Review: Huonosti vartioitu tyttö
Poorly guarded girl
It doesn’t have to be more than one hour a day, which takes the human mind to completely different atmospheres and relaxes the state of being. Thank you Helsinki Dance Company team. You did it. You took me to a fairytale-like emotional state for an hour, away from the rush and worry. I went to see the premiere of The Badly Guarded Girl. The feeling was strangely light and floating even the next day.
The Poorly Guarded Girl is inspired by the classical ballet work of the same name, La Fille mal gardée. The only thing the works have in common is a star dancer. In Helsinki Dance Company’s version, men have been given the condition of unicorns. So what on earth is it all about?
The main character of the work is a woman (Heidi Naakka), or perhaps we should talk about a girl, if you think about the name of the work. The girl has received a brilliant piece of advice from her father: “You can do whatever you want. You can do it.” The girl has set up a gas station that is around the clock at all hours of the day. In the next moment, the same woman is casting candles in her own workshop. A woman throws herself into it from one moment to the next and doesn’t let anything stop her from living the life she wants. Unicorns (Jyrki Karttunen, Jyrki Kasper, Mikko Paloniemi and Johannes Purovaara) are a woman’s best friends and sometimes even enemies. The woman plays with the unicorns, and the unicorns follow or go ahead if the woman is in charge.
Heidi Naakka is simply incredible. How gracefully a woman dances and is like molten wax in the hands of unicorns, or should I say in front legs. Breathtakingly beautiful to look at. I also liked how Naakka is sometimes a proper femme fatale and the next moment something else. What about unicorns? Help! An absolutely amazing foursome, whose movements on stage were amazing to watch. Paddling behind your back and choosing someone as a victim in front of the audience. Unicorns, by the way, have a rather peculiar way of speaking.
Jyrki Karttunen has created the choreography for the performance. The skilful choreography is boosted by dramatic twists in the lights and music. Jukka Huitila has been responsible for the lighting design and Aleksi Saura for the music design and sound. The viewer can never guess what will happen in the next moment. To top it all off, the costumes for the performance are stunning. Thanks go to Karoliina Koiso-Kanttila. The girl’s clothes change in an instant. Each outfit is different and magnificent. Unicorn costumes are great. Colorful tights outfits with tails and all. Oh, and those one horns on our heads, and let’s not forget the swimsuits.
On a more serious note, The Poorly Guarded Girl can be seen as a reference to the Me Too campaign. In the work, however, women are not objectified, rather men or rather unicorns. Unicorn costumes alone are covering, but at the same time revealing. Of course, someone with a keen eye sees objectification the other way around, but it is perhaps more the girl’s own achievement and desire. In the work, you can also see the difficulty of leaving. Leaving is a new step into the future, but at the same time it is a difficult place. Everything familiar and safe is left behind. In addition, you will be missed by someone in the former.
A poorly guarded girl is like a beautiful fairy tale. At first, I thought that in principle, I could go see this with children as well, because a child’s pure imagination sees unicorns as fairy tale horses. Not like some undersigned with a dirty imagination. I don’t think the child sees the sexual side of the work. But then I started to think about it more, and I thought that loud noises, dark scenes and certain lighting might scare the child. So maybe not for children, though. The recommended age limit for the Helsinki City Theatre is 15 years and up.