contemporarytanssissa

contemporarytanssissa is the inessive form of the Finnish noun phrase contemporarytanssi, meaning “in contemporary dance.” It denotes the field, context, or domain of activity being referenced. The term appears in academic writing, arts journalism, program notes, and course descriptions to indicate relevance to contemporary dance rather than other dance traditions.

Origin and form: contemporarytanssi is a compound formed from the English word contemporary and the Finnish word tanssi (dance). The inessive suffix -ssa attaches to the final element of the compound, yielding contemporarytanssissa. As with many loanwords in Finnish, contemporarytanssi and its inflected forms are typically written in lower case.

Usage: The word is used when discussing practices, research, performances, or curricula that belong to the field of contemporary dance. It can appear in sentences such as: “Tutkimus keskittyy contemporarytanssissa käytettyihin improvisaatiotekniikoihin” or “Koulun ohjelmassa on kursseja contemporarytanssissa käytettyjen liikkeiden opettamiseen.” It also negotiates between native terminology for the genre—nykytanssi—and this loanword form, depending on the author’s stylistic choices.

Context: In Finnish discourse, nykytanssi is the more common native term for contemporary dance in everyday language, while contemporarytanssi and its inflected forms appear more often in international or specialized contexts, translations, and cross-cultural programs. The form contemporarytanssissa thus functions as a precise linguistic tool for specifying scope within the field of contemporary dance.

See also: nykytanssi, tanssitaide, nykytanssiksi.