The Many Artistic Hats of Dancer Mikela Vuorensivu by Andrea Isea Galindo

 

Laura Zeke Photography

Mikela Vuorensivu is a Vancouver-based dance artist currently pursuing her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Simon Fraser University. As a third-year university student, Mikela is very active within the dance community as a dancer, teacher, choreographer, photographer and videographer. Interested in her many artistic hats, I had the honour of sitting down with her to talk more about her creative process among her many talents.

Please Mikela, explain what you do in 100 words.

Currently I am a dance student, artist and teacher, but this semester I am mainly doing administrative work for the studio I teach at and overseeing fun/creative projects. Recently, I have discovered this new passion for dance photography and videography and have gotten to explore it through more digitally based projects recently. I guess those opportunities are one positive thing that the pandemic has brought me! Despite my newer passions, I would still first and foremost say a dance student. Even with all the micro-passions that I am pursuing, they all circle back to dance, and I am always learning.

As an artist of many pursuits, what is your creative process like?

I would say my process is very straight forward. Step 1: I think of an idea and get excited about it. Step 2: just do it. I don't do too well on things that I am not excited about. When I first started to try out photography, I just decided to do it. You know, why not? And same with videography and dance, I take an idea and do it. The execution wasn't great at first, but if I want to do it then I will. And if it doesn't work out then that is ok because most likely I will have another idea brewing.

What do you like the most about the work you do?

The impact it has on other people. Whether that's when I am teaching and you can see a lightbulb light up in a student or they find their artistic identity, or if I'm doing photography and I manage to boost the confidence of the people being photographed. I think it is extremely rewarding to witness how people react/respond to and interpret my work. It is definitely one of my favourite things.

Has there ever been a memorable response to your work that has impacted you?

One that stands out to me was in my first year at SFU when I did my first group project/choreographic work. We were showing it to a very intimate group of people, and at the end of the Q and A when we were talking about our pieces, one of our classmate's mom managed to pinpoint one of the main inspirations we had set at the very beginning of the process of creating this piece. We didn't base the entire piece on the idea, it was just one of those images that we as dancers use to communicate and create work. It was so mind-blowing that she got to that idea because it was not evident and we had not told anyone about this theme. I think it was insanely cool to see someone make that connection.

Mikela with her students

Can you think of your most formative experience of your career?

That is a tough question because I think most of my experiences have been incredibly formative. I would say that one of my favourites happened in high school. I had just switched into a new school where they had a huge hip hop dance culture. I have a very contemporary-based background, and so one of the teachers asked me to put together a contemporary dance group for fun just to offer more options. Our first gig was the Remembrance Day assembly, and that was my very first choreographic work I’ve ever done on a group. It was the moment I realized what I was capable of (and loved) doing. Long story short, the contemporary dance team is still going even after I graduated, and I continue to teach and choreograph, so I'd say it was pretty formative!

Now, for a couple fun questions, what would you say is the most useless talent you have?

That is a tough question… to me talent almost implies usefulness because I think any talent has value... Oh, I know! I'm good at finding opportunities to jump out and scare people. Or I could say my ability to make cats like me, but I think that's a very useful talent!

Aside from cats, what is something that you could not live without?

My husband, naps and dessert!

Photo by Mikela Vuorensivu (IG: @mikelasbeautifulfriends)

To end our interview, what’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

Something I’ve heard a few times from different people has become a recurring theme of advice is asking myself, "in this situation what's the worst that can happen?". Once I figure out what my worst fear is or what is the worst-case scenario, I can acknowledge it and be ok with it. If I can truly be at peace with the possibility of the worst-case scenario, I become more empowered to give something a try.

What's next for you as an artist?

It's funny because what is next for me is figuring out “what is next?” and deciding what I am going to do when I finish my degree. Though I know that it will be artistic, which way am I going to take; will it be dance-related at all? Will it be other artistic practices? Administrative work? Or something completely different? It will be hard deciding what artistic pursuit becomes a priority because it has been “student” for so long. I will probably still be involved in the dance world in some way, but I am realizing that it might look different than the teaching or performing route like I’d always thought I’d take!