Tero Saarinen Company Blog

Year 2010 has started with some good news and a large variety of activities…

BORROWED LIGHT - BEST OF THE DECADE!
As we returned to the office from a few well deserved days off during the holidays, we were happy to notice that The Village Voice’s Deborah Jowitt (NY) had listed Borrowed Light on her “Best of the Decade” list. Not a bad way to start the new year - and continue on with planning the tours for the work in the quite near future…

A NICE START FOR SINI’S MORNING CLASSES
In Helsinki, Sini is holding a full month’s session of morning classes. The amount of interest for the classes was a pleasant surprise as we are planning to make similar classes a more permanent part of our continuous activities here in our home town…

THE UPCOMING PREMIERE
At the same time, Tero, composer-musician Jarmo, choreographer’s assistants Henkka & Satu, Lighting/Set Designer and Technical Director Ville, Costume Designer Erika,  Multimedia and video editor Jakke, Head of Costume Realisation Tipi and Costume Makers Tiitta and Liisa are hard at work with Double Lives - a new creation for Tanztheater nordwest (Tanzcompagnie Oldenburg and Tanztheater Bremen).

Most of the team is spending several weeks in Oldenburg and Bremen, preparing for the upcoming world premiere of the work at the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater on February 12, 2010.

Visit our Flickr-pages for some snapshots from rehearsals, a sneak peak at the costumes and some views of Oldenburg!

MORE TO COME…
WIth the rest of the Company spread between Germany and Finland, we here at the office are hard at work preparing for upcoming tours and some development projects scheduled to take place in the near future. This season we’ll be visiting Colombia and China among other places, so it’s gonna be an interesting year…

Tero, Iiris and the Blue Lady crew are currently in the beautifully pittoresque city of Ferrara in Italy. According to them, the food is amazing and the Teatro Comunale di Ferrara, built in the 1750’s, is a real architechtural gem.

Tonight’s performance will be the last of our Fall season. We’ll spend the remaining weeks of 2009 creating a new work for Tanzcompagnie Oldenburg & Tanztheater Bremen in Germany (premiere Feb. 12, 2010), teaching (Sini’s holding a 5-day workshop in Sweden), and of course, getting ready for activities in 2010.

Tero’s marathon of five back-to-back performances of Blue Lady [Revisited] ended on a high note on Saturday in a completely sold out house.

Tero has often emphasised that, just like a good book or a painting, it is possible - and important - for dance works to stand the test of time and be returned to. This is why it has been especially delightful to see how much interest the Classics of Poetic Dance Season has aroused here in Helsinki.

It has also been heartwarming to once again see the great interest in audience discussions. Each night, about half of the audience has stayed to share their thoughts and ask questions from the artists. It is a special thing to have the possibility to interact with the audience also in this way.

The season at the Alexander Theatre ends this week with Jorma Uotinen’s Petruhska and Huuto, performed by P.D.C. Pori Dance Company. This special evening provides the possibility to revisit two classic choreographies that have made a mark in Finnish dance history.

In addition, P.D.C.’s visit brings forth the inspirational work of Tero’s first dance teacher and director of Pori Dance Company, Liisa Nojonen. Her efforts for dance and its education beyond the Helsinki metropolitan area are significant. Her work has been an important factor in the development of many careers, inlcuding Tero’s and Mikko Lampinen’s, who is visiting from Helsinki Dance Company to perform the solo Huuto. For more info about the performances tomorrow and Wednesday, visit www.aleksanterinteatteri.fi

The opening night of Blue Lady [Revisited] on Tuesday was quite emotinal. Tero’s intensity was incredible and after almost literally holding their breath for 70 minutes, the audience erupted in bravos and a standing ovation. The following audience discussion was also quite unique with both “Ladies” - Tero and Carolyn - present to answer the public’s questions. Check out a few snapshots from Flickr!

Afterwards we had a nice, laid-back dinner to celebrate the Helsinki premiere and also, sadly, to bid farewell to Carolyn and her Artistic Assistant Henri. But it was nice to spend the evening with some very special friends. Among them Jorma Uotinen, whose works - performed by Pori Dance Company - will end the Classics of Poetic Dance season next week, and multimedia artist Marita Liulia, who celebrated her birthday with us.

At the moment Tero is getting ready for show number 3/5 and we are expecting once again a full house. It’s quite a marathon for Tero: 350 minutes on stage in 5 days. Luckily he’s had a lot of practice: during the past 12 months, he’s already performed Blue Lady numerous times in almost 20 European cities - on top of Tero Saarinen Company’s own tours and other activities!

The Classics of Poetic Dance season at the Alexander Theatre in Helsinki kicked off last Friday with the Finnish premiere of Carolyn Carlson’s latest solo Double Vision. Carolyn hasn’t performed in Finland since 2002 so her visit was greatly anticipated and created a nice buzz in the media. The response has been very warm, from critics and the audience alike. The open discussions held after the shows were quite unique and emotional, reuniting her with many of her old friends and colleagues.

