Review: hardcore humppa

After all, it’s dancing on roses
– every once in a while

Sometimes work or any other activity goes like a dance, and on the other hand, people are sure that life – in general – is not a bed of roses. Harri Kuorelahti’s brand-new choreography, which is bathed in Kimmo Pohjonen’s impressive music, comes to more or less the same conclusion, but through its own – skilfully crafted and curious- labyrinth.
Helsinki Dance Company can already be expected to reach a high level. And it rewards its audience with a royal wave of the hand.

There, somewhere in the labyrinth’s mazes, you can also find the keywords. “Hardcore” can be seen as referring to techno-musical influences, while “humppa” connects the city people to their Forest Finnish roots as well as, for example, jazz and accordion jazz. But when the humppa proceeds faithfully to a more or less simple rhythm, the hardcore humppa hammers Pohjonen’s shamanistic chords into the listeners’ heads. They take the dancers and let them take them. Loud and high.
In the title of the dance piece, Humpa could well be replaced with the word elämä, which is more comprehensive but less enigmatic. In any case, we start from the beginning, from the beginning of human life. The movement language is inventive. The joy of learning, trial and error in a child’s world, the power of imagination, the joy of improvisation in the role work of dancers. Leena Rapola brings in a verbal dimension and thus reminds the audience of how much meaning spoken language carries with it and what kind of skill telling requires from those whose expressive power is not based on replication.
The work as a whole contains some speech and singing, articulated with the composition as a soundscape. Antti Rehtijärvi’s simplistic, beautiful set design with its “shades” enlivened by video projections dressed the small stage of the City Theatre well.

The story thus carries a small group and big meanings, taking the other person into account, growing in and through them, falling in love, passion, disappointment, losses. It also forces us to sense the limitations of life and the unpleasant surprises looming at the end of it.
Through the dance work, we also get an excellent cross-section of the dancer’s work, readiness for constantly new challenges, refining technique with perseverance to the top, hiding fatigue. Trained bodies and their control, strength and plasticity ultimately show the aesthetic and stage-driven features of the sport.
The tempo of the performance is fierce at times, but there are also some lulls. One of them is a masterful episode borrowing from yoga, which is probably comparable in content to the human tendency to look for answers in silence and philosophies. The demanding balancing ceremonies gave the interpretation completely new tones, and after the fast-paced aerobic performances, the dancers’ ability to focus on flexible lingering was admirable. Jenni-Elina Lehto in particular amazed with her acrobatic skills.

From the successful evening, I also remember the verbal dance, the excerpts read by Leena Rapola from a letter that communicated great longing. Doesn’t that sound beautiful:
You feel responsible for the other person, especially when you have tamed it…