Review: JUICY – tuli vaan mieleen

Tasty Dancing Fruit Cocktail

 Veteran choreographer Ervi Sirén’s J uicy for the Helsinki Dance Companycame to mind. And this is said in an absolutely positive way.

After a short initial spurt by the three women, the performance actually begins with Eero Vesterinen’s long solo part. It is manna for the eyes and the soul. A smooth and smooth movement that just is, without striving for anything else.

The same relaxed unrestraint and enjoyable lightness of life here and now continues throughout the performance. At times, it is more serious and mystical, as in Kai Lähdesmäki’s sophisticated dervish-like spinning solo. At times, they have fun with a bunch of caps and glasses on an imaginary beach.

The movement flows, life flows, everything is not always the same sun, but now is the moment and we make the most of it.

Africanness is a common thread in everything. You can sense it in the details of the movements, and you can hear it in the rhythm and the music tape in the men’s vocals, which is excitingly intertwined with Ilkka Heinonen’s multifaceted live singing and violone playing that supports the entire performance.

But above all, the Africanness can be seen in Cris af Enehielm’s imaginative and colourful outfits, which the dancers change frequently. The costumes have playfulness and a wide range of references, both historically and geographically.

The main content of Juicy is the movement itself, which everyone does mainly by themselves even when they are in a group, with the exception of a few short encounters and contacts. You can imagine a mini-story for the successive scenes, if you want, but you can just as well just enjoy the varied dance without much content.

Because the group’s dancing is enjoyable. Of course , Jenni-Elina von Bagh, Heidi Naakka, Sofia Ylinen, Mikko Paloniemi and Lähdesmäki and Vesterinen are used to being seen as a skilled and versatile dance group. Now, their dance also has a sense of liberation and sensual softness.

The light-coloured columns of light fabric surrounding the William Iles stage and the sun-yellow lights reflected from the white floor highlight the dancers, sometimes softly and sometimes with the clarity of the beach sand.

Juicy is like a juicy fruit cocktail that tastefully refreshes in the midst of a gray winter.