Review: Tunteet, tunteet

Absurd and sensitive

A man in a moon suit appears in the sandy beach landscape while Mombasa is playing from somewhere far away. As is typical of choreographer Jyrki Karttunen, the setting of the Helsinki City Theatre’s dance group HDC’s performance Emotions, Emotions is somehow benevolently skewed. Soon there are three dance couples on stage who have spent too much time in the sun. The waves are roaring, seagulls are screaming and the women have big curls. The outfits have retro charm. Throughout the work, the characters repeat small stories with sentences that are somehow like Finnish films: “Don’t look at me like that” or “I feel warmth towards you”.

The moods change quickly from one scene to the next. Makeup spreads, and joy turns into a desperate attempt to belong. We ride an emotional roller coaster. The dancers create strange and hilariously sad characters, such as Eero Vesterinen’s ugly playboy boy bunny or Kai Lähdesmäki’s lovely tango singer. At times, it’s about friendship between girls. The all-powerful action of the female trio in the song Girls on Film is irresistible. Dramatic moments and a polished movement language with stretching reaches and quick descents are naturally intertwined.

Karttunen is also familiar when an absurd situation grows into a delicate duet, such as in the encounter between a shy woman (Anne Hiekkaranta) and a pizza delivery man in a student cap (Mikko Paloniemi). Under the direction of Juhana von Bagh, the dancers with personality are skilled at depicting people and situations, especially the expressive and strong Sofia Hilli and the master of comic moments Eero Vesterinen, whose strangest dream sometimes seems to be everything. In his work, Karttunen wanted to deal with youth and emotions, but for me it was above all the logic of a dream with its repetitive and distorted characters. But it’s good this way, too.