Review: Apospasmata
STAGGERING ABUNDANCE
First comes the sound. It fills the darkness and prepares the body. Then comes the movement. And what a move! Apospasmata is full of wonderful movement: beautiful, energetic, broken, stopped, ugly, flowing, sensual, aggressive, anti-gravity, rotating, organic… I can’t remember the last time I went crazy about movement language like this. Foniadakis has created – together with the dancers of the dance group, he remembers to remind us – an unforgettable tapestry of movement, which is the soul and wisdom of the entire work.
The clearly three-part structure of the apospasmata is divided into scenes, into which one slides softly, as if by stealth. French composer Julien Tarride’s powerful, evocative music creates a colourful world of essence for dance, supported by light dramaturgy. The overall work of art is further built by the costumes envisioned by the choreographer – and the lack of costumes. Movement, music, lights form a seamless whole.
The treatment of movement is the core of this work. Like a centrifugal force, the movement of the stage hurls energy to its sides and to the back of the auditorium. In all its intensity, the movement is organic and flowing: the entire dance group forms a kind of rare organism that is constantly re-forming, looking for new forms of being for itself.
The choreographer has said that he examines the people of the big city as exposed to the ever-present threat, danger and violence, as well as the inarticulate feeling of evil. All of this has been transferred to the dancers’ movement in a sophisticated and artistic way. The dancers’ movements are sometimes violent and explosive in intensity, and the dynamic variations are strong. Still, the movement is flowing, without sudden and “violent” qualitative stops.
The movement largely starts from the bottom, from a deep second position, and rises through the center and jumps, spinning up and into space. It is as if the movement rotates in a spiral from the center out. But rapid tempo variations and changes in the direction of motion break the linearity of motion. This filigree nature of the movement keeps the viewer’s attention attentive and causes the pulse to rise unpleasantly. Palms get wet: what next? This breaking and spinning of the direction of the movement gives the impression that the movement is being danced backwards: the movement rewinds! The theme of the work is justified by the treatment of movement.
The dance group of the Helsinki City Theatre is absolutely brilliant. Already experienced veterans have been strengthened by young virtuosos. The price of illusion is always high: the dancers do physically demanding work, the end result is enjoyable, well-functioning and suitably miraculously gravity-defying dance. And the dancers are always on the move, almost in the air. A particularly fine crystallization of Apospasmata’s movement is the woman’s (Jenni-Elina Lehto) short solo between the mass scenes of the first part. The graceful movement danced by Tiitinen lives like a restless flame of fire in the wind: the movement is always striving for something, looking for direction, without leading anywhere.
Apospasmata is archaic, ritualistic, and monumental. It is operatic in a suitable way, using the essence of a “big stage”. It contains references to several directions, such as art history and sci-fi comics, and the work also borrows cinematic narrative.
If the characteristic of Finnish contemporary dance is considered to be a holistic conception of a work of art and a “modernist”, introspective essence, this dance work by a Greek choreographer is Finnish. The essence of the work is complete, the levels of its presence are not broken or dismantled.
However, the way the work is treated distinguishes it from Finnish dance. The choreographer uses thick monumental outlines and archaic simplification. Ruggedness is also supported by the treatment of man as an archetype, an example of a person, not as an individual. At first, the impression is threatening, even frightening, as the dancers enter the stage at the beginning with their faces covered, their black hair shiny in the overhead. Then facelessness/headlessness released the alienation effect like a kind, the brain did not lead the viewing. I focused on the collective.
Face covering, velvety soft, black full jersey and unisex wigs build a herd of individuals that equals the sum of its members. This herd forms an organism in which everyone serves their own small important role, without which the herd would not function. When the ensembles are taken off, the members of the herd reveal deformed bodies: the entire composition falls apart like that of the Cubists, who depicted their subject from several perspectives at the same time. Nakedness leaves the creatures alone, separate from the others, confused: the image is merciless.
The third part is very shocking. Valtteri Raekallio and Jenni-Elina Lehto are the victims of the previous scenes, who have been thrown into nothingness. These naked, helpless victims exiled from paradise grope in the darkness of eternal damnation – each other?, their lives? Connection?, peace?
The duet is really touching and Raekallio and Lehto dance it nicely, buty-like lingering and soft. The most harrowing thing about this allegorical image is probably its truthfulness of our time. Still, the end is desolate: one gets exhausted in the middle of the journey in the arms of his partner, the other rises into the darkness as if by his own hand?
I find it extremely enjoyable that the choreographer has been able and dared to be baroquely abundant and honestly pathetic. I use the last term in its good sense, chosen stylistic means, without any other connotations. Pathos could include the allegorical nature of the entire work and the chosen theme, as well as some clear universal iconographic references. They all served the whole perfectly.
In many cases, the story only gives a reason to create a wonderful movement. And I fell in love with the movement and the feeling it created in this work. As I watched the dance piece, I was reminded of the masterpieces Kenneth Kvarnström had made for this group. Similarities could also be found with Tero Saarinen’s dance works.