April 06, 2006
New York reviews of Hunt
John Rockwell, The New York Times, March 30, 2006
Tero Saarinen Company From Finland Dances in New York
The Tero Saarinen Company from Finland made its New York debut in 1998. It was welcomed warmly, but for whatever reason, it took eight years to return. Its opening at the Joyce Theater on Tuesday night was an occasion for some terrific dancing, building happily from strength to strength over the three pieces on the program.....
...None of this would have mattered much without Mr. Saarinen's choreography, which looked constantly alive and original. It was at its very best in the final piece, "Hunt," a 2002 solo for himself. Audaciously set to Stravinsky's "Sacre du Printemps" (in Esa-Pekka Salonen's fleet, intense recording), its overt intentions — something about confronting the depredations of age — mattered less than the eerie atmosphere Mr. Saarinen created. His figure, initially dressed in a white sarong, looked more hunted than hunting. He often moved in spasmodic increments, like a strobe effect without the strobe lighting. That came later, in the equally powerful lighting and projections of Marita Liulia. The second half of the dance found Mr. Saarinen in an alien world of Ms. Liulia's design, with ghostly clouds and faint gray projections on the back wall. The cloud became a skirt or a tutu — Mr. Saarinen as male swan? — onto which were projected vivid, bizarre, swirling, flashing, broken fragments of bodies, above all a recurrent eye. At the very end, he leapt and leapt, each leap caught in midair with a flash of white light.
The whole thing was quite extraordinary, a powerful match for the music. It made one anticipate Mr. Saarinen's date at Jacob's Pillow this summer and fervently hope he makes it back to New York sooner than another eight years.
Lisa Rinehart Dance View Times
A Reluctant Star, Sort Of. . .
Tero Saarinen has kivekset (that's Finnish for hutzpah—in a manner of speaking.) Fortunately, he also has talent and the smarts to choose gifted collaborators. Already recognized internationally as a powerful performer (although I'm afraid he's allowed himself to be described in the program as "one of the most brilliant dancers of his generation"), Saarinen brings to New York a tasting platter of his own choreography....
The star of the evening, however, (and this is where the hutzpah comes in) is unquestionably Saarinen himself in his solo "Hunt," a multimedia tour de force set to nothing less than Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring." Dance history is littered with attempts to realize this magnificent score, but Saarinen is startlingly successful by teaming up with multimedia artist, Marita Liula, as well as costume designer, Erika Turunen, and again, Kunttu. The dance unfolds with the fitful reluctance of early spring and is infused with references to the Diaghilev era. There are bits of Anna Pavovla in "The Dying Swan," as well as archaic positions reminiscent of Nijinsky in his "Afternoon of a Faun." Saarinen has the delicate rawness of a butterfly fresh out of the chrysalis. About midway into the dance, a structure resembling an exploded sheaf of papers fashioned into a tutu descends from the rafters and Saarinen wriggles into it. Mirroring the wild dynamics of Stravinsky's score, Liula's projections begin to flash across skin and dress alike. The images range from hypnotic circular tracings to pulsating collages of barely discernible, but somehow disturbing, objects. Rapid fire editing catches the breath and pulls us into Stravinsky's primal cacophany. If you happen to be a film buff, the net effect is similar to that of the 1929 surrealistic film "Un Chien Andalou," by Salvadore Dali and Luis Bunuel. It's heady stuff and Saarinen summons his considerable strength and feline grace to the task of compressing the miracle of birth, transformation and death into this 40 minute spectacle. The dance culminates with strobe lights repeatedly freezing Saarinen in space (in perfect unity with the score) and ends with the inevitable final collapse. What could be a mess of theatrics is instead an original and stirring visual realization of Stravinsky's emotional intent. Bravo!
Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice, April 4th, 2006
Siege of Light
Finnish troupe returns after an eight-year absence
Tero Saarinen, the remarkable Finnish choreographer-dancer, isn't the first to choreograph Stravinsky's Rite of Spring as a solo. But he may be the first to internalize the composer's driving rhythms rather than stepping them out, as did Molissa Fenley in her 1988 State of Darkness and Nijinsky's hordes in his 1913 sacrificial ritual. In Hunt, Saarinen's torso and arms map aspirations and assaults. He's not the hunter but the hunted—by the specter of age and death or by the onslaught of contemporary civilization or both. He doesn't attempt to ride Stravinsky's tempest; he endures its pummeling.
