Review: XPSD

The question arises, what is it all about?

Kenneth Kvarnström’s XPSD continues the dark line of recent years’ works.

Like many composers and visual artists, choreographer Kenneth Kvarnström is a creator who seems to be developing his own, basically quite unchanged art throughout his work. There have been many kinds of things involved. Sometimes even comedy, which has long been conspicuous by its absence from Kvarnström’s works. XPSD, which is a fashionable abbreviation for “exposed”, continues Kvarnström’s dark, if not pitch-black, line of recent years. From the sinking blackness of the stage, a spinning, metal rim appears. The following flashes reveal people in extreme emotional states.

Kvarnström is a design-conscious artist. She has used designers, clothing designers and sculptors as her visualizers. Now, the work’s sparse and controlled visual references are the responsibility of theatre costume designer Erika Turunen.

The visualisers have created their own characteristic shade or flavour for each of Kvarnström’s different works. Turunen’s stylish costumes simultaneously refer to the high fashion of our time and the court costumes of the 17th century.

The solution supports the decorative details associated with Kvarnström’s basic movement language. It all starts with the choreographer’s characteristic elbow extensions and intertwined arm bends. However, the intricate gestures, reminiscent of flamenco hand gestures, bring in a new tone.

As is often the case in Kvarnström’s works, the basic atmosphere of XPSD is ominously expectant. The tension is increased without it ever really erupting. The sound carpets created by Jukka Rintamäki rumble and hum in hollow metal.

It is clear that Kvarnström is a masterful choreographer. The group scenes performed in Unisono break down into an interestingly asymmetrical movement as the movement runs like the last day. The dancers of Helsinki Dance Company are doing brilliantly in this race.

Everything is undoubtedly handsome and skillful, but the question also arises as to what it is all about in the end. In Kvarnström’s world, people drift together, as if pulled by animal magnetism. However, no pairing leads to anything, except for the development of a new voltage avalanche.