Monday, March 20, 2006
Neat
Top contemporary dancer shows Finnishing kick
Natasha Gauthier
The Ottawa Citizen
Monday, March 20, 2006
The Finns have a reputation for being a taciturn and dour folk, socially chilly and prone to melancholia. But scratch a little beneath this forbidding surface and you reveal a nation of born storytellers. Just skim through the Kalevala, the ancient Suomi mythology, where goddesses are impregnated by the wind, the earth is born from a cosmic egg, a singing swan glides over the lake of the dead, and fairies hide in every pine tree.
"Finns are not very talkative, but it's true we have this compulsion," muses choreographer Tero Saarinen, who performs at the NAC tomorrow with his Helsinki-based company. "In the north of Finland, they have this way of holding hands while they are telling stories. It's a very old tradition, and very strange.
"I'm not sure where it comes from," Saarinen continues, the words spilling rapidly and excitedly from his mouth, his trilling-bird accent making his speech seem even quicker. "Finland is a mystical place, with few people in a lot of land. There's a powerful sense of nature. We have winter for eight months of the year, and it's a special darkness. Then in summer, we have this vastness of light 24 hours a day. It's almost like a fairy-tale, so maybe it comes from that."
Saarinen, 42, is Finland's pre-eminent contemporary dance export. As a dancer, he's won numerous international awards for his combination of superb technique and raw expression. As a choreographer, he fuses classical ballet, modern dance, gymnastics, Japanese Butoh and martial arts to create thrilling, explosive displays of kinetic prowess. Like his countrymen, his dances hide layers upon layers of primal knowledge beneath their contemporary faces.
"I don't believe in creating new art," he says. "I believe in showing respect for those who came before and have already invented everything. I think it's quite egotistical to always think that what we are doing is completely new. One of my teachers in Japan used to say that when he danced, he was dancing on top of his ancestors. I really feel that sentiment, too."
In Ottawa, Saarinen's troupe will perform Westward Ho!, his 1996 international breakthrough piece, and 2000's Wavlengths. Saarinen will also present Hunt, an astonishing solo he created for himself in 2002. Set to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (it's fitting that the NAC show falls on the March Equinox), Hunt is, at its most basic, a tale of good and evil.
"The first part is quite primitive and archival," Saarinen explains. "It's the awakening of this character, the Chosen One, and the sacrifice he has to make for his society-moving from the hunter to the hunted. Because he's alone on stage, we really get to dive into one person's psyche. But it's not just his sacrifice, it's about sacrifice in general. The sacrifice of the dancer's life. The way we sacrifice our past in favour of all this information we have today, which suffocates us."
Saarinen is a self-described risk-taker. He did, after all, leave a secure position with the Finnish National Ballet -- complete with pension and benefits -- to strike off on his own, a move he says was met with some skepticism by his parents and peers. But few things have frightened him more than choosing the iconic, history-laden Rite of Spring for Hunt's score.
"I remember I was doing Schoenberg's Transfigured Night in Sweden, and I was already starting to think about Hunt. One morning I woke up in bed and I thought, 'Oh my God, I have to use Rite of Spring.' And I really scared myself, you know; I was like, 'Come on, Tero, you can't use that, it's been done so many times, you have to find something else.' I was almost embarrassed. But it was such a strong feeling, I had to do it."
Another key element of Hunt's animal attraction is the multimedia art created for it by Marita Liulia, best known in North American art circles for her Ambitious Bitches and Tarot shows, which both make extensive use of new technology (she designs elaborate interactive websites for her projects and his even produced a version of the Tarot exhibit that can be downloaded onto a cell phone).
"I met Marita just three months before the premiere," Saarinen says. "She was photographing me for her Tarot project. I was still looking for a bigger force for Hunt, in addition to the music, something technical, but I didn't know what it would be. When I saw Marita's work, I knew that was the weapon I was looking for."
Rather than simply project her striking imagery onto screens, something both the artist and the choreographer agreed was too boring and too distracting, Liulia uses Saarinen's own body as her living canvas, her visuals transformed into mobile tattoos that add complex, shimnmering dimensions to his movements.
"It's a unique co-operation," Liulia says. "My programmer discovered a bug in the multimedia program I use. It allows us to follow Tero and his movements onstage. Basically, I can follow him with the mouse and match his dancing. This was a real discovery. It's never been done before."
Although she has worked with dance companies in the past, Liulia says this new approach takes her participation to a higher, more intimate level.
"It's really like I'm dancing with Tero," she says. "Sometimes in rehearsal, he would say 'Don't tickle me with your images,' because they were right on his skin."
As their collaboration became more involved, Saarinen and Liulia discovered a genuine simpatico feeling stemming from shared experiences, including a mutual fascination with Japanese and other Asian cultures.
"Tero and I approach our art the same way," says Liulia. "It's not easygoing. It's not light. And we both have this sense of spirituality. When I was doing Tarot, and Tero was posing as my beautiful 'hanged man', he said to me, 'Why do I have to take on such a difficult part?' I told him, 'because you are strong.' It's the same with Hunt, when he is portraying this sacrifice. It's difficult. It's really heavy and deep. But he can do it because he has such a strong soul."
