Triple Bill: Made in Finland

Johanna Nuutinen has created cinema and stage productions at the crossroads of visual and performing arts since 2011. Her work has been performed at more than 40 international film festivals and several dance festivals in Finland and abroad. She has also created commissioned works for both the Finnish National Ballet and the West Australian Ballet. Before embarking on a freelance career in 2017, she was a dancer at the Finnish National Ballet.

In Johanna Nuutinen’s choreography, the world surges over the audience in a riptide of overwhelming, shattering stimulation. The concept of happiness as constantly increasing consumption has worn out both itself and humanity. Nuutinen pulls the audience through chaos into the eye of the storm, where all-encompassing peace is finally found. Lauri Porra’s newly composed score and Tuomas Norvio’s sound design create a powerful framework for a highly affecting experience. 

Kenneth Kvarnström is an experienced choreographer with an illustrious career in Finland and Sweden. He founded his own dance group in 1987. In addition to his achievements as a choreographer, he has also worked as the director of the Helsinki City Theatre dance group and the prestigious Dansens Hus in Stockholm. His previous production seen at the Finnish National Ballet was Hohto/Shine in 2009. 

Kvarnström’s latest production is like a tapestry woven differently every time. The dancers themselves can determine their entrance and exit from the choreography, making each performance unique depending on their choices. The musical score is Boléro by Maurice Ravel, which Kvarnström had also used in another choreography 15 years ago. This time, however, he tackles the music from a different choreographic standpoint. A continuously changing visual experience, a combination of paintings, lights, and projections, serves as the backdrop for the dancing.

During his impressive international career as a dancer and choreographer, Tero Saarinen has created more than 40 world premieres. These include choreographies for the Tero Saarinen Company, which he founded 25 years ago, and other dance groups worldwide. Saarinen’s previous choreography for the Finnish National Ballet was Kullervo, a full-length creation.

In his new work to the Cello Concerto of Esa-Pekka Salonen, dance, sound and light are wedged together in the interface between chaos and order, defenselessness and safety, and the experience of the transience of existence. It continues Saarinen and Salonen’s collaboration, which started with Saarinen’s choreography Morphed, seen on the Main Stage of the Opera House during the Helsinki Festival in 2014. The costumes are also by Saarinen’s trusted collaboration partner, Erika Turunen. Turunen has designed the costumes for many of Saarinen’s works over more than 20 years.