Tero Saarinen Company has toured in 40 countries on all continents since its foundation in 1996. For its 20th anniversary, the internationally acclaimed dance troupe nods to the past and a celebrates future talent by presenting the home season of a new double bill.
An early work by Tero Saarinen, Could you take some of my weight…? explores and plays with the various meanings of weight, both concrete and symbolic.
Pekka Louhio and David Scarantino, recently soloists in the production of Kullervo at the FNOB, are the first cast in this highly successful duet of male energy and virtuoso skill, premiered in 1999 by the founding members of the Tero Saarinen Company, Saarinen himself and Yuval Pick.
Tero Saarinen’s movement language, with its influences from Asian dance traditions, collides elegantly with traditional Finnish music in MESH, a creation for 20 dancers that premiered in Japan in 2014.
The choreography draws on themes such as loneliness and outsiderness. The work was added to Tero Saarinen Company’s repertoire in 2016, in an interpretation by the Company’s own strong contingent of soloists, as well as by Japanese Butoh dancer Mitsutake Kasai, and promising young talents from the Finnish National Ballet School and Youth Company, and the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki.
“In the 1999 duet Could you take some of my weight…? He [Saarinen] is especially alert to the ways in which emotion and fantasy can be registered trough small shifts in the quality of movement — The stage design is startlingly effective.”
The Guardian, Judith Mackrell, July 2, 2001 (UK)
“The contemporary relevance of this most French of Finns… makes him one of dance’s rising stars. Could you take some of my weight…? confirms this talent.”
Les saisons de la danse, Philippe Verriele, August, 1999 (France)
“One of the highpoints [of Full Moon Dance Festival] was Tero Saarinen’s new creation MESH. It is the choreographer’s in – depth vision of people and of our time, in which militant, nationalistic forces are raising their voices and humanism wears a black blindfold. — The work succeeds in touching those of us who are confused by the age we live in.”
Kaleva, Eeva Kauppinen, 27 July, 2016
”MESH is a highly refined, carefully thought-out work. Its profundity and symbolism are made gorgeously apparent in the structure and design of the shifts in tempo of movement and form. There is not an excess of anything. There is the daring and desire to go to extremes. The choreographer’s familiar, highly personal movement language appears tailor-made for the elements and themes of the piece.”
Keskipohjanmaa, Raija Ilo, 26 July, 2016
“[MESH is] an original and dynamic combination of Western and Oriental dance – a meeting of balance and imbalance that forces the energies of the dancers to their limits – a work exuding a profound vision.”
– Auditorium, Akiko Tachiki, 2014 (Germany/Japan)
Could you take some of my weight….?
Choreography: Tero Saarinen
Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu
Costume design: Rachel Quarmby-Spadaccini
Music: collage (Sergei Rahmaninov, Steve Reich)
Dance: Pekka Louhio & David Scarantino (12.10. / 14.10. / 15.10. at 19:30), Oskari Nyyssölä & Eero Vesterinen (13.10. / 15.10. at 14:30)
Duration: 23 minutes
World premiere: 28.5.1999, Paris, France
MESH
Choreography: Tero Saarinen
Lighting design: Iwashina Takeaki
Costume design: Izumi Miyamura
Music: collage (Martti Pokela, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, Pekka Jalkanen, trad.)
Dance: Auri Ahola, Satu Halttunen, Mitsutake Kasai, Natasha Lommi, Pekka Louhio, Oskari Nyyssölä, David Scarantino, Eero Vesterinen and Jenna Broas, Anni Koskinen, Pinja Poropudas (students of Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki) and Finnish National Opera Ballet School students Marcus Björkbom, Tiia Lehtinen, Julianna Luhtala, Eliisa Nenonen, Konsta Roos, Jane Sievänen, Nelli Sinilaakso, Erika Vilander and Malla Ylöniemi.
Duration: 30 minutes
World premiere: 2.2.2014, Tokio, Japan
Original production: Saitama Dance Association and Saitama Arts Theater
PERFORMANCES SUPPORTED BY Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation.
Wed 12.10.2016
at 19:30
Thu 13.10.2016
at 19:30
Fri 14.10.2016
at 19:30
Sat 15.10.2016
at 14:30
Sat 15.10.2016
at 19:30
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