Wanderers (Kuu, tähdet ja kulkureita, 2008) was one of the many activities that Auraco held in Riistavuori Elderly Center.

Dancers Päivi Aura and Kati Lehtola, music Minni Ilmonen.

Photos: Tuuli Vuorinen-Oras

My Eyes Your Eyes (Mun silmät sun silmät, 2014) was a colorful and beautiful dance piece performed in hospitals. One of the most unforgettable performances of all was the one in a hospice.

This performance was in Tampere University Hospital as part of Community Dance Festival / Yhteisötanssifestivaali.

Dancers Päivi Aura and Kati Lehtola, music Minni Ilmonen.

Photo: Pia Kulin

Doors to Asia and its wonders opened to us in 2013, when we were invited to perform Me-Me and give a workshop at SiDance festival in Seoul, South-Korea. Were we excited!

One of the most unforgettable trips was at the end of 2011 when we visited the island of French Martinique in the Caribbean Sea, as part of the EU’s Grundtvig project. Never forget!

Photos: Kati Lehtola

Echoes (Kaikuja, 2010) in Ateneum art museum was an interactive dance performance for babies from 0 to 3 years old, where dance, music and visual arts had dialogue together and with the audience.

Dancers Päivi Aura, Kati Lehtola, Lieve Hermans / Raisa Vennamo / Annika Sarvela, music Philippe-Marcel Iung. Collaboration with Auraco, Annantalo Arts Center and Ateneum art museum as part of Small Size, Big Citizens project.

Photo: Kia Oramo

In the spring 2016 we spent two weeks in a residence in France around Voiron. A lot of workshops (both dance and photography) and meetings, and some spectacular views!

Part of Erasmus+ programme's Grandir en Europe – Growing Up In Europe project.

Photos: Kati Lehtola, Tuuli Vuorinen-Oras

TTTT – a dance playback theatre performance in 2013 where the dancers and a musician played the audience’s stories back to them.

The conductor was Kimmo Räntilä, dancers in this pic Päivi Aura, Otto Akkanen, Mirva Birgitta Mäkinen and Janne Simojoki, musician Antti Hakkarainen. Other dancers were involved as well.

Photo: Tuuli Vuorinen-Oras

In May 2011, we had 23 Me-Me performances in Madrid, Spain, at the Rompiendo el cascarón festival. Another remarkable thing was that Finland won the ice hockey world championship. There were so many Finns that the local sports bar showed the final game on the big screen!

In This Moment (Tässä hetkessä, 2007) was performed in elderly centres together with the residents and workers of the centre. Beautiful moments of dance and music that happened right there, in that moment, creating togetherness with different age groups.

Dancers Päivi Aura, Kati Lehtola, Raisa Vennamo, Pietari Padilla and clients/workers of the center. Music by Minni Ilmonen.

Photo: Piia Veikkanen

In 2015 we hosted a seminar around Growing Up in Europe EU project: childhood and arts in Finland.

Photo collage Tuuli Vuorinen-Oras; dance improvisation Päivi Aura, Kati Lehtola, Annika Sarvela, Sanna Kuusisto; music Antti Hakkarainen.

In August 2014 Auraco participated in a Keðja meeting in beautiful, sunny Mariehamn in Åland. Keðja is a Nordic-Baltic dance network. Auraco was also present at Tanzmesse in Düsseldorf, Germany. Sun and ice cream - what else do you need! 🙂

In 2012, Päivi had residencies in Madrid, Spain, and Villiers-le-Bel, France, working with children, professionals of early childhood and parents. The silence and sharing the movements together with the children was a mind blowing experience for some of the participants.

Another spring in Paris 🙂 In 2014 Petit Câlin was part of Premières rencontres festival, alongside with the seminar and meetings with international colleagues. Here Päivi is with a French artist Benoît Sicat.

In November 2013 Päivi spent one month in Seoul, South-Korea, working with Little Tree Theatre Group to create a new performance Floating Boat for the very little ones. Later in 2014 the group also played in Finland, where they had a chance to get to know some Finnish wilderness.

The end of 2015 was very productive as we had two premieres: Mr. Kookaburra & Kukkaroo and Travel 1:100. A lot laughter included!

Different Me-Me moments: fooling around before the performance in Chemnitz in 2010 and being seriously interviewed on Chinese TV in Guangzhou in 2015.

The milestone of 100 performances of Me-Me was reached in January 2016, almost exactly 7 years after its premiere.

#Auraco10 year is getting to an end – thank you for all the likes and memories from the past 10 years, and for the new productions of this year! Towards the next ten!