Carolyn also held a 2-day workshop here at the Alexander Theatre for Finnish dancers. Who knows if one of them will follow her abroad like Jorma Uotinen and Tero did in the past…

At the moment, rehearsals are going on on stage for Tero’s Helsinki premiere of Blue Lady [Revisited]. He really has his work cut out for him because the performances of this grueling 70-minute solo will go on every day until Saturday, Oct. 31. The season will finish off next week with P.D.C. Pori Dance Company’s versions of Jorma Uotinen’s classics Petrushka and Huuto (Nov. 3-4).

The idea for the season of poetic dance came from a desire to give audiences a retrospective look at the work of Carolyn, Jorma and lighting designer Claude Naville - artists who presented Finnish audiences with a new stage and dance aesthetic in th 1980’s and 90’s and have greatly influenced dance in Finland. At the same time, it pays homage to people who have had a major impact on Tero’s own development as an artist. We are very proud and happy that, together with the Alexander Theatre, we are able to offer the Finnish audience a chance to return to these artists and their classic works – and to give a new generation of spectators an opportunity to experience them.

The new Opera House of Oslo is in many ways a remarkable building; the idea of letting people wander on the beautiful white roof is simply excellent. No wonder the Opera has become a new landmark of Norway’s vibrant capital.

Tero’s two performances of Blue Lady [Revisited] at the Opera’s small stage went beautifully well - except that the second one was cut off by a false fire alarm! Even thought the break was really frustrating for Tero and the audience, the evening ended, once again, in standing ovations.

Performances were part of the CODA festival’s visionary programme. It is somehow surprising we haven’t had many close contacts with the Norwegian dance scene. However, the overwhelmingly warm response lead us to think we might come back soon….

The performances of Blue Lady take place at the beautiful dance venue Mercat de les flors, a former flower market located at the World Expo (1929) area. Unfortunately the main stage is under a complete construction at the moment, so only the small stage - nice and technically fine though - is in use.

Like in Italy, Carolyn seems to have her fan audience also in Spain. Her local agent, Isabel Gonzalez, was booking the tours already for the original piece in the 1980’s so she has many stories to tell…  Despite the jet lag and much too stressy schedule Tero could give his best to the audience, so once again the response was very intense, warm and appreciative.

As a city Barcelona is just amazing. The main thing is not to get frustraited by the fact that there won’t be enough time for seeing almost anything. Nice walks in the gardens of Montjuìc and narrow streets of Barri Gòtic and visits to the marvellous Casaramon CaixaForum and the Barcelona Pavillion by Mies van der Rohe are certainly not enough to satisfy our appetite for the gorgeous creativity this city offers, but as always - business before pleasure.

The Finnish Embassy in Buenos Aires had organized a nice, relaxed reception after our last performance. It offered a great opportunity to chat with the festival staff and meet with locals as well as a number of foreign presenters.

Sini gave a workshop in Tero’s technique for Argentine dancers on Thursday – a great way to get contact with the local dance scene. The feedback was enthusiastic and some of the dancers were even planning to come to Helsinki in order to learn more… The workshop was followed by a local TV crew and Sini gave some interviews to a few media.

In all, our first visit in South America was a successful and positive experience and also the reviews were superb. For example, the main newspaper, La Nacion, described the Evening with words such as magical and magnificent…We’re hoping we can come back soon!

Some lucky company members could stay in Buenos Aires for a couple of days. Tero and Iiris headed towards Barcelona, where Tero will perform Blue Lady already on Saturday. Poor Tero needed to rush to the press conference right after the 14 hours flight…

Teatro San Martín is a functionalist style venue that has, despite its 1000+ seats, a surprisingly intimate atmosphere and superb acoustics. Yesterday’s two performances of Stravinsky Evening went well, despite the small technical hassle. And the audience response was simply gorgeous: thanks to the Latin mentality, the applause and atmosphere were quite unforgettable! We hope that the Minister of Culture and all other Festival guests enjoyed the show also…

It was not any surprise that the Argentine audience just adored our wonderful accordionists James Crabb and Geir Draugsvoll. The long day ended in a touching moment: James playing one of his favourite Piazzolla songs, Chiquilín de Bachín - at the Restaurant Chiquilín.

Our Stravinsky Evening will open the seventh International Festival of Buenos Aires this afternoon. The crème de la crème of this gigantic, eclectic city will be there, so hopefully we’ll be able to give our best too!

Once again, we have faced some technical challenges and it has been most interesting to see the differences between the Latin American and Nordic cultures and mentalities… Luckily the FIBA staff has been really nice and helpful - so we all are very much looking forward to today’s performances!

Yesterday, Iiris and Marja visited the festival directors at the FIBA festival office, located in a former Harrod’s department store. The gorgeous Belle Époque house is a good example of the prosperity and elegance of Argentina’s haydays.

All in all, Buenos Aires is blessed with amazing archirecture from different eras, and the range of experiences the city can offer is simply breathtaking…not to mention the simple pleasures like the unbelievably tender bife de lomo and wonderful Malbec wine.