Historical Gesture
Minna Nyberg has since 2014 acted an ambassador for the art of historical gesture in Finland. The art form is also, and more correctly, called historically informed acting and is the art of acting that singers and actors used during the 17th and 18th centuries. It’s based on a specific technique and set of rules in using a verity of gestures and mime when performing secular works on stage.
Minna has specialized in the art form first under the direction of Sigrid T’Hooft 2014-2017 and since 2018 she develops her skills with Deda Cristina Colonna in Milano. Minna has performed several gesture concerts in Finland: Love Madness and Despair, Nine Divinties – An Evening Inspired by the Muses, Le Caffé och Hulluna sinuun (Crazy for You). In 2018 she made her stage directing debut with the gesture concert Love, Treachery & Frogs – Tales of Women.
Minna’s first play The Crab – Change is the Remedy for the Ills of Life, in which she took on the roles as actor, singer, dramaturge and stage director, premiered in Helsinki 2021. The Crab, which deals with gender roles and vulnerability during the end of the 18th century, received broad media coverage and was praised by the audience and received excellent reviews from critics.
Barbro Enckell-Grimm’s review of The Crab in Hufvudstadsbladet (November 25th 2021):
“Minna Nyberg’s The Crab makes us reflect upon how old the new is. Humankind has had to change for centuries but still we know that the resolution of tragedy is inevitable.
When Minna Nyberg now has taken on the art of historical gesture and mime it feels refreshing. Especially as she has done solid background work, written a manuscript which, despite standing on many legs (texts by William Shakespeare, Lord Byron, Queen Kristina and Nyberg herself), feels like an organically well functioning whole exactly suited to her historical way of performing it.
The hour-long musical play / monologue feels in no way forced and contains eternal themes such as vulnerability and hatred of women, shifting between gender identities and the interplay between falsehood and genuineness where everything intertwines depending on one’s perspective.”
Furthermore, Minna’s work with historically informed acting received unexpected recognition when curator Laura Gutman created the art exhibition Staging Emotions at Sinebrychoff Art Museum in Helsinki 2018-19 inspired by one of Minna’s performances. Minna also held a highly regarded musical lecture about historically informed acting at the museum.
Minna is Finland’s specialist in the art of historically informed acting and, thus far, she the only artist in Finland who performs and stage directs in the art form.
Foundations that have through the years supported Minna’s gesture work are The Swedish Culture Foundation in Finland, Föreningen Konstsamfundet, The Finnish Culture Foundation, Nygréns Stiftelse, Oskar Öflunds Stiftelse, Arbetes Vänner, Otto A. Malms Donationsfond, Stiftelsen Tre Smeder, Svenska Folkskolans Vänner and Fredrik Pacius minnesfond.