Doctor of arts (Dance) Kirsi Monni has worked in the field of dance art since the 1980s as a choreographer, dancer, teacher and researcher. She has created over thirty own and commissioned choreographies for different dance companies and free-lancer artists. She has been teaching and lecturing since 1986 mainly in the Theatre Academy but also in other universities, schools and seminars. Monni completed her post gradual studies in the Theatre Academy in 2004. In her written thesis she analysed paradigm shifts in western dance art during the twentieth-century and outlined a current ontology for dance art with the help of the fundamental ontology of Martin Heidegger.  She has been twice rewarded the “State Prize for Dance Art” and three times the “5-years artist-grant” from the ministry of education.

She is a founding member of Zodiak – The Centre for New Dance in Helsinki where she worked as a member of the artistic directors team and the association board for two decades and as artistic director for the year 2008.  She has also been in the artistic directors team for international festivals Helsinki Act (1996–2001) and Side Step festival (2002–2008). In 2009 she was appointed as a professor of choreography at the Theatre Academy of Finland, Department of Dance.