Masterful choreographic craftsmanship and the ecstasy of dance
Choreographer Kenneth Kvarnström has reservations about re-performing his old works. “My works are usually tied to the time when they were made. Perhaps the only thing that can be done again at all is a no-no.”
The work was premiered in 1996 and was last performed in 2008.
“I’m really happy that we get to show the new generation a work that is a holistic visual and emotional experience,” says Valtteri Raekallio, Director of Helsinki Dance Company.
According to him, no-no is genuinely a work that has changed the Finnish dance scene. Kvarnström’s style had previously been rough and violent, but in no-no , it was brought in more fluidity and the organic flow of movement.
“The work broke into the consciousness of a wide audience in the urban Helsinki of the time, but it is also possible to view and interpret it from today’s perspective. I think that our time frames the performance in a new way,” Raekallio says.
A physically challenging work
Kvarnström wants to keep the no-non as close to the original as possible. The set design, lights, costumes and sound will be kept as they were in 1996.
“Choreographically, 97 per cent is the same. In the beginning, we are as much in the dark as in the light, and in the video, some parts are so dark that you can’t see them. Then you just have to think about whether it was like this or that,” Kvarnström says.
According to Raekallio, no-no is a choreographic masterpiece in how the dancers move in relation to each other.
“Choreographically, it’s about how you compose the movement paths, how the different combinations of movement work together, and how the musicality and rhythm within the movement feel organic,” Kvarnström says.
She thinks that the dancers will hate her at the beginning of the rehearsal season, because no-no is an exceptionally physically demanding piece.
The dancers of Helsinki Dance Company have already started preparing at the beginning of the year. The work involves a lot of jumping compared to other dance group performances, so a weekly ballet class was added to the rehearsal program to strengthen the muscles of the ankles and feet. For the summer, the personal trainer prepares fitness programs for the dancers.
A bodily experience for the viewer
Raekallio says that she has missed performances where the dancers’ kinetic energy can be felt in the audience so much that the audience is out of breath.
“Moving to the limit is conveyed in no-no as a bodily catharsis-like experience from the very small, dim and quiet towards the extreme movement cannon, where the dancers ritually go further and further in ferocity and fatigue,” Raekallio says.
“The movement sequences require a lot to stay sharp all the time and keep going until the end. The trajectories are of the same type, there are small changes all the time. Maybe the ritual and a certain kind of ecstasy arise from this,” Kvarnström says.
The work also includes poetic sequences in which the connection between people is emphasized. “In No-No, we move from one extreme to the other: from being as gentle, beautiful as possible and supporting to drooling on the cheek,” Raekallio describes.
“A viewer hungry for dance gets to see really skillful dance and choreographic craftsmanship that is rarely seen today.”
Text by Ida Henritius.