Review: Softandhard

Softly hard

Helsinki Dance Company’s premiere work begins with great physical intensity. Six dancers, four women and two men, rush onto the stage in different groups to perform their series in which they throw themselves on the ground, wriggle with their hands and run to jump or sprint at full speed.

In the minimalist music of the Frenchman Simon Thiérrée , the violins tickle their sounds, which are repeated in layers. In Mikki Kunttu’s lighting, the white dance mat takes on a soft grey hue, and the characteristic strings of lights on the sides and behind are waiting to be lit.

The first part of Softandhard by Anton Lachky (b. 1982), who danced in the renowned Akram Khan troupe and now lives in Belgium, is irresistible.

The physically demanding movement boils with energy and activity, and makes you feel like you could watch this for a long time.

The fascinating movements have been created in collaboration between the choreographer and the dancers. According to Lachky, one of the key elements of the work is its animal-like nature, which is especially evident in the dancers’ movements that begin to resemble a herd of wild horses. The dancers gallop in a circle and stomp their hands like horses’ feet.

A herd of horses is created with great dance insights. The conflicting relationship with it is accompanied by a protracted scene in which the women end up imitating monkeys. It looks exactly like aping humans looks: stupid.

But it is precisely there that the work insightfully concretely makes concrete the difference that exists between imitating an animal and becoming an animal through dancing.


Games and competitions

Lachky also wants to explore play and gaming in her work. On several occasions, the dancers played blind as well as various games of competition and incitement. After a wild start, a long play scene creates an anticlimax. The energy and intensity slowly decrease towards the end, but even in a more serene way, the atmosphere is impressive.

One of the great aspects of the work is its stage design. The actors go to change their water bottles and sweaty clothes between the light poles, so that the whole space remains shared with the viewers and nothing is done in secret.

The changes in Kunttu’s lighting make the space look sometimes hard, sometimes soft, as befits the work. The reproduction elements of Thiérrée’s music are hypnotically transforming. The dancers, both two guests and those familiar from the group, are in great shape. They capture soft and hard movement expression in an admirable way, to the fullest.