His vision owes much to lighting designer Mikki Kunttu; Marita Liulia, who created slides and other multimedia effects; Jacke Kastelli, programmer; and costume designer Erika Turunen. When we first glimpse Saarinen, he is backlit, his outline glowing as he advances unsteadily, dragging around first one foot, then the other. He's bare chested and wears a white skirt. His only onstage audience is a semicircle of lamps set on the floor.
Watching Saarinen in Hunt, you might not guess he was once a soloist in the Finnish National Ballet (although that company's repertory is eclectic and contemporary). You might, however, deduce that he studied butoh in Japan with Kazuo Ohno. He performs the first part of Hunt as if listening for a call, his body arching, his arms outspread. There are echoes of Fokine's Dying Swan in his attempts to rise from the floor, but his "wings" are often distorted and pulled painfully far behind him.
Posted by marita at 06:09 PM | Comments (0)
April 02, 2006
New York Premiere
The premiere on March the 28th was packed with critics and connaisseurs of the dance world, among them many New York Times journalists. We also heard legends, one of them beeing that Mikhail Baryshnikov was attending. This audience has already seen everything, and we were warned of their arrogance. Tero just sighted - Oh, no, help! but he did not need help once standing in the middle of the stage in Mikki Kunttu´s mysterious backlight, bathing infog, facing his destiny as the sacrified one.
I think we did it right from the beginning. After Westward ho! the audience thought this is something strange and unusual. During the sensual Wavelenghts they decided they liked it, and at the end of Hunt they just caught their breath and went silent. After Tero´s last leap toward the skies (or death) it was so quiet I could hear my own heart beat. Then the emotional storm of the audience broke the death silence. The reviews of the next days repeated the Canadian pattern, often with the invitation, please come back soon! We certainly will.
New York Times about Hunt:
The whole thing was quite extraordinary, a powerful match for the music. After two days, they also ranked the performance among the three MUST´s of NY at the moment.
Read the reviews from www.terosaarinen.com/blog
Posted by marita at 02:13 AM | Comments (0)
March 28, 2006
Art is communication
The temperature in New York warms up quickly. I enjoy spending a few sunny days photographing in Central Park and the Brooklyn Botanical garden before the ”hunt” starts. Artists Tero, Marita and Sini with Iiris the Manager worship the early spring sun!
At the Joyce Theatre little is left of it´s past history. This former porn cinema has been the main venue of modern dance in New York for a long time. It´s nice to work there with 60 professionals who have staff meetings every day! Tonights New York premiere, and the seven performances to follow, added with the discussions with the audience and journalists make us feel, as the Finnish expression goes, like having butterflies in our bellies. During the coming days I will also lecture at Parsons School for Design and New York University. Great honour and a pleasure! Art is
communication...
Posted by marita at 02:12 AM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2006
New York, The Third House of Love
The third house of love, and another dance lovers house (previous porn
cinema) is naturally the Joyce Theatre, where we will have the New York
premiere on March the 28th. In the coming days I will also lecture about my art
and ideas at Parsons School for Design and at New York University.
Posted by marita at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)
March 26, 2006
New York, The Second House of Love
Pacha
My favourite DJ Dimitri from Paris happened to be in town! His first record, Sacre Bleu, is already a classic, and I have never succeeded to be on the spot when he plays. Dimitri seems to have released a new double CD, called In the House of Love. This time I will not miss the gig. And I have two days off before the performances begin at Joyce.
I blackmailed our youngsters Nina, Eero and Ville to forget GDGB, the black smoky hole of punky rock, and join me at Pacha. Its a year old sophisticated night club in the Meat Packing District in Chelsea. I made a holy promise to visit GDGB later on with them, but had my fingers crossed… naughty me.
Mr. Dimitri really made us move our meats, and when we packed ourselves again to a yellow cab, we were all in a great mood and it was very late or very early… the most attractive hours of New York.
Posted by marita at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)
March 23, 2006
New York – Three Houses of Love
The house of opera lovers: The Metropolitan Opera
This winter Finnish evening papers do not write headlines about Karita Mattila´s outfit on stage, because she´s dressed up as a young soldier lad in Fidelio. Despite the male costume I can immediately recognize her by The Voice. It flies freely above the other voices, strong, clear and rich of colours. She is a great artist, not just an opera singer but also an actress and a dancer. I still regret I didn´t take a flight to New York just to see her performance in Salome last winter.
