Review: Keijukaisneuvos Koo

A delightful fairy story

Dancer-choreographer Jyrki Karttunen constantly takes care of his own and our viewers’ inner child. In Helsinki Dance Company’s new work, Karttunen returns to the fairies. The best-selling book Keiju (2002) is now succeeded by Keijukaisneuvos Koo.

According to the subtitle, it is “learned thoughts for understanding fairies (and other spirit beings).” However, a fantasy fairy tale, like fairy tales in general, tells the most about us humans. Fairy Counsellor Koo does it in such a delightful way that both children and adults enjoy it.

Fairy Counsellor Koo, played by Karttunen himself, is a silly scientist in the way they tend to be in fairy tales. He introduces the seven spirit beings under his protection, representing different days of the week. The purpose of the size is to ensure that the order of these seven always remains the same.

However, spiritual beings do not fully agree to the given framework. Especially Saturday (Jenni-Elina von Bagh) is eager to stand out, because she would like every day to be a Saturday. She even competes in the boxing ring with Wednesday (Sofia Hilli) – Little Saturday.

Monday (Sofia Ylinen) is usually always tired, at the end of Tuesday (Mikko Paloniemi) there are angry little creatures, as well as Thursday (Eero Vesterinen) and Friday (Heidi Naakka) are already starting to relax. Sunday (Kai Lähdesmäki) is Koo’s own favorite, because then you can be anything.

Karttunen has created a personal way of moving for each spiritual being. Although there are many elements involved, from a silent movie-like boxing scene to almost acrobatic patterns, the danceability is strongly present throughout. The numbers are also given time to develop and grow.

A magical fairytale forest has been created on the Elsa stage of the Helsinki City Theatre, and Tuomas Fränti’s music is also fantastic, not to mention the costumes of Koo and all the fairies, Tuesday the elf and the puck-like Thursday. The characters have familiar elements from different fairy tales and myths, but the whole is delightfully unique, magical and surprising.