WESTWARD HO! | WAVELENGTHS | HUNT

July 28 at 6 pm, Inmet-areena. Duration 2,5 h.

"All of this evening’s works reflect my own feelings at the time of their creation, so they are my personal view of humanity. This three-work evening also exemplifies one of my main ideas: we have to be able to return repeatedly to contemporary dance works. A dance work is not some disposable consumer product to be used once and forgotten."

Tero Saarinen
Tero Saarinen Company’s triple bill begins with Westward Ho! – considered to be Saarinen’s international breakthrough. The piece, premiered in 1996, is a strangely melancholy, quietly humorous portrayal of friendship, selfishness and betrayal.

Wavelengths was created in 2000. In it, Saarinen wanted to focus on an established partnership between two strong personalities – on a situation in which the couple are looking for a new start and a fresh approach, an escape from routine and relationship-threatening dead ends. The piece was originally commissioned by the Finnish National Ballet.

 The night ends with Tero Saarinen and multimedia artist Marita Liulia’s powerful joint work HUNT. The piece, already seen in nearly 30 countries, has been described as a classic among contemporary reinterpretations of The Rite of Spring. HUNT was originally commissioned for the 2002 Venice Biennale.

 

Westward Ho!

Westward Ho! by Tero Saarinen is a jewel from Finland, a real poem danced in a light of aurora borealis.
Bernard Raffalli, Les Saisons de la Danse 1998

Intermission

 

Wavelengths

…a fascinating duet of attraction, aggression and affection between a man and a woman.

John Rockwell, The New York Times 2006

 Intermission

 

HUNT

Everything seems to have fallen in place in his frail figure: technique, brilliance, ease, humour, presence in a rare combination. Tero Saarinen is a phenomenon.

Örjan Abrahamsson, Dagens Nyheter 2004

 Tero Saarinen Company

The primary aim of Tero Saarinen Company, founded by dancer-choreographer Tero Saarinen in 1996, is to use the language of dance to investigate, promote and communicate a humane worldview and basic human values. Tero Saarinen Company is one of Finland’s leading cultural exports; the group has appeared in nearly 30 countries and its core activities include running an international teaching programme and licensing Saarinen’s choreographies to other prominent dance groups. The group provides work for several dozen individuals each year, six of whom have permanent posts. The group has a permanent residency at Helsinki’s Alexander Theatre.

Artistic Director Tero Saarinen
Managing Director Iiris Autio
Technical Director Eero Auvinen
Marketing and Communications Manager Terhi Mikkonen
Production Manager Nina Numminen
Choreographer’s assistants Sini Länsivuori, Henrikki Heikkilä

Tero Saarinen

Dancer-choreographer Tero Saarinen began his career as a dancer at the Finnish National Ballet in 1985, where he soon attracted attention as a soloist. Despite his success, he left the ballet in 1992 to seek new influences in contemporary dance from Western Europe and Japan, where he studied traditional Japanese dance and Butoh from 1992 to 1993. Even though Saarinen's work displays features of classical ballet, Butoh and Western contemporary dance, he has managed to create a unique style of his own. In his work, sensitivity of thought is combined with a refined grotesqueness of movement and clarity of texture.

Saarinen founded his own group in 1996. Saarinen has also made choreographies for numerous other major companies: NDT 1 (Nederlands Dans Theater), the Batsheva Dance Company, Ballet Gullbenkian, the Lyon Opéra Ballet, the Gothenburg Opera Ballet, Ballet National de Marseille, Ballet de Lorraine and the Finnish National Ballet and others either have or have previously had Saarinen's works in their repertoire.

Saarinen has received numerous acknowledgements of his work as an artist. In 2001, he was awarded the Finland Prize and, in 2005, the Pro Finlandia medal, the most prestigious recognition given to artists in Finland. Saarinen was awarded the International Movimentos Dance Prize for Best Male Performer in Germany in 2004. In June 2004, he was made a “Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the Ministry of Culture in France. 

Mikko Kunttu

Light designer Mikki Kunttu is currently one of the most sought-after light designers in Europe. He has been collaborating with Tero Saarinen since Tero Saarinen Company's foundation, creating the lighting designs and visualisation for all his productions.

 In addition to contemporary dance, he also works in music, opera, television and design. Kunttu has collaborated with various renowned European artists, such as choreographers Jorma Uotinen, Carolyn Carlson, Jirí Kylián and Akram Khan, and accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen. In 2005, Kunttu was awarded a five-year grant by the Arts Council of Finland. In 2006, he received the prestigious Bessie Award in New York.

 His latest works include Sacred Monsters (2006, chor. Sylvie Guillem, Akram Khan), Tannhäuser (Savonlinna Opera Festival 2006, dir. Juha Hemánus), Carmen (Boston Ballet 2006, chor. Jorma Elo). On Finnish television he has worked on Venla Gaala (2001-2006), Telvis Gaala (2002-2006), Idols (2003-2005), and the Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki (2007).

