Funky Fossils forever - 10 years of hip hop

Funky Fossils Collective celebrates its 10-year anniversary with a dance performance featuring choreographies from the group's history alongside a new jubilee piece. The event is open to all ages and runs for 2 hours including an intermission. The performance is in Finnish and English.

Funky Fossils began as dance classes led by dancer and choreographer Njara Rasolomananan in 2016. In 2024, the group evolved into a collective functioning as a network for adult hip hop dancers. The aim is to enable as many street dance enthusiasts as possible to dance and become part of the community while creating their own projects.

The group has blended hip hop with African dance, folk dance, and jazz dance, with the dancers' movement vocabulary showing influences from breakdance, locking, house, and popping. At the jubilee, the collaborative work Gemensam flamma/Yhteinen liekki will be presented together with folk dancers from Huffeni (Haga Ungdomsföreningen r.f.). Choreographies for the group have been created by Njara Rasolomananan as well as Jérémy Gaudibert (France), Mass (Sweden/Tanzania), Samantha Tena Hernandez (Netherlands), and Augusto Rodriques (Brazil). Akim Bakhtaoui, known from the award-winning group Will Funk for Food, has created the jubilee choreography, which will be presented for the first time at this celebration.

The organizing team for the jubilee year consists of Päivi Ahlroos, Minna "Nana" Aro, Minna Pauliina Kataja, Marika Lahtivirta, and Virva Lehtola.