Sonya Lindfors (1985) is a Cameroonian - Finnish choreographer and artistic director that also works with facilitating, community organizing and education. In 2013 she received a MA in choreography from the University of the Arts Helsinki.
She is the founding member and Artistic Director of UrbanApa, an inter-disciplinary and counter hegemonic arts community that offers a platform for new discourses and feminist art practices. UrbanApa facilitates workshops, festivals, labs, mentoring and publications among other things.
Lindfors makes her own and collaborative works such as performances, curated programs and performative actions. Her performance works have been shown and supported by Beursschouwburg, Kampnagel, Spring Utrecht, CODA - festival, Black Box Theater Oslo, Zodiak - Centre for New Dance among others. She is a member of Miracle Workers Collective that represented Finland at the 58th Venice Biennale.
Lindfors’s recent works One Drop (2023), common moves (2023), camouflage (2021), Soft Variations Online (2020), Cosmic Latte (2018) and We Should All Be Dreaming (2018) centralize questions around Blackness and Black body politics, representation and power structures, speculative futurieties and decolonial dreaming practices. On a larger scale Lindfors’s time is divided between her own artistic work , educational work and working as the artistic director of UrbanApa. In all her positions she pursues creating and facilitating anti-racist and feminist platforms, where a festival, a performance, a publication or a workshop can operate as the site of empowerment and radical collective dreaming.
Lindfors has been awarded with several prizes, the latest of which being the international Live art Anti Prize 2018 and the State Award for Public Information in 2022. During the season 2017 – 2018 Lindfors was the house choreographer for Zodiak – center for new dance.
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EDUCATION
2019 – onwards
Aalto - university, Creative Sustainability masters program
2013
Master of Dance Arts, major in choreography, graduated from the Theater Academy of Helsinki department of dance
2009
Bachelor of Arts in dance, graduated from the Theater Academy of Helsinki department of dance
CURATING
2009 – UrbanApa urban arts platform in Helsinki
Sonya Lindfors founded UrbanApa platform for urban arts in 2009. Since then UrbanApa has organized almost 150 events ranging from workshops, festivals and clubs to seminars, residencies and panel discussions offering a platform for young emerging artists to experiment, collaborate, discuss, learn and work. UrbanApa is run by a group of artists working in the fields of performing and visual arts.
2017 – 2018 Stages - platform for Göteborg dance and theater festival
CHOREOGRAPHIC WORKS
2023
One Drop, Zodiak - center for new dance
common moves, Helsinki Biennale
Something Like This, Zodiak - center for new dance
camouflage, Zodiak - center for new dance
One Drop touring in the frame of Big Pulse & APAP - networks
2022
Armageddon Espoon kaupungin teatteri / A co-creation with Sara Melleri and Elina Pirinen
camouflage, MDT, Stockholm, Kampnagel, Hamburg and Feminist Futures Festival in Berlin
We Should All Be Dreaming touring in the frame of Perform Europe - network ( Coda x OAT x Black Box Theater in Oslo, Rosendahl Teater, Lift - festival London, ID - Dance London, Oyoun, Berlin)
2021
camouflage, Zodiak – center for new dance
We Should All Be Dreaming x A I S T I T, Finnish Institute in London
COSMIC LATTE, Dansens Hus, Stockholm, Göteborg Dance and Theater festival and Alkantara, Lissabon
2020
Cosmic Latte, Schwindelfrei - festival, Mannheim
Journey, Collaboration with the Helsinki Philharmonic. Orchestra and Pekka Kuusisto
2019
Cosmic Latte, on tour
MIRAGE, Student piece for Outokumpu vocational school for dance
2018
NOBLE SAVAGE Side Step – festival, Helsinki
Cosmic Latte, Zodiak - center for new dance
We Should All Be Dreaming, Spring Utrecht – festival and Baltic Circle – festival
Soft Variations, Schwindelfrei – festival, Mannheim
2017
Swag Lessons, on tour
Master and Margarite, the National Theater
NOBLE SAVAGE on tour
BADBADNOTUGLY Tampere conservatoire
2016
NOBLE SAVAGE Zodiak - center for new dance, Helsinki
PAS DE DEUX, in collaboration with Laura Murtomaa, Mad House Helsinki / Kaktus – festival
Swag Lessons, performance lecture
2015
G4: GR8R XXXPEKT8IONZ, Gruppen Fyra / Kaktus – festival
NOIR? Dance piece, on tour / Bora Bora – platform, Århus
MAKE MY DAY A piece by Pilvi Porkola
FLAWLESS, Outokumpu
MADONNA, Theater Nirvana
Swag Lessons, performance lecture, UrbanApa 2015
2014
G4: GR8 XXXPEKT8IONZ, a dance piece for Gruppen Fyra, Helsinki
SuperHero/SuperZero, a duet with Kati Korosuo, UrbanApa 2014
NOIR? on tour / Stuttgart, Oulu, Tampere, Jyväskylä, Helsinki
HIT ME? Cyprus dance festival
2013
NOIR?, Zodiak - center for new dance, Helsinki
HIT ME? Jojo – Oulu center for Dance, Oulu
QUEST! Fullmoon dance festival, Pyhäjärvi
Chorus Line 2013 Helsinki Dance Company, Helsinki
10 things I hate about you, UrbanApa 2013
Note2self , Kokkola Winter dance festival, Jyväskylä Tanssin Aika - festival
Full Frontal, Itäisen Suomen tanssin keskus (ITAK), Kuopio
AWARDS and SCHOLARSHIPS
2022
State Award for Public Information
2019
5 - year artist grant from Art Council of Finland
2018
Winner of international ANTI LIVE ART PRIZE 2018
House Choreographer for Zodiak - center for new dance
2017
Winner of Artist of the year 2017 – award (Helsinki municipality)
Winner of Tinfo – award (theater information center Finland)
3 – year artist grant from the Art Council of Finland
House Choreographer for Zodiak - center for new dance
Urban Heat Labs
Tandem Leadership – program participant
The Nordic Circle of artistic Management participant
2016
1 – year artist grant from the Art Council of Finland
Art HKI award
2015
danceWEB scholarship, Impulstanz festival in Vienna
1 – year artist grant from the Art Council of Finland
2014
Aesthetic deed of the year - prize/ NOIR?
2013
State Award for dance art