This experimental photo captures Marco’s hilarious poses with a technique called light-painting.

All-round entertainer Marco Bjurström offers an antidote to the classic Finnish mentality of tight-lipped melancholy.

DancerR, presenter, entertainer, dance instructor, choreographer and consultant Marco Bjurström is accustomed to wearing many hats. He is a central figure at the Step Up dance and performance school in Helsinki, where he teaches dance to juniors and seniors alike. His face is immediately recognisable from his television work, most notably as the host of two massively popular television shows, BumtsiBum and Tanssii Tähtien Kanssa (Dancing with the Stars).

Together with his long-time associate Ritva Enä-
koski, Bjurström also provides consulting services to companies and organisations, training their staff in unmediated communication, performance skills and overall well-being. The duo’s most recent training package combines the concepts of physical and mental well-being with workplace dynamics.

While the field is now riddled with all manner of training consultancies, Bjurström and Enäkoski have been at it for two full decades. Long before the current wellness boom and before the study of happiness became a valid field of academic research, Bjurström was a vocal proponent of positive psychology, urging Finns to feel good about themselves and consider happiness seriously. Helsinki Times spoke with Bjurström about his coaching work. The following are excerpts from the interview.

What is positive psychology?

In short, it means that instead of worrying about all of the threats out there and all of our past mistakes and traumas, we should seek to find resources in positive memories and mental images. Being positive is not making fun of grief. Grief should be grieved but it should also be seen as an opportunity to learn something. Often, in even the worst disasters, there is something good in the outcome.

How does current academic study of happiness affect your work?

For us it doesn’t really change the contents of our lectures, since it only reinforces what has been our primary message for a long time. But it does make it easier to bring up the topic of happiness and move on from there – we don’t need to spend so much time convincing people that it is something to be taken seriously.

Is there a lot of demand for this kind of service in today’s working life?

Times change, obviously. When we got started there were no other services available. (Philosopher) Esa Saarinen gave some lectures and a few others started similar types of consulting services soon after us, but many of them quickly went into other directions. Nowadays there is a lot more supply, which is a good thing in some ways, as the demand has also increased. But the drawback is that with increased volume you always get some mixed-quality products. With the latest boom this whole field received some bad publicity because of the overflowing market. But as the upswing inevitably turns into a depression, companies again begin to realise that their staff really are their most important resource.

Do you ever encounter people who simply refuse to open up to your message?

We do get people who are challenging, and they need to be given a chance to open up. Those defences are probably there for a good reason, and you can’t break a person. Or maybe you could, but there’s no point in that. A very small percentage of the people we train are very adversarial to begin with, and it is interesting how many of them might come up to me, even years afterwards, saying that they’ve later understood our message completely. You can’t make the river run faster. We can only say what we have to say and trust that the process goes on inside the person.

What is wrong with the stereotypically sulky, average Finn?

Of course, everyone can be whatever he or she wants! However, if you want certain things then you need to be ready to change. I wouldn’t say that Finns are sulky but they are shy and timid. They are not used to so much human contact but they are very polite. It is not a bad thing in any way. You can be a great public speaker even if you are a somewhat more closed person, but in that case you need to have a very unique message. Unfortunately, most of us don’t have anything quite that special to say, so we’re in a competition situation, fighting to get our seat at the table. And when dealing with people from another culture there’s a point when tacit and shy turns from exotic and interesting to awkward and uncomfortable. At that point they’ll find someone else to sit down with.

There’s a lot of talk about declining working conditions in the current economy. Is it really necessary for people to function under all conditions?

Of course it’s important to be realistic about what you do. We’re not trying to turn black into white. When giving a lecture in front of a large crowd you have to talk in general terms and remind people that we’re not there to provide a fix-all miracle cure. But dealing with a work community, where everyone knows each other, can be quite a gut-wrenching experience. There are situations where workplace dynamics have become intensely dysfunctional. An outside consultant can’t fix things but he can put them into another perspective, and help people realise what they can do to remedy the situation. It’s not about painting silver linings on every cloud.

How is the recession affecting your work?

Times are tough and companies are tightening their belts, that's for sure. They don’t have the money to pay for outside consultants, and even if they do they might have to lay off people. It’s hard to justify hiring outside trainers in that situation, although after layoffs there is often even greater need to take care of the remaining staff’s well-being. But a recession is good from time to time: it takes out some of the more opportunistic companies. Overall, I think that in the future this field is going to grow. As globalisation moves on and cross-cultural communication increases, it will no longer be enough for employees to know everything about the product, but to understand how to transfer that knowledge to the customer.

You’ve managed to create a long and prosperous career. How do you feel about your success?

I’ve had plenty of success, but also some lucky breaks and a lot of failures. I’m sure that some of it has to do with ability, but mainly I would say that it is because I’ve always pursued my heart’s desire. Some ventures have become financial successes, but it was never the main goal. And on the other hand, every blunder is a gift. I’m in the black economically as well, I suppose, but most of all mentally. The Step Up Dance School has been a mainstay throughout the years. We started it out of a desire to run a school devoted to showdance, and while it hasn’t turned in heaps of cash it has grown into a school that has employed hundreds of young people over the years.

Matti Koskinen - HT
Anssi Ranki - OneFrameCinema