Joni
Österlund Dancer

Joni Österlund is a Finnish-born dancer and choreographer, who graduated from the Finnish National Ballet school in Helsinki and obtained his B.A. at the Hungarian Dance Academy in Budapest. Between 2016 and 2019, he worked as an ensemble dancer at Eger National Theatre and since 2019 he has been a freelance artist. His main focus is on working with diverse movement and performance practice to collaborate with different disciplines as part of theatre laboratory, which allows for exchange and co-learning. Renewing the old artistic and managerial structures is also of great importance. Patterns of our humanity and the systems we have constructed to sustain us act as inspiration. Comparative dramaturgy and performance research serve as the guiding tools. Since 2019, Joni has worked with a multitude of theatres and festivals: Finnish National Ballet, Finnish National Opera, Staatsoper Wien, Volksoper Wien, Theater an der Wien, Salzburger Festspiele, La Strada Graz with directors and choreographers such as Christof Loy, Lázsló Nemes, Kirill Serebrennikov, Keith Warner, Ran Arthur Braun, Nicolas Paul, Robert Carsen, Johanna Nuutinen and Rebecca Howell. He masters several styles of dance and movement, such as contemporary dance, dance theatre, ballet, jazz, commercial styles, acrobatics, floor work, stage combat and physical theatre.