Tanssi

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Magazines : Tanssi
Interview : Minna Tawast / Editor in chief

When was your magazine first published?
1981

Who's idea or concept was it?
The magazine is published by The Information Centre for Dance in Finland and at the beginning it was like a magazine for all the member organisations of the Centre. The concept changed radically in 1994 with the new editor, who wanted it to be an arts magazine for people who are interested in culture, arts and especially in dance as an art form.
When I started as the editor in 1997 we also emphazised the cultural politics, which influences very much to the situation of contemporary Dance in Finland. Secondly, I wanted to offer the readers new angles to dance as an art form, maybe also easier ways to acquaint people with the contemporary dance - which is considered rather difficult to approach.
The contemporary layout is designed by Kirsi-Marja Puuras, a graphic designer.

Would you say that your magazine now is different from the first edition?
Yes, see the previous answer. The layout is very important to us and the magazine is a professionally edited quarterly. It's also meant to be a nice item to have and hold.

How would you present your magazine to our readers who don't know it?
It's a quarterly arts magazine about dance in Finland and abroad. We focus mainly in contemporary dance but cover pretty well also what is happening in ballet in Finland: critics, articles, interviews, news. From time to time we also write about flamenco, African dance etc. And occasionally we also have different themes – such as "dance and visual arts", "vocational education of dance" and "the relation between dance and language". The magazine is intended for everyone who is interested in dance as an art form

What is the periodicity of your magazine?
We come out four times a year.

Could you present your "editorial line"?
My editorial line is to broaden the focus on dance and to increase the readership of our magazine, and hence, the public of dance performances. In addition to this, I would like to make dance "comprehensive", to show the deep and multi-faced cultural meaning of dance in a society such as Finland, where dance still is a very strange art for most of the people - even though a lot of people have dance as a hobby.
A very important thing to me is the freedom of speech and opinion, to include discussion and different voices inside the magazine. It's even more important than to follow consistent lines in content or style. I don't like the idea of a magazine being only its editor's voice. I think that's intellectually boring.

Who are your readers? Do you aim to touch or focus on a certain part of the population?
We don't know exactly who the readers are, but we have just commissioned a study of our readers.
Of course I aim to touch people who are interested in or involved with dance and culture in general.

Do you have any competitors?
No, Tanssi is the only magazine in Finland dealing with dance as an art form.

Is your magazine distributed all over Finland?
Yes, you can subscribe it all over Finland and abroad. But if you want to by a separate issue of the magazine, you can do that only in Helsinki (Akateeminen kirjakauppa, Kiasma, Teatterikorkeakoulu and Lasipalatsi)

If our readers who live abroad would like to subscribe, how could they proceed?
They can call or mail us. They can also visit our website and subscribe it from there.
Tel. + 358 (0)9 6121642, +358 (0)9 6121808, tawast@danceinfo.fi , ahonen@danceinfo.fi , www.danceinfo.fi/lehti

How is the situation with the Finnish press (newspapers, magazines) nowadays?
In what sense? Situation with respect to some previous situation?
In general the Finnish press has changed into a more popular tune: things are presented through persons, articles are made in shorter times, public figures are very important to all newspapers and magazines, pictures are bigger and more colourful etc. The competition is hard. But on the other hand, the Finnish press is relatively free and the standard of magazines and newspapers is good. And the state still supports magazines and newspapers through various subsidies. We get support from the Ministry of Education.

Would you say that the "traditional magazines" suffer or benefit from the internet?
No, they don't suffer much as long as most of the websites are not reliable or informative enough. (If you think about some of the "where to go" –information.) Maybe there are more benefits with own websites (by advertising the magazine and getting new readers). You can always carry your magazine with you, but even a laptop is uncomfortable to carry with you. Internet and edited magazines are different medias.

Do you have a web site?
Yes.

Have you ever considered the possibility to propose an identical version of your magazine in an electronic format?
No, not identical. There is no point of doing that.

Interview by Vincent Lefrançois - 2003