Mushroom Stories turns attention to what lies hidden beneath the surface: “Beauty lies in the
roots of a mushroom. We'll meet in the deep, dark, moist, warm, velvety soil.” In this subterranean world,
transformation unfolds slowly, inviting the audience into a bodily and sensory journey where decay and
growth coexist.

​​

​

Mirva Keski-Vähälä is a Helsinki-based dance artist and choreographer whose artistic language draws
strongly from Butoh, contemporary dance, and visual art. Since 2007 she has created participatory and
experiential performances that invite audiences into intimate, transformative encounters with the body
and its environment. Her works have been presented in Finland and internationally, including Kuopio Dance
Festival, Kiasma, Kerava Art Center Sinkka, and Helsinki Pride 2024.

​

Keski-Vähälä began dancing Butoh in 2001, performing in a work by choreographer Saburo Teshigawara.
Later, she founded Hutera Dance Company for professional dancers and Butoh enthusiasts, and has also
performed in works by OddDanceTheatre and Ken Mai in Finland and Russia. Butoh’s sensitivity to
transformation, fragility, and the hidden layers of the body continues to guide her practice. For her, art is a
means of influence: a way to explore equality, changing power structures, and the body’s relation to touch,
space, and materiality. Her choreographic world often merges dance with clay, textiles, or sound, creating
multisensory landscapes where audiences become active participants.

​

Alongside her own creations, Keski-Vähälä has collaborated with Finnish and international artists such as
composer Ya Tosiba (AZE), Mikko Helenius and the Soul Strings orchestra (FIN), and scenographer Reija
Stenius. For over 25 years, she has also directed dance for diverse groups—professional dancers,
immigrants, mental health rehabilitators, multicultural families, and people with severe
disabilities—applying a safer space methodology. She works actively in East Helsinki on anti-racist equality
initiatives through art.

​

www.colourbox.fi

IG @mirva.keskivahala

FB @colourboxcompany