Review: Kaksivärinen fuuga

The two-colour fugue is a co-production of Helsinki Dance Company and Carl Knif Company, which premiered at Studio Pasila on 12 October 2020. I saw the Two-Colour Fugue on Monday 26.10. The work was supposed to premiere last spring, but due to the pandemic, the premiere was postponed to October. I had already dreamed of seeing the work in the spring, so I was happy when I got a ticket to the performance from the Helsinki City Theatre.

Two-Colour Fugue

The two-colour fugue is a co-production of two Finnish contemporary dance companies, Carl Knif Company and Helsinki Dance Company, which works at the Helsinki City Theatre. There will be dancers from both groups on stage. In the script, choreographer Carl Knif explains the starting point of the work: He wanted to make a performance based on movement and music after working with a story-based approach for a long time. The lack of a story frees the viewer to explore the images and associations evoked by the movement without the need to build a single coherent interpretation.

In me, The Two-Color Fugue evoked thoughts especially about the relationship between movement and space and the relationship of the individual to an object. Sometimes the space was the stage of Studio Pasila, but the space was also broken on the side of the stands. At other times, space was limited as dancers danced on top of different podiums. A lot of props were used in the work, and many of the objects danced with the soloist in question, puppeteered by another dancer. The performance also used a lot of metaphorically industrial and organic material, which made us think about the relationship between humans and nature and the built environment. My own associations also took me deeper into my own personal reflections, and I found myself mirroring my own situation to the events on stage, as if I were talking to movement in my thoughts.

The power of movement

Watching dance performances has its own charm. When a performance is based on movement, language can be let go and the work speaks to each viewer on a personal level, whether it is a narrative performance or a performance that is free of the story. I have once read an article about how watching a performance causes a reaction in the viewer’s mirror neurons. The intensity of the reaction is related to the viewer’s own experiences and expertise. For example, musicians activate the same areas of their brain when watching their own instrument play as they do when they play, and the same happens to dancers when they watch dance. However, this happens on a different scale for all of us viewers, regardless of our own professional background.

Movement is a special form of expression in that we can all interpret it in our own individual way. Of course, there is no one absolute truth, and there is no need to be in such a context. Movement is an ambiguous form of expression and in our current culture based on words, speech and writing, it is less used and a way of communicating. Personally, I experience watching dance performances very strongly in my body and on an emotional level. Putting the experience into words can often be challenging if I want to avoid describing the movement. The two-color fugue made me immerse myself in the flood of associations and surrender for an hour to a world where there does not need to be clear causal relationships or a narrative. A world where interpretation remains the viewer’s personal experience.

Original review can be read here