Dance teacher Marco Bjurström did not attend Aira Samulin’s funeral. Now he remembers the dance legend for Iltalehti.
Marco Bjurström tells Iltalehte why he did not attend Aira Samulin’s funeral. JUSSI ESKOLA
A dance legend who died at the end of October Aira Samulin-Suvio was blessed to rest in the grave on Friday in Helsinki’s Old Church. He was being escorted on his last journey by a large group of relatives and friends. The legend knew a huge number of people, and not everyone who knew him attended the event. One of them is Marco Bjurström.
– I wasn’t at the funeral. There’s not much drama involved. The funeral was attended mainly by relatives and friends, he tells Iltalehte.
– I have been in contact with Aira during work in the 80s and 90s. We were his employees, of course we did a lot together, but my relationship with him is different. Since then, our meetings have been more random, but always as fun and pleasant. However, I haven’t been involved in Aira’s everyday life in any way for a couple of ten years, so I wasn’t on the invite list at the funeral.
Bjurström’s career, like that of many other dance professionals, began at Aira Samulin’s dance school. The path of all the founding members of StepUP Oy started from Aira’s classes, and from there the road led to Rytmikkäini, until it was time to found their own dance school in 1987.
Marco Bjurström and Aira Samulin together at the StepUp 25th party at Finlandia Hall. There was always joy in the encounters between the two. Jenni Gästgivar
“Aira was not a mother figure”
Bjurström remembers the moments spent with Aira with joy. Those were busy times, and the popularity was surprising.
– Aira was much more important to me and to our contemporaries than we were to him. He strongly did his own thing. He was a college for us, who taught us everything about this business, Bjurström praises.
– It was paradise for me. Aira was not so much a mother figure, but she was an enabler. He trusted us in an incredible way and gave us the opportunity to realize the wildest and craziest ideas. He was a great employer, and incredibly brave. We were absolutely crazy and we were allowed to play freely!
For Bjurström, who works as a dance teacher, director and choreographer, Aira Samulin opened doors that led to great success.
– After that job, big things happened in my own life, and I started my own career with Bumtsibum programs. Step up started to grow, no one would have guessed that. Then there were no more natural down things together, he says.
The two met each other randomly. Often they were brought together by dance, TV programs TTK and Dance, or mutual acquaintances.
– Every time we met a couple of times a year, it was really nice. Then we reminisced about old common things, he says.