Review: 100 tapaa nauraa

Stretching the cheek muscles


Helsinki Dance Company’s 100 Ways to Laugh offers joy therapy for dark autumn evenings. 100 Ways to Laugh is a rather detached work, which is held together mainly by the amusement of its parts. The unevenness is unfortunate in the sense that at its best the work is a brilliantly intense and attention-grabbing, comprehensive cultural experience, but this intensity does not carry through the work.

Choreographer Jyrki Karttunen has created a very scene-like work that draws influences from silent films, comics and the surrounding world. The work also marches almost all possible types of laughter onto the stage and helps to hunt down lost laughing nerves. 100 Ways to Laugh focuses primarily on making people laugh. And it can be done, if the resounding giggles, gaggles and giggles serve as a measure while watching.

The scene drawn from silent film and the yellow characters’ frolicking on stage are laughter therapy at its best, mainly 100 Ways to Laugh keeps your cheek muscles active. Dancers: Jenni-Elina Lehto, Aksinja Lommi, Kai Lähdesmäki, Ville Oinonen, Mikko Paloniemi, Valtteri Raekallio, Terhi Vaimala and Eero Vesterinen give laughter a movement form that also creates a physical response in the audience, both in the form of squirming and laughter.

William Iles’ set design and lighting design work brilliantly, it’s great to watch the shadows dance along the walls of Studio Elsa. Karoliina Koiso-Kanttila’s costumes glow with colours, and Tuomas Fränti’s music and sound design are the icing on the cake.