 Marita Liulia

Marita Liulia is a versatile artist and a pioneer of multimedia as an art form in Finland. She started working in digital media in 1991 with Jackpot, and in 1994 released her debut CD-ROM Maire. Ambitious Bitch, a humorous CD-ROM about femininity (1996) was her international breakthrough. SOB (Son of a Bitch) a CD ROM about men and masculinity followed in 1999.

 Liulia has received numerous awards, including the Prix Möbius International, the Prix Ars Electronica and the Finland Prize. She founded the production company Medeia in 1997 and Prix Möbius Nordica, a media culture competition, in 2000.

 Liulia’s most recent work, Tarot (2000-2004), combines art, entertainment and technology. It has been published in six different formats, including for the Internet and mobile phones, in English, French, Italian, Swedish, Spanish and Finnish.

 Riku Niemi
Riku Niemi began his musical career as a percussionist. Nowadays, he is known both as a versatile conductor and as a multitalent of Finnish popular music. Niemi composes, arranges, conducts and produces music for recordings, television, movies and theatres.

 Riku Niemi’s compositions are included in the repertoires of numerous Finnish orchestras. He is a frequent guest conductor with Avanti! and TOIMII! and other Finnish ensembles, concentrating on popular and crossover work. In addition, he is the director of 25-member Riku Niemi Orchestra, whose first album Swing & Hits was released in October 2005 (Warner Music Finland).

Erika Turunen

Costume designer Erika Turunen has designed costumes for a large number of theatre, ballet and opera productions since the beginning of the 1990’s. She has been head of the costume department at the Finnish National Opera since 1995. Her latest costume designs have been for such large-scale works as Colours (2006, chor. Jorma Uotinen), Il Viaggio a Reims (2002, directed by Dario Fo), The Hobbit (2001, chor. Marjo Kuusela), R&J (2000, chor. Marilena Fountoura) and The Sleeping Beauty (1999, chor. Rudolf Nureyev, Marius Petipa).

Turunen has attracted a lot of attention abroad for her work for contemporary dance. She has also designed costumes for many of Tero Saarinen’s works, including Wavelengths (Finnish National Ballet, 2000), Petrushka (Tero Saarinen Company, 2001), SINI (Lyon Opéra Ballet, 2001), Georgia (Finnish National Ballet, 2003), HUNT (Tero Saarinen Company, 2002) and Borrowed Light (2004).

Turunen has collaborated with Susanna Leinonen, Jouka Valkama, the Norwegian Jø Strömgren, and others. This spring she is in charge of costumes for the Eurovision Song Contest (2007).

Sini Länsivuori

Dancer Sini Länsivuori completed her studies at the Finnish National Opera Ballet School in 1985 and continued to dance with the Finnish National Ballet. She has danced with the Ballet in numerous classical roles, but her interests have also drawn her to its more contemporary works, by choreographers such as Carolyn Carlson, William Forsythe, Jirí Kylián, Ohad Naharin, Jorma Uotinen, Kenneth Kvarnström and Angelin Preljocaj. In 2004, Länsivuori finished her teaching studies at Jyväskylä Polytechnic. She has been a member of Tero Saarinen Company since 1998; she now works for the Company as a dancer, teacher and choreographer’s assistant.

Heikki Vienola

Dancer Heikki Vienola studied at the Finnish National Ballet School between 1989 and 1995, and continued to dance with the Finnish National Ballet in 1995-2000. During that period, he danced in both classical and modern works by various choreographers. He also danced in Tero Saarinen’s work The Daydream People (1996). In 2000, Vienola performed in Hugo Fanari’s choreography No Man’s Land, which won various awards at that year’s international choreography competition in Hannover. Vienola has been a member of Tero Saarinen Company since 2003.

Carf Knif

Dancer Carl Knif received his MA in Dance from the Theatre Academy of Finland in 2000. Knif has danced in works by various Finnish choreographers, including Jenni Kivelä, Jyrki Karttunen, Petri Kekoni and Alpo Aaltokoski. He has been dancing with Tero Saarinen Company since 2004

Saku Koistinen
Dancer Saku Koistinen took his Bachelor of Arts (Dance) at The Theatre Academy in Helsinki in 2005, and is now studying for his Master’s degree there. In 2002, he completed the Dance Instructor course at the Eastern Finland Sports Institute (ISLO). He has appeared in works by several Finnish choreographers, including Jorma Uotinen (Theatre Academy thesis production Arc-en-ciel), Marjo Kuusela, Tuomo Railo, Elina Pirinen and Riitta Vainio. Koistinen became a visiting dancer at Tero Saarinen Company in 2007.