Dizzying, energetic and acrobatic contemporary dance
An orchestra in tailcoat arrives. The concerto begins, but instead of music, the orchestra plays movement.
“We aim to be able to create the world and magic through movement. The silence between concerts cleanses the space and enables a new world to open up,” says Silence’s choreographer Jarkko Mandelin.
Silence is very stripped down in terms of aesthetics. There are hardly any backdrops, the picture is dominated by a black tatami framed in white.
“The purpose is to strengthen dance as an art of its own weight. It is not some poor form of spoken theatre or the carnalization of a single argument, but movement itself is art.”
In addition to movement, the world of Silence is shaped by the interplay of light and sound. The music for the work is composed and produced by sound designer Janne Hast , and the lighting design is by Aku Lahti.
THE physically demanding contemporary dance work includes elements of contact improvisation, acrobatics, breakdancing and Brazilian jutjutsu, among other things.
“It’s a combination of aggressive movement cultures, but everything is characterized by the pursuit of ease,” Mandelin says.
The choreography is so polished and rehearsed, and hopefully produces experiences of kinesthetic empathy for the viewer,” Mandelin says. This refers to the viewer’s ability to empathize with the dancers’ movements or the feeling of the movements.
He uses swinging as an example. If a person swings and jumps down at the wrong time, the person watching from the sidelines will probably also recognize that the swing did not get enough speed to jump forward. When the swing falls to the ground, the person watching the situation can sense in their body what the fall feels like.
“The same goes for dance. When you see another person moving, you can empathize with the movement and adapt to whether it was the right moment to fall or whether the change of direction was clever,” Mandelin explains.
SILENCE is a continuation of Mandelin’s previous work Gravity, which premiered on the small stage of the Helsinki City Theatre in 2021 and was very popular.
A large part of the dancers are the same, but in Silence , a larger group will be seen on stage. There are dancers from the City Theatre, the Kinetic Orchestra founded by Mandelin, and the rest have been selected through entrance exams, which received more than 400 applications.
“Skill-wise, we will continue where we left off in Gravity . The group is really skilled, and of course, when there are more people, we can create the hubris that arises from mass movement in a different way,” Mandelin says.
“The work is fast-paced, energetic and easy to follow, certainly a rewarding experience for the viewer.”
Text Ida Henritius