Marja Merisalo

Marja Merisalo (born 3 April 1965 Oulu, Finland) is a Finnish choreographer, dancer, director and cultural coordinator. She has the Master of Arts degree of Dance from the Helsinki Theatre Academy (Teatterikorkeakoulu)[1] She represents contemporary art dance where she has developed her own styles. Marja Merisalo has worked as choreographer, dancer, actor, producer as well as director of theatre and dance projects. She has worked in numerous productions and theatres since 1982 including Q-teatteri in Helsinki,[2] Helsinki City Theatre,[3] the Student's Theatre of Helsinki (Ylioppilasteatteri) and the Finnish National Theatre.

Merisalo worked in the city of Pori as the Regional Artist under the Ministry of Education and Culture during the years 2009–2011.[4] Her main work was coordinating numerous cultural activities in the municipality of Satakunta in western Finland. Later on she has also made project planning for an artist's network called ArtPeople in Helsinki during her work as cultural coordinator in the area of Arabia in Helsinki under Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taiteen edistämiskeskus, formerly Arts Council of Finland).[5]

Merisalo has been since 2006 member of TEV, an international theatre group based in Italy. She has been touring with the group's productions internationally in West End - London, Manhattan - New York City, Milan, Rome, Geneva, Basel, Istanbul and Italy.[6] Moreover, besides Finland she has also performed internationally in Australia, India, Sweden the Baltic countries and Russia.[7][8][9]

She has also created numerous dance and theatre projects. One of the latest being the "Echoes from Karelia", which brings together a fusion of traditional Karelian folk culture with modern elements. The project has toured in Finland, Sweden, Russia and Italy.