Height: 162 (5’3’’)
Hair colour: dirty blond
Eye colour: grey
Skills
Languages: Russian (native), English & Finnish (fluent), Spanish (intemediate), Japanese & Swedish (basic)
Performing: devising, improvisation, physical theatre, staged violence, performance art, site-specific, interactive performing
Dance: butoh, contemporary, lindy hop, pole dance
Sports: rock-climbing (top rope card), calisthenics, acrobatics (basics), kayaking, surfing, cycling, swimming
Other: photography (vocational degree), audio/video editing (Adobe Audition and Premier), workshops facilitator, producer, translator (English/Finnish - Russian)
Katia Skylar
Actress (FIA) • Performance maker • Butoh dancer
Katia Skylar is an actress (FIA), performance maker, butoh dancer, and fight performer based in Helsinki (Finland) and well connected internationally. Katia’s artistic projects are grounded in research processes, while her scholarly and pedagogical work draws from her background in the performing arts and photography. Her recent body of work prominently explores themes of listening and empathic communication in the forms of site-specific performances and immersive audience experiences, such as Mundane.Magic, a collective performance-journey (Tallinn/Viimsi 2024), Concordia, a gentle butoh intervention in EMMA, Espoo Museum of Modern Art (2022), Presence Y, a site-specific performative research of presence (Helsinki, 2021 & Peniche, Portugal/ Compostival, 2022). Katia values horizontal collaboration in non-hierarchical settings, she creates through devising, tender border-crossing, radical listening, multi-linguality and body-driven approaches. Katia also facilitates movement and spoken word workshops.
Katia’s artistic projects have been funded by TAIKE (Arts Promotion Centre Finland), the Cities of Helsinki and Espoo, the Finnish Institute in Estonia (pARTir initiative - NextGeneration EU) and by the European Union and the Goethe-Institut (Culture Moves Europe).
As a performer and an actress, Katia has featured in dance, theatre and performance art productions, short films, tv-series and audio projects. She also co-hosted a podcast called Besedka s Akcentom / Беседка с акцентом (2019-2022).
Memberships
Selected Credits
Stage
Naiste Ballaadid | movement & choreography | dir. Marion Sellgal | EMTA Kontserdi- ja Teatrimaja (Tallinn, 2023)
Ladies (mini) | Mermaid-Medusa | butoh dance for guitar compositions, with a guitarist Yunjia Liu | Helsinki Butoh Festival (2022)
Amusing Tensions | devised by a GAP Lab working group | GAP summit (Helsinki, 2022) & Viinatehdas /Manilla /Regional Dance Centre of Western Finland (Turku, 2022)
Process KH | Inner voice | devised with Hanna Kalo | Blendi/ Ekata Theatre (Helsinki 2021)
Utopia (On Empathy) | Dancer | dir. Sari Palmgren/ Zodiak (Helsinki, 2021)
The Taste of Remembrance | Cristal woman | devised with a cellist Laura Martin | Helsinki Butoh Festival (2020)
Body Interrupted I & II | Tanya | dir. UtoUto duo | Höyhentämö theatre & Cultural Centre Caisa (Helsinki, 2018 & 2019)
TV
Luottomies (Wingman) | Border guard Polina | dir. Kari Ketonen | YLE Draama (Helsinki, 2020)
Performance art
The Baltic Waves | Co-created with Yunjia Liu (guitar) | Helsinki pop-up events | Hietsu beach (Helsinki, 2022)
Concordia | Dir. Ken Mai | Emma – Espoo Museum of Modern Art (Espoo, 2022)
Presence Y | Solo | Globe Art Point (Helsinki, 2021)
Descansos | Co-created with Maria Bayat | Quantum Critic, International Contemporary Art Exhibition (Helsinki, St Petersburg, 2020)
A Thin Red Line | Co-created with Maria Bayat | Edwina Goldstone Exhibition “MOTHER – a thin red line” | Gallery Myymälä2 (2020)
My Body. My Rebellion & Body Experience(d) | dir. UtoUto | Gallery Myymälä2 (Helsinki, 2019)
Dazed | dir. Petra Haapio | Festival Night of Arts & Eve’s Ribs Festival (Helsinki, St Petersburg, 2019)
Cosas y Tiempo | Co-created with Lucía Sánchez | Festival NUN Local (Vigo, 2018)
Music video
Bubble Gum Masha feat. Pris.Juno | dir. Masha Mistercat | Kino Euphoria (Helsinki, 2021)
Short film
Hjärnparasiten | Svetlana | dir. Tomas von Kantzow | Arcada graduation film (2022)
Voodoo | Alice | dir. Abiola Washington | Kino Euphoria (2021), Tampere Film Festival 2022
City People Shapes | model | dir. Silvija Bumbak | Kino Euphoria (2021), Tampere Film Festival 2022
Playground | Co-directed with Fiona Melzer | Kino Euphoria (2021)
Voice
Winged Stories - Ice Show | dir. Varvara Shumova | Kauniainen Ice Rink (2021)
Fairy-tales for girls | Audiobook | Femitales.pro/ Helsinki Open Waves (2020)
Training & Certifications
MA in Contemporary Physical Performance Making | Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, 2022-24
MA in Culture and Arts | Arcada University of Applied Sciences (Finland) & Escola Superior de Arte Dramática de Galicia (Spain), 2016-19
Intro to Motion Capture Acting | The Mocap Vaults/ Bones Studio (Poland), 2023
Nordic Stage Fight Society certifications: unarmed and rapier, 2021
Fighting for Screen | Nigel Boulton (Nordic Stage Fight Society), 2021
Linklater Voice Work | Tuuli Nilsson, 2021-22
Voice work | Amanda Stephens-Lee, Felicity Jurd (StageMilk Scene Club), 2020-21
Standard Southern British Accent | Luzita Fereday (StageMilk Scene Club), 2021
Acting In a Foreign Language | Cécile Orblin (Uniarts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy, Finland), 2020
Suzuki Method and View Points | Yuko Takeda, 2018
Butoh Dance | training mostly with Ken Mai, since 2018-