You are warmly welcome to spend a weekend in a beautiful and atmospheric 200 year old water mill milieu, called Kaksi Kalaa, located in Tuupovaara, North Karelia, from August 1:st to 3.rd 2025. Over the weekend you have the opportunity to slow down, deepen your connection with nature and explore the forest in a variety of creative ways together with the group. We begin on Friday 1.8 at 14 o’clock and finish on Sunday 3.8 by 14 o’clock. 

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During the weekend, you will be guided through tree- and forest-themed writing and movement exercises. Additionally to our rather experimental approaches towards nature, we will have a forest specialist sharing her expertise on the vital ecosystem with us. 

You also have the opportunity to experience the smoke sauna by the river and participate in instructed practices like meditation, asahi and qi gong. 

 

Through exercises we tune ourselves to nature by observing, sensing, embodying, dancing and writing. We will play with different perspectives, those of humans, trees and tree companion species, like animals and plants, as we explore our personal connection with forest. We take time to listen, open our senses and encounter the forest. We wonder: what would it feel like to be a tree? What would a mushroom tell us if it could speak? Sharing our own experience with the group is an essential part of the exercises.

Together, we will open a discussion on the multiple meanings of forest and reflect on the impact nature has on our own well-being. 

 

The exercises will take place over the weekend, both outdoors and indoors. The language of instruction will be in Finnish and in English if needed. 

 

 

For whom?

Anyone who is interested in their own relationship with nature, enjoys being in nature and is longing for creativity.  

No previous experience necessary.

Limited spots available, to benefit from a small group and safer atmosphere. 

 

 

Accommodation

You can stay overnight either in your own tent or in a rental log cottage of Kaksi Kalaa. If you want to stay in a log cottage, the rental fee of the cottage will be added to the price.   

 

Food

Our cook will be Michael Frick. He prepares tasty vegetarian meals, which will be organic and locally sourced ingredients wherever possible. We will have three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Bring your own snacks for in between, if you need. Our menu can be adapted to common dietary needs, such as vegan, lactose free and gluten-free.

 

 

Price and cancellation policy

Earlybird price 300€ if you register by 14.5 

after 14.5.2025 340€

You will confirm your registration by paying the registration fee (150€)

Cancellations made after 1.6.2025:  50% of the registration fee will be refunded 

Cancellations made after 26.6.2025 no refunds will be possible  

Read more about cancellation policy here.

 

The price includes the whole programme, meals and sleeping in your own tent. If you wish to stay overnight in a rental log cottage, the rental fee will be added to the price; €40-95 depending on the number of people you want to share the cottage with (e.g. 2 people/cottage €95 and 5 people/cottage €40). Cottage places are limited, so act quickly!  If the price is a problem for your participation, please contact us!

 

 

Place

Kaksi Kalaa is a place in the middle of nature in North Karelia. In the courtyard, you’ll find a 200- year- old water mill, beautiful riverside log cabins, a smoke sauna said to be the best in the world (available on Saturday evening) and a refreshing Kaurakoski river. The on-site water mill produces all the electricity needed for Kaksi Kalaa and the water comes straight from a natural spring. Basic services, like a grocery store and a pharmacy, are located less than two kilometres away. 

 

Kaksi Kalaa is approximately 56 kilometres east of Joensuu. The easiest way to get there is by car. We’re happy to arrange carpooling and/or pick you up from Joensuu if needed (5€/ride one way).

 

Movement and writing exercises take place in the hall of the mill building, in the yard of Kaksi Kalaa and in the surrounding nature. Nearby, you’ll find the Paimenpojanpolku outdoor trail, stunning ridge landscapes and a deer pond, home, according to local lore, to a beaver.  

For more information visit

https://kaksikalaa.fi/

 

Address

Koskivaarantie 2

82730 Tuupovaara

 

 

About the instructors and organisers

Luonnon Liikuttamat is organised in collaboration with Hanna Heino and Maija Ripatti. Echo Enters will be your guide throughout the event. The exercises will be led by dance artists and nature lovers Hanna and Maija. During the weekend forest expert &  biologist will take us into the secrets of the ecosystem.

 

Hanna Heino is a Helsinki-based artist and dance maker, softened by North Karelia, who is looking to get lost and is interested in organic movement in inconsistent humanity. Her working methods show influences from contact improvisation, community dance, applied performing arts, poetry and various somatic methods. She is part of the Other Spaces collective and works for a more inclusive dance field, for example at the special vocational training institute LIVE. 

 https://kaatuva-hevonen.squarespace.com/hanna-heino-1

 

Maija Ripatti works with dance and words in Germany, Switzerland and Finland. The core of her work is a thicket of improvisational practices, somatic methods and poetry, influenced by deep ecology and Buddhist philosophy. Maija works among others in two dance collectives, facilitates authentic movement in nature and crafts notebooks. 

https://kaatuva-hevonen.squarespace.com/maija-ripatti

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Registration is open now!

Before the event you will receive more information. For registration and further questions, please contact echoenters@gmail.com.

 

WELCOME !