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Lönnrot 2.0 : let us celebrate and document the multi-cultural dances and music traditions which mak

This project is part of the official Finland 100 festivities.

Finland100

The World Music School Helsinki, of which I am the chairman, is a nonprofit association registered in Helsinki, Finland. We teach music as a mother language by mixing experts with beginners from the very first day through monthly folk dance events. Each event combines two local minorities.

On the footsteps of the fundamental work of Elias Lönnrot in the 1800s, we aim to collect and record the current socio-cultural landscape of today's Finland with it's minorities, expressed in the traditional music and dance. The event is designed for anyone interested in music or dancing. You can learn how to play traditional dance songs and how to perform music for the dances. If you are interested in dancing you will learn the steps and form of the dances by performing it together with live music. Everybody and all kinds of music instruments are welcome, previous experience is not required. Just bring your instrument, voice and body!

THE PLANNED EVENTS and DATES:

Feb. 19th – 18:00 – 21:00 – at Bokvillan Helsinki - Sami and Brazil Folk Dances with Live Music

April 23rd – 18:00 – 21:00 – at Bokvillan Helsinki – Indian and Peruvian Folk Dances with Live Music

Mai 27th – 12:45 and 19:00 - at World Village Festival – African and Latin America Folk Dances with Live Music for Families

July 13th – 20:00 - at Kaustinen Festival – Galician and Bulgarian Folk Dances with Live Music

Sep. 17th – 18:00 – 21:00 – at Bokvillan Helsinki – Klezmer and Griot Folk Dances with Live Music

Nov. 26th – 18:00 – 21:00 – at Bokvillan Helsinki – Burkina Faso and Nigerian Folk Dances with Live Music

It is fundamental to make this approach flexible and to make it now. Finland has been assimilating many cultural traditions from other regions of the world and it is assimilating it (e.g. the tradition of Tango in the Seinäjoki region). Our identity is now stronger than ever if we look at these influences with committed and honest eyes and ears.

More info at: www.worldmusic.school

Pedro Aibéo

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About the author:

​Pedro Aibéo is a trained Design Architect (M.Sc., Dipl. Ing., TU Darmstadt, Germany) and Civil Engineer (M.Sc., Licenciatura, FEUP, Porto) with over 50 buildings designed and built on 15 countries currently practicing at "AIBEO architecture". He is also a Kone Säätiö Research Fellow, a Visiting Associate Professor at UNAM University, Mexico and at Wuhan University of Technology, China, and a Lecturer, Research Assistant and Doctoral Candidate at Aalto University, Finland on "Architectural Democracy". He has also regularly lectured about Architecture at the Universities of QUT Brisbane, TU Darmstadt and FAUP Portugal. He is the founder and Artistic Director of “Cidadania” theatre+games group, Germany, with written and directed theater plays at the United Nations and the Staatstheater Darmstadt on urban slavery and astronomy. He is a professional Musician at "Homebound" and the founder and Chairman of the "World Music School Helsinki ry”. He is a drawing teacher at the croquis nights and at Kiasma in Helsinki and a comic novel writer on mathematics. He is a published current affairs author in several newspapers.

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