Making a documentary about Finland’s most famous twerk dancer
So who is Finland’s most renowned twerk instructor?
Tia-Maria Sokka was born in Tampere, a city in Southern Finland. Unexpectedly for herself, she won the Twerk Helsinki competition in 2014 and the first-ever twerk Finnish Championships in 2015. She is famous on social media, and the YouTube video featuring her twerking at her studio gathered more than 37 million views over a year. Total views of her YouTube account just recently surpassed 100 million.
Tia-Maria’s stage name is Tinze. She is the most significant Finnish influencer in dance and sports, and she is also the first twerk professional in Finland; she has been a choreographer for many top Finnish artists recently. As of November 2019, Tinze has 250,000 Instagram followers, indicating that she is also well-known in international twerk circles outside of Finland.
Tinze Twerk Studio is her project, which is also the first twerk studio in Finland. It has now been open for more than two years.
Twerking is about being comfortable in one’s own body
Twerking becomes more mainstream in Finland and less of a taboo. Women feel more confident when twerking; nowadays, there is a twerk class in almost any dance school in Finland.
Tinze says: “I am myself when I’m dancing”. She proceeds to explain how this dance style has already helped many of her students: “it takes a couple of months for them to start wearing shorts in dance classes. It really gives power to your self-esteem.”
Tinze wants to see dancers’ unique style and how they use it. She also adds that people who twerk in Finland, usually do it in dance classes and studios, rather than during parties or in clubs.
Previously, Tinze used to do social counseling work and make sure that people could count on her. Some of her students told her that they had low self-esteem, others have been bullied. When they gather in their studio, they can feel they have a family there. Tinze is very happy with how she is helping people overcome their fears. She is also happy that her parents fully support her in her endeavors.
“I want the whole Finland to twerk. I want the whole Europe to twerk. I want everyone to know what is twerking. In the gym you don’t make friends easily. But when you come here, people can be relaxed and make new friends.”
The story behind the production
Vita Pictura’s long-term partner in Finland Sami Vepsäläinen met with Vita Pictura’s co-founder and chief editor Georgius Misjura and said that he has this final event for twerking coming up in Finland. Georgius thought it would be interesting to make a documentary about it since he couldn’t find any documentaries about the twerking movement.
Vita Pictura’s team member Karolina Lahti from Finland did the interview with Tinze, and gave her thoughts about the documentary project:
“Finland definitely needs more ladies like Tinze. It was the first interview I have ever done in Finland and I was very happy that it was with Tinze, as it was also her first interview in English language. Before starting the project I didn’t understand much about twerking and how much it actually can make a difference in feeling free and well in our bodies.”
The production team shot two documentaries back-to-back, within two days; with the main story focused on Tinze and the other one on Sak Noel. One may see them in our documentary that was shot at the PRO TWERK Finland tour, which had taken place on 25th May 2019.
Anastasia Zazhitskaya, co-director of the documentary, helped the team with preparation for the production and with filming on spot. She shared her thoughts about the production with us:
“Dance is a small life that tells a story and carries a message for the audience. In the twerk, I saw exclusively sexual provocation, but when I started preparing for the project, I realized that everything is much deeper and the meaning of our film is to show and tell the viewer the story of a brave girl who leads a lot of different women, each beautiful in her own way, and helps them get rid of fears, make new friends and, most importantly, love themselves.”
In addition to Tinze’s fantastic performance, Sak Noel added his music vibes to the dance, making it quite unforgettable. Georgius has already been familiar with Sak Noel’s work and its connection to twerking, so the idea to make the documentary came to live.
Do not miss: Tinze will be featured in the upcoming episode of VP MEETS SAK NOEL, which will be released by Vita Pictura at the end of 2019.
Fitnesspäiväkirjä 2020 (Fitness Journals 2020) will be shown on Dplay streaming service in the Spring of 2020. The series follows the fitness hobbies of four well-known Finnish women — this year, Tia-Maria Sokka is taking part as well, so don’t forget to check it out!
Stream it here:
Special thanks for making this production possible: Aleksei Kulikov, Anastasia Zazhitskaya, Georgius Misjura, Karolina Lahti, Laura Salonen and Roman Pototski.
Reach us if you want to know more: Vita Pictura
Original article written by Roman Pototski
