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Harri Anttila managed to plant himself next to Tapio Rannanmaa’s coffee cup amidst the hustle and take a moment to reminisce about the past. The local boys of Pyhäsalmi immediately found a common thread for their conversation: the operations of Pyhäsalmi’s great mine.
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Rannanmaa’s own story as a dance caller began in his youth when he worked as a usher boy at Urheilutalo. It gave him such a good head start that today Rannanmaa is the chairman of Pyhäjärvi’s Pohdi. Alongside this, his responsibilities also include running the operations of Pyhäsalmi’s Suurlava, with all its joys and setbacks. "There were setbacks even in better circles," Rannanmaa recalls. He shared a small anecdote about Annikki Tähti’s mishap: she arrived with good intentions and at the right place, but on the wrong day. The previous night’s dance had been held without the main performer because there had been a typo in Tähti’s calendar.
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Among current performers, Rannanmaa ranks Saija Tuupainen as number one. The recipe for Tuupainen’s success is quite clear: she engages her audience and is natural, yet still brings a touch of glamour into everyday life. For her colleagues, Rannanmaa offers a success recipe of work, work, and more work. When it comes to male singers, the list of favorites is so long that we’ll just pick Dimitri Keiski as an example—a man who has captured the hearts of dance music fans across Finland.
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Pyhäjärvi’s Pohti is known for its skiers, both in freestyle and classical techniques. In response to Harri Anttila’s question, Rannanmaa says that the same kind of dynamic exists on stage too. There are "dancers under the hand" and a "change-step crew", but apparently harmony has been maintained well since both have found their own lanes on the dance floor.
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Harri Anttila, who worked as an interviewer for Rannamaa, seems like a down-to-earth Helsinki guy, but in the end, all roads lead to Pyhäjärvi. Here’s his childhood memory, complete with a photo.
The painting lists the names of the chairpersons of Pyhäjärvi’s Pohdi from 1934–2024. My father, Yrjö, served as the chairperson of Pohdi from 1958–1962.
I was born in 1958 and spent my first 3 years in what was called "the tube." My father was a police officer in Pyhäjärvi, and we lived in the official residence next to the police station. My mother took care of me and also worked as a cleaner at the police station.
I was often in the tube and learned to walk along the bars of the cell…
