Its main activities also include running an international teaching programme and participating in the creation of Saarinen's choreographies for other leading dance companies around the world.

Tero Saarinen's rich choreographic style is characterized by multidimensional artistry – expressive dancers,[4] live music, and striking visuals.

[8] Tero Saarinen, a renowned international soloist,[9] assembled the dance group Company Toothpick[10] in 1995 as an instrument for expressing his own choreographic vision.

[11] The group's founding members, alongside Saarinen, were his colleague Henrikki Heikkilä from the Finnish National Ballet, Yuval Pick from Batsheva Dance Company, and Lighting Designer Mikki Kunttu.

In addition to regular performances, the theatre houses the group's office and rehearsal space – the same studio where Tero Saarinen started his professional career in 1982, when the building was still the home of the Finnish National Ballet.

[18] Tero Saarinen's richly original choreographic style is characterized by his distinctive movement language and multidimensional artistry – expressive dancers, live music, and striking visuals.

[21][22] By the end of 2013 Saarinen will have performed this piece 174 times in 82 cities and 32 countries, in Asia, Africa, South and North America, and Europe,[23] and it has been dubbed one of the most significant choreographies made for Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.

[25] Borrowed Light, performed at dozens of leading venues in Europe, Oceania and North America since its creation in 2004, has also attracted critical acclaim in the international media.

Nowadays courses and workshops for professional dancers and advanced level dance students are held all over the world, approximately four to five times a year.

[29] The teaching of the technique for Saarinen's movement language concentrates on awakening the dancer's senses and general alertness, as well as activating their nerve endings, and acknowledging and using the body's own weight.

In addition, each year some 40 to 80 professionals from different fields and various parts of the world also work with the group on specific productions or out-of-house service contracts.

The group's artistic aim is to use choreography, music and visual design to give people profound experiences in the form of enduring, total artworks – open, interactive situations that allow audience members to address fundamental human questions.

[4] In its early stages, these included Saarinen's renowned colleagues from the Finnish National Ballet, such as Henrikki Heikkilä, Sini Länsivuori, Anu Sistonen and Heikki Vienola – the majority of whom are still working with the company.

A number of prominent foreign dancers have also visited the group, among them Yuval Pick, Nataša Novotná, Megumi Nakamura and Sharon Eyal.

[5] His musical collaborators include The Boston Camerata, Ensemble InterContemporain, the accordion duo James Crabb and Geir Draugsvoll, the chamber orchestra Avanti!, composer-musician Jarmo Saari and Finnish accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen.