Operations & finance
Goals and strategy
Mission
The primary goal of Tero Saarinen Company’s operations is to use the language of dance to investigate, promote and communicate a humane worldview and basic human values.
The artistic aim is to employ choreography, music and visual design to give people profound experiences in the form of enduring, total artworks – open, interactive situations that allow audience members to address fundamental human questions.
Vision
The popularity of dance as a physical, audiovisual art form independent of spoken language is increasing rapidly around the world. New technologies and channels also allow more efficient distribution. Tero Saarinen Company’s long-term vision is to further the realisation of its mission by developing its artistic work to suit various formats and distribution channels.
The scope for development is substantial in its performance work, licence sales, digital products, educational work and merchandising.
Values
Tero Saarinen Company’s basic values are: a sense of community, transparency, uncompromising high quality, and entrepreneurial spirit.
General strategy
Strong shared values permeate the work of Tero Saarinen Company on every level, and also guide its strategic choices. Its sense of community requires respect for the individual and decent wages. Resources put into people and artistic quality are not seen as an expense, but as an investment. Achieving the company’s objectives requires continual and frequently considerable risk taking.
Structure and activities
Tero Saarinen Company’s production, performance and teaching operations are run by a registered association, Into liikkeessä (Passion in Motion). Its full members are the group’s workers, but other people can also be supporting members of the association. Tero Saarinen chairs the association’s board.
Toothpick OY, a company owned by Tero Saarinen, is responsible for the licensing of Tero Saarinen’s works to other groups, along with the manufacture of merchandise products.
The group has a permanent office, storage space and rehearsal studios in the Alexander Theatre in Helsinki.
Key figures and finance
Tero Saarinen Company operates as a network organisation typical of the creative sector: eight of the group’s members are on a regular full or part-time salary, but some 80 professionals from various fields and various parts of the world also work with the group on specific productions or on out-of-house service contracts each year.
Tero Saarinen Company puts on 30-40 performances a year, most of them outside of Finland. In 2007, the group staged 34 performances in seven countries: apart from Finland, in Mexico, France, Germany, Denmark, Russia and United States. The average audience per performances abroad was 842 and in Finland 360.
Apart from performances by his own group, Saarinen’s works are also spreading across the world through other dance companies. Each year, works are licensed to 2-3 countries.
In 2007, the company’s total income was € 719 862 of which ticket receipts and other income from performances represented 40%, other income and production grants 30%, state subsidy 26%, and operating subsidy from the City of Helsinki 4%. The balance sheet total on 31.12.2007 was -€88 193,54.
Statistics and comparisons
Tero Saarinen Company state subsidy
Tero Saarinen Company became eligible for regular state subsidy – i.e. under the Finnish Theatre and Orchestra Act – in 2004. In 2007, 57 theatres were subsidized by the Act, 11 of them working with dance. Compared with other theatre and dance companies in Finland, the relative proportion of subsidy received by Tero Saarinen Company has been small.
Tero Saarinen Company’s income structure in 2006
Average income structure of Finnish theatres (58) under the Finnish Theatre and Orchestra Act in 2006
Public subsidies for dance in Finland
Compared with the theatre and music, public funding of dance in Finland has so far been small. In 2006, 95% of state support went to spoken-word theatre and 5% to dance. The funding shortfall built into the law particularly affects dance groups and centres.
In terms of audience figures, in 2006, drama theatres received state subsidies of €16.25 per audience member, while state subsidy for dance theatres, groups and centres was €7.85 per audience member.
Tero Saarinen Company and Helsinki
The subsidies received by established drama theatres from the City of Helsinki in 2005 were €12.93 – 24.31 per ticket sold in Helsinki. The corresponding figure for Tero Saarinen Company was €3.87*.
*Finnish Theatre Information Centre: Theatre statistics 2005
Annual Reports
Tero Saarinen Company annual reports along with financial and other appendix data can be downloaded here (currently only in Finnish)