Tero Saarinen performs Tuesday at the NAC. Tickets & times, 755-1111.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2006
Natasha Gauthier
The Ottawa Citizen
Monday, March 20, 2006
The Finns have a reputation for being a taciturn and dour folk, socially chilly and prone to melancholia. But scratch a little beneath this forbidding surface and you reveal a nation of born storytellers. Just skim through the Kalevala, the ancient Suomi mythology, where goddesses are impregnated by the wind, the earth is born from a cosmic egg, a singing swan glides over the lake of the dead, and fairies hide in every pine tree.
"Finns are not very talkative, but it's true we have this compulsion," muses choreographer Tero Saarinen, who performs at the NAC tomorrow with his Helsinki-based company. "In the north of Finland, they have this way of holding hands while they are telling stories. It's a very old tradition, and very strange.
"I'm not sure where it comes from," Saarinen continues, the words spilling rapidly and excitedly from his mouth, his trilling-bird accent making his speech seem even quicker. "Finland is a mystical place, with few people in a lot of land. There's a powerful sense of nature. We have winter for eight months of the year, and it's a special darkness. Then in summer, we have this vastness of light 24 hours a day. It's almost like a fairy-tale, so maybe it comes from that."
Saarinen, 42, is Finland's pre-eminent contemporary dance export. As a dancer, he's won numerous international awards for his combination of superb technique and raw expression. As a choreographer, he fuses classical ballet, modern dance, gymnastics, Japanese Butoh and martial arts to create thrilling, explosive displays of kinetic prowess. Like his countrymen, his dances hide layers upon layers of primal knowledge beneath their contemporary faces.
"I don't believe in creating new art," he says. "I believe in showing respect for those who came before and have already invented everything. I think it's quite egotistical to always think that what we are doing is completely new. One of my teachers in Japan used to say that when he danced, he was dancing on top of his ancestors. I really feel that sentiment, too."
In Ottawa, Saarinen's troupe will perform Westward Ho!, his 1996 international breakthrough piece, and 2000's Wavlengths. Saarinen will also present Hunt, an astonishing solo he created for himself in 2002. Set to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (it's fitting that the NAC show falls on the March Equinox), Hunt is, at its most basic, a tale of good and evil.
"The first part is quite primitive and archival," Saarinen explains. "It's the awakening of this character, the Chosen One, and the sacrifice he has to make for his society-moving from the hunter to the hunted. Because he's alone on stage, we really get to dive into one person's psyche. But it's not just his sacrifice, it's about sacrifice in general. The sacrifice of the dancer's life. The way we sacrifice our past in favour of all this information we have today, which suffocates us."
Saarinen is a self-described risk-taker. He did, after all, leave a secure position with the Finnish National Ballet -- complete with pension and benefits -- to strike off on his own, a move he says was met with some skepticism by his parents and peers. But few things have frightened him more than choosing the iconic, history-laden Rite of Spring for Hunt's score.
"I remember I was doing Schoenberg's Transfigured Night in Sweden, and I was already starting to think about Hunt. One morning I woke up in bed and I thought, 'Oh my God, I have to use Rite of Spring.' And I really scared myself, you know; I was like, 'Come on, Tero, you can't use that, it's been done so many times, you have to find something else.' I was almost embarrassed. But it was such a strong feeling, I had to do it."
Another key element of Hunt's animal attraction is the multimedia art created for it by Marita Liulia, best known in North American art circles for her Ambitious Bitches and Tarot shows, which both make extensive use of new technology (she designs elaborate interactive websites for her projects and his even produced a version of the Tarot exhibit that can be downloaded onto a cell phone).
"I met Marita just three months before the premiere," Saarinen says. "She was photographing me for her Tarot project. I was still looking for a bigger force for Hunt, in addition to the music, something technical, but I didn't know what it would be. When I saw Marita's work, I knew that was the weapon I was looking for."
Rather than simply project her striking imagery onto screens, something both the artist and the choreographer agreed was too boring and too distracting, Liulia uses Saarinen's own body as her living canvas, her visuals transformed into mobile tattoos that add complex, shimnmering dimensions to his movements.
"It's a unique co-operation," Liulia says. "My programmer discovered a bug in the multimedia program I use. It allows us to follow Tero and his movements onstage. Basically, I can follow him with the mouse and match his dancing. This was a real discovery. It's never been done before."
Although she has worked with dance companies in the past, Liulia says this new approach takes her participation to a higher, more intimate level.
"It's really like I'm dancing with Tero," she says. "Sometimes in rehearsal, he would say 'Don't tickle me with your images,' because they were right on his skin."
As their collaboration became more involved, Saarinen and Liulia discovered a genuine simpatico feeling stemming from shared experiences, including a mutual fascination with Japanese and other Asian cultures.
"Tero and I approach our art the same way," says Liulia. "It's not easygoing. It's not light. And we both have this sense of spirituality. When I was doing Tarot, and Tero was posing as my beautiful 'hanged man', he said to me, 'Why do I have to take on such a difficult part?' I told him, 'because you are strong.' It's the same with Hunt, when he is portraying this sacrifice. It's difficult. It's really heavy and deep. But he can do it because he has such a strong soul."
Tero Saarinen performs Tuesday at the NAC. Tickets & times, 755-1111.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2006
// posted by MSR @ 6:37 AM 
