Irja Margareta Hagfors (November 4, 1905 in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

– February 28, 1988 in Helsinki) was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

artist,

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

and dance teacher.Makkonen, Anne: ''One Past, Many Histories: Loitsu (1933) in the Context of Dance Art in Finland.'' (Part IV: Problems of the Modern and the National in Dance Art in Finland.) Ph.D. thesis. University of Surrey.

Biography

Hagfors initially studied dance in Finland, at the Gripenberg School and Salminen-Naparstok School. In 1926 she began her studies in Hellerau Laxemburg-school of dance in

Laxenburg __NOTOC__ Laxenburg (Central Bavarian: ''Laxnbuag'') is a market town in the district of Mödling, in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. Located about south of the Austrian capital Vienna, it is chiefly known for the Laxenburg castles, which, be ...

, near

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. She received a diploma in dance from there in 1928. She returned to Finland in 1928 and was a dance teacher in the autumn of action at Helvi Salminen's dance school. The November of that year was her first public dance performance in Finland. The following year, Hagfors went to Finland and worked for the next few years in many different theatrical and dance groups in Central Europe, including

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and Zurich. She was also known by her work in the

Harald Kreutzberg Harald Kreutzberg (December 11, 1902 – April 25, 1968) was a German dancer and choreographer associated with the Ausdruckstanz movement, a form in which the individual, artistic expression of feelings or emotions is essential. Though largely fo ...

and Trudi Schoopin dance groups. After the Second World War broke out she returned to Finland and then worked as a choreographer, dance teacher and dance critic. Hagfors was one of the pioneers of modern dance and a great defender of Finland. She participated actively in the new dance interpretation of the public polemic, achieving this most prominently in the ''

Tulenkantajat Tulenkantajat (″The Flame Bearers″) was a literary group in Finland during the 1920s. Their main task was to find a way to take Finland from so-called backwoods culture to the new, modern European level of literature. They did not consider th ...

'', in the 5th to 10th editions of the journal in 1929, together with Antti Halonen and Raoul af Hällström. Hagfors readily acknowledged that a new dance (freedom of dance, dance of expression) is not fitted in the molds of classical ballet in that it is better technically than artistically. But unlike her opponents, she was able to clearly see the potential for a new dance classical ballet a deeper and more diverse expression. In a newspaper editorial, Tulenkantajat stated its admiration for her speech in this debate, in which Hagfors had shown in that her own work made her claims valid, so she could come out of this important cultural debate as a clear winner. Hagfors studied for a few years in Central Europe in the

Rudolf von Laban Rudolf von Laban, also known as Rudolf Laban (German; also ''Rudolph von Laban'', hu, Lábán Rezső János Attila, Lábán Rudolf; 15 December 1879 – 1 July 1958), was an Austro-Hungarian, German and British dance artist, choreographer an ...

movement analysis and the German dance theatre. These arrived to Finland and became more widely known only in 1960 and 1970s, mainly thanks to Marjo Kuusela. Hagfors made a significant cultural act when she translated

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

's book on theater theory into Finnish (1954). Hagfors' father, Dr. Edwin Hagfors, was a teacher and translator from Helsinki, and her mother, Ulla Charlotta Marchander, was from Sweden. Hagfors also had an older sister, Aino Elisabet Hagfors. In 1954, Irja Hagfors married

Atos Wirtanen Atos Kasimir Wirtanen (27 January 1906 in Saltvik – 10 March 1979) was a Finnish left-wing intellectual, journalist, member of Finnish parliament (1936–1953) and cultural critic. He was born in Saltvik, Åland. Wirtanen entered parliament on t ...

, a writer and Member of Parliament, who died in 1979.Eduskunnan matrikkeli
/ref> Hagfors was awarded the Pro Finlandia medal in 1969.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hagfors, Irja 1905 births 1988 deaths Artists from Helsinki People from Uusimaa Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Finnish choreographers Finnish women choreographers Finnish female dancers