Arvio: YOUMAKEME
Kvarnström flirts with horror and nightmares
Kenneth Kvarnström’s latest choreography YOUMAKEME is an open-form entity that calculatedly communicates with the audience.
The structure of the performance is number-like, even sketch-like at times, as the dancers double up as promotion staff, announcers and singers.
The work contemplates, among other things, how many times one is able to listen to the same song. Therefore, the audience will hear several versions of classic songs, such as Feeling Good and Gloomy Sunday. The songs are also performed as various dance versions.
The cover songs offer a delicious opportunity for choreographic play as they allow for different emphasis and nuances.
The completely silent trio comprising dancers Kenneth Bruun Carlson, Sofia Karlsson and Janne Marja-Aho stands out as an impressive element.
The sketch-like scenes evolve to reveal Kvarnström’s sense of humour laced with shades of darkness. The scenes seem to be born out of horror film imagery.
The audience is drawn to the world of horror starting with the duet by spike-clad men at the very beginning.
The group scene with five moody heavy metal chicks dressed in school uniforms is simply outrageous; the headbangers growl their own version of the song Feeling Good while they also go through all phases of school bullying and hooliganism together.
The ambiguous performance culminates in an enigmatic dream-like scene where a glistering spider-man dances with anonymous men with top hats. The lighting by William Iles conjures intensive spaces on the empty stage and the costumes by Erika Turunen intriguingly support Kvarnström’s surreal concepts.
(Translation: Multiprint Oy / Multidoc)