Riku Lehtopolku is the new Artistic Director of Kuopio Dance Festival. His first programme is introduced in summer 2020. Calm with his new position, Lehtopolku says that he respects the far history of the event. He wishes to maintain all the good parts of the festival and also bring something new. "I hope that we can bring new kinds of phenomena but at the same time we could be part of generating them. In Kuopio, there is lot of different premises which enable very different works." Riku says.
Dance has been part of Riku's life since early childhood. He started already when he was only four years old. From the mid 1990's Lehtopolku started to visit the festival, first at the Residential Dance Camp for Boys. "Sometimes I used to think what it would be like to be the Artistic Director and what would I present at the festival."