When I closed my eyes in the narrow seat of the Metropolitan Opera I remember the last time I heard this magnificent voice. I woke up at home an early summer morning. Tuija Hakkila, then my neighbour and a great pianist, had rehearsals with Karita Mattila for their summer concerts in Finland. I opened all the eleven windows of the apartment and enjoyed three days of an unusual concert.
The Metropolitan Opera is a gorgeous building, especially inside. The portrait and art collections are beautiful, and the excellent store is a delight for any visitor. I wonder why our opera in Helsinki does not sell anything, and looks like a government office with some boring official art works hung on bare walls. These days the news are about their bad financial situation…But perhaps we have something better in Helsinki; Fidelio´s lighting-, set- and costume designs lacked ideas, were gloomy and uninteresting.
Posted by marita at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2006
Ottawa without helmets
In Ottawa we have just one performance in Canada´s National Arts Center.
I performed in the very same building many years ago with Son of A Bitch, then alone.
As I remember from my previous visit, this massive mansion of performing arts is in professional hands, and as a result the stage (as every detail from posters to leaflets) is just perfect. I wish our lighting designer Mikki Kunttu would see the knife sharp lights and exact, delicious colors!
They have funny rules in the house: we should wear yellow helmets and special boots when we work behind the stage. Exactly at midday, a few minutes before the end, they stop our dress rehearsal and tell us the theatre has to pay a huge penalty if they don´t obey the union rules. Poor Tero, who has to start the rehearsal all over again after an hour. He never complains, just thanks the technicians and tries to keep his muscles warm for one hour more. This dream team seem to share a general Zen attitude, which brings much better results than any yelling or egoism.
The performance was one of our best, and at the end the whole audience was standing, which has become kind of a rule with us. Some disappeared crying to the lobby. In the public discussion after the show they openly addressed emotions raised by issues of the evening; humanity, loneliness, friendship, love and sacrifice.
The technology I use in Hunt is often the first question I get. I reply by telling the story about a bug my long time programmer, Jacke Kastelli, found in Macromedia Director, the software which we later decided to use in Hunt. The result is not video, but an interactive animation tool. I use it to I paint / shoot at Tero´s body with his own images in real time.
I like to see every performance, and every night I discover something new. This art form is always different, and I realize it better when I see the same work again and again. The audience too impacts the performance, and they are very different in every country. The extremes must be the noisy and emotional Italians and French, versus the quiet and reserved Japanese and Finns. Canadian are somewhere in between.
After the show the happy and tired bunch of performers enjoyed a heavy and hearty meal in a Scottish pub. One plate of cheesecake was enough for four! Photos are taken by Iiris Autio, our managing director. She joined us in Ottawa, and a few minutes before the performance she hugged me telling how much she loves her profession and this team.
After the show The Finnish Embassy has organized a reception, and we will stay one more day in Ottawa before flying to New York. A similar reception was organized during my last visit here, and it was also exceptional;informal, popular, and besides having fun I met remarkable professionals and got many reasons to visit Ottawa again. Well done, Embassy!
Posted by marita at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)
March 20, 2006
Mysterious mist at Niagara
I felt somewhat relieved when we arrived to Canada and Toronto. During the first day off, when Eero and Ville, our dear technicians were building up at the Harbourfront Dance Theatre, the dancers got an excellent idea to rent a car and drive 135 km to Niagara Falls.
The early morning was rainy and grey but I was enthusiastic. What a special light for photography! On the way I shoot some Toronto skycrapers disappearing to mist. That was just an aperitif. When we arrived to Niagara with the rented Pointiac we were just like a bunch of schoolkids, screaming of delight.
Niagara was so mighty, magnificent and mysterious. How lucky am I, a few weeks ago I was in in Angkor and now in Niagara! When I sat there in front of the screaming, sighting Falls, I felt the same way than the day I started this blog in the ruins of Angkor. I felt connected with my inner peace when I saw the masses of water moving. Besides the water views I took again some photos of trees dancing in a mysterious mist. The mist makes colors disappear, everything look like black and white film.
Posted by marita at 03:18 PM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2006
Pure gold for Toronto
After five days and nights walking to the Harbourfront Centre Dance Theatre and back to the hotel, eating plenty of falafels from Lebanese shop on my way, it was really nice to wake up one morning from the 35th floor, make some coffee, admire Lake Ontario from a birds perspective and open the fresh newspaper, the Globe and Mail, and read the title and first chapters:
Saarinen's alchemy spins pure gold
Reader be warned. This review is going to gush. The gushee in question is Finland's Tero Saarinen Company, which is making its long overdue Canadian debut. If the opposite of Eurotrash is Eurogold, this outstanding contemporary dance troupe is a precious metal indeed.
To create that all-important first impression, Saarinen has brought three of his signature works, and each is a gem in its own right. But the evening is more than three wonderfully provocative dance pieces. Equally impressive is how Saarinen has structured the program. The build, from one dance to the next in terms of mood and impact, is architectural perfection. The other exceptional component is the design element as manifested in Mikki Kunttu's rapturous lighting and the gorgeous originality of Erika Turunen's costumes.
Completing this Finnish dream team is multimedia artist Marita Liulia, whose contribution to Saarinen's famous solo Hunt is simply breathtaking.
This time pure gold made in Finland is not ice hockey but modern dance!
Posted by marita at 03:19 PM | Comments (0)
March 05, 2006
Pittsburgh, thanks to Andy Warhol
After a few hectic days at home I´m again on a plane. This time with the Tero Saarinen Company on the way to Pittsburgh, our starting point for a one month tour in the US and Canada.
Arriving to ”free” America was like a nightmare. We felt just like criminals entering a prison whose guardians think it´s already full! This impression started already from the Helsinki Embassy. Our new 10 years passports had to be replaced with brand new ones and the security check was immaculate - for criminals.
My new (extra hard) luggage arrived to Washington with huge holes and missing wheels. When we humbly wanted a declaration of the ”accident” we got a real treat. After Asia this unfriendliness and general ugliness of everything struck like...a real imprisonment. I counted how many days I have to... and tried to comfort myself with a sarcastic sense of humour. It always wins, whatever the circumstansces are.
Once again, I got a cultural shock with the American food and drink habits. You have to consume the hyperfattysaltysugary foodpiece from a plastic plate and drink from a plastic cup. And surely nothing is recycled. Portions are double size by European and triple size by Asian standards. As a visible result the overweight of people follows the same standard. I get happy every time when I get a real plate, glass or fork to my hand.
American culture worships juvenility. Adults and also elderly people seem to prefer to dress up in pastel coloured sportwear and sneakers, consume their daily hamburgers and french fries standing, suck their drinks from plastic bottles designed for infants. Candies and doughnuts are sold everywhere where you can buy something. Just like at home, in Finland! Before the Second World War the skilled Finnish learned German and studied mostly in Germany. After the war we learned to speak English and studied in England and USA. I still don´t fully understand why we have to follow the Americans in so many strange things.
After first days of melancholy, I went to see the new museum of the great son of Pittsburgh, Andy Warhol. I have learned many things from his witty and humorous autobiography ”From A to B and back again”. I recommend this book especially for young artists. Thanks to Andy´s point of view to America and the cheerful, well installed Andy Warhol Museum I got inspired... I took some selfportraits in the museum toilet. Suddenly a stranger stepped in, stared at me for a second, mumbled something like ”...a female Andy of the future, I suppose...”, and disappeared behind the door to pee while I continued shooting. I was amused, finally I got the welcome words I needed!
The Pittsburgh performance was not the very best beacause the local theatre seem to miss the technical leadership, and as a result we had too little time to rehearse. The first two pieces went well and the dancers were stunning. But this time we had problems in Hunt. Tero´s ”skirt” came down in the last possible second, but thanks to our team work we could finish Hunt without any problems.
Arriving to the reception Tero and I exchanged encouraging grins, and dunked to the sea of small talk. People commented everything, the quality and looks of my body and clothes, sophisticated accent (?!) but the artistic work. Everybody wants to say something, shake hands, touch, have a personal chat. Afterwards they can say they know you well. Anyway, it´s funny, it communicates. And they seemed to appreciate our work a lot. I immediately started to wonder how they behave if they DON´T like the show...negative me! I asked a Russian born architect and she told me they will let me know every detail of disliking too! Got the idea. This is going to be interesting.
Posted by marita at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)