Tero Saarinen Company Blog

Despite - or maybe partly because of - an uncommonly nervous yet focused atmosphere before the gig, all went better than well at Chaillot last night! Tero proved to have nerves of steel and shined on stage like never before. His own comment was that it was one of his best Lady performances to date…judging from the thundering bravo’s of the 1200 headed audience, they agreed.

The evening ended with some champagne. In addition to the crème de la crème of the Parisian dance world, guests included an eclectic crowd of fellow Finns, from the Finnish Ambassador Pilvi-Sisko Vierros-Villeneuve to colleagues Minna Vainikainen and Nina Hyvärinen to soul sensation Tuomo Prättälä.

Now it’s “just” 3 more performances to go for about 3600 more people - quite an exceptional marathon for our blue lady from Pori…Especially since in between the shows there are numerous meetings with friends and collaborators to be held under the Parisian sky…and the remaining moments of the days are filled up with interviews - the media attention surrounding the performances is huge - so, not much shopping or sightseeing on this trip!

Tero is currently under the Eiffel Tower, getting ready for tonight’s opening performance of Carolyn Carlson’s Blue Lady [Revisited]. There are quite a few butterflies in everyone’s stomach, since it’s such an honour - and a challenge! - to get to perform at Théâtre National de Chaillot, one of Paris’s leading dance venues. It’s also quite exceptional to be performing a solo at a stage this size - Chaillot seats 1200 people…

The performances are much anticipated. Carolyn has always been loved in France and in Paris in particular so the return of one of her most famous works, Blue Lady, is a quite an event.  The media is buzzing: for example France 2 just showed a documentary of the work’s transmission process (Tero first performed the work at the Lyon Biennale in 2008, 25 years after the original premiere) to Tero two nights ago. And the audience in excited: the four back-to-back performances, a total of almost 5000 tickets, sold out already last fall…

Our tired but happy Double Lives team has finally returned to Helsinki. Following a hectic period of almost two and a half months, we were thrilled to hear some delightful news from Germany…

The thunderous applause and bravos at the premiere in Oldenburg were followed by a great party - and later by rave reviews in the German media.

Described as a magically beautiful, holistic work of art, the work is praised for Tero’s personal style of movement, the visualisation by Erika and Ville, as well as the dancers’ intense interpretation. For example Die Welt, one of Germany’s main national newspapers, describes Double Lives as “an impressive work of art, whose magnificent aesthetic bring out the idea of a ‘double life’ in a multilayered and refined way”. Special praise is given to Saarinen’s “versatile choreography that is in constant conflict between certainty and longing”, Erika’s statuesque costumes, and the dancers’ intense cooperation and interpretation.

Weser-Kurier, Kreiszeitung, Nordwest Zeitung and Diabolo also write very positively, pointing out how well the work’s choreography, lighting, music and costumes complement each other and highlighting the dancers’ unity and expressiveness. The only dissenting voice in the reviews came from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The reviewer criticizes the work – employing the same arguments as the five other critics use to praise it…

Double Lives, commissioned by nordwest (a collaboration between Tanzcompagnie Oldenburg and Tanztheater Bremen), premiered at the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater on February 12. It will move on to Theater Bremen on April 10, 2010, where it will be shown until mid-May.

Tero’s new creation, Double Lives, will receive its world premiere tonight, February 12, at the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater in Germany. The full-evening work was commissioned by nordwest, a collaborative project of Tanzcompagnie Oldenburg and Tanztheater Bremen. After the performances in Oldenburg, the production will move on to Theater Bremen on April 10, 2010.

The past couple of months have been quite an intensive period - our apologies that this blog has been a bit ignored during that time…

Creating a full evening work for 20 dancers in two months is a challenge in any case…but add to that the process of a collaboration with an unfamiliar company, new music being composed, video being especially made for the work and all the other areas of the creative process and the totality starts to get quite complex.

Luckily Tero has had the priviledge to have a large creative team with him: on top of all the wonderful people in Oldenburg and Bremen, seven Tero Saarinen Company members have been working with him in Germany. In addition