Biography
Erika Turunen was born in 1966 in Turku, Finland. Between 1988 and 1993 she studied fashion and costume design at the University of Industrial Arts in Helsinki. From 1995 to 2009 she headed the costume department of the Finnish National Opera and later became assistant manager. She designed the costumes for the company’s productions of the ballets Blood Wedding (2010, ch. C. Marston), Shine (2009, ch. K. Kvarnström), The Sleeping Beauty (2008, ch. J. Torres), Colours (2006, ch. J. Uotinen), The Hobbit (2001, ch. M. Kuusela) and R&J (2000, ch. M. Fountoura), and for the opera productions The Red Line (2007, directed by P. Milonoff) and Il Viaggio and Remission (2003, directed by D. Fo). In the spring of 2007, she was in charge of the costumes for the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2010 she founded her own design studio – Atelier Hurma – where besides theatre costumes she also designs evening dresses. She has been working with Tero Saarinen for over 10 years. The productions of his she has been involved in include Wavelengths (2000, Finnish National Ballet), Petrushka (2001, Tero Saarinen Company), HUNT (2002, Tero Saarinen Company), Georgia (2003, Finnish National Ballet), Borrowed Light (2004, Tero Saarinen Company), Frail Line (2006, NDT1), Mariage (2007, Opéra national de Lorraine a le CNN – Ballet de Lorraine), Next of Kin (2008, Tero Saarinen Company), Scheme of Things (2009, NDT1), Double Lives (2010, Tanzcompagnie Oldenburg and Tanztheater Bremen) and Blossom & Decay (working title, 2011). Erika Turunen collaborated with the Czech National Ballet on the 2012 production of The Sleeping Beauty.