The fall 2009 premieres of Helsinki Dance Company:
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Helsinki Dance Company's autumn season got off to an impressive start on September 5 with Harri Kuorelahti's Hardcore Humppa which draws its name from Kimmo Pohjonen's music. Choreographer Harri Kuorelahti, who is the new director of Zodiak – Center for New Dance, has collaborated with international world music success Kimmo Pohjonen to present their first full-length production together.
In Hardcore Humppa the collaboration between the choreographer and the composer was inspired by the meaning of presence in today's world. Kuorelahti and Pohjonen want to stop and make us think whether we have the time to be present in our own lives. Renowned for his innovative work with contemporary folk music, Kimmo Pohjonen approaches the question through improvisation.
Harri Kuorelahti, who has an extensive working history as a dancer with the Helsinki Dance Company, has recently risen to attention as a choreographer and as the artistic director of the Full Moon Dance festival. Kuorelahti feels that discovering presence is the paradoxical duty of western people. Diverse expectations, people's own hopes and the accelerating pace of today's world create a feeling of disintegration. In Hardcore Humppa this conflict is crystallised in the meaning of presence and dance's liberating coercion to be here and now.
The production has received a warm welcome from the critics who have described it as a multifaceted and harmonious piece which occasionally explodes into a wild power dance about the hectic nature of today's world, a laboratory of presence and even an allegory of life itself. They have particularly praised Antti Rehtijärvi's sculptured staging with light design that employs video projection and of course Kimmo Pohjonen's music which weaves into an organic tapestry with the sounds of the dancers. The last performances of Hardcore Humppa are on October 14 and 24 and November 7. |
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Helsinki Dance Company is currently rehearsing Drawing Tiger Like a Dog, the second home premiere of the autumn season which opens on November 21 in Helsinki City Theatre. Talented choreographer couple Linda Kapetanea and Jozef Frucek, who have also established notable careers as dancers, are the production's international guests. Up until a few years ago they danced with Wim Vandekeybus' company Ultima Vez after which they established their own company Rootlessroot based in Greece.
The couple's own productions are intensely physical performances mixed with dramatic as well as humorous elements. The intense, sometimes even odd world in their productions is constructed of visual effects and multilayered characters who are no strangers to all things human.
Based on a Chinese proverb, Drawing Tiger Like a Dog reveals how difficult it is to see things as they really are. The choreographers feel this is a delicious starting point for their production. They paint a violent, tragicomic and dark yet beautiful portrait of what we are like and how we treat each other.
Music in the production is composed by the Greek Vassilis Mantzoukis, scenography is by Elina Kolehmainen and light design by Jukka Huitila.
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