Saarinen, Tero

Tero Kalevi Saarinen (born September 7, 1964, in Pori, Finland) is a Finnish dance artist and choreographer, and Artistic Director of Tero Saarinen Company. Saarinen has made an international career as both a dancer and choreographer. As a choreographer Saarinen is known for his unique movement language that plays with balance and off-balance, combining influences from Butoh and martial arts to classical ballet and Western contemporary dance. Saarinen's movement language has been described as “organic” and “inventive”, “like Butoh with wings.” He began his career at the Finnish National Ballet in 1985. His long international career as a soloist took off in 1988, after he won first prize at the Concours International de Danse de Paris. Saarinen left the Finnish National Ballet in 1992 to seek new influences in Western Europe and Japan, where he studied traditional Japanese dance and Butoh from 1992 to 1993. Saarinen founded his own group, Tero Saarinen Company, in 1996. By April 2018, he has created 46 original works, many of them for other dance groups. Nederlands Dans Theater, the French ballets of Lyon, Marseille and Lorraine, the Portuguese Ballet Gulbenkian, the Israeli Batsheva Dance Company, the Swedish Gothenburg Opera ballet, the Finnish National Ballet, and others, have featured Saarinen's works in their repertoires. Saarinen has received numerous acknowledgements for his work as an artist. In 2001 he was awarded the Finland Prize, and in 2005 the Pro Finlandia medal. In 2008 The Finnish Cultural Foundation gave him an award for his achievements as an artist. International recognition includes the international Movimientos Dance Prize for Best Male Performer, and the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, granted by the French government, both in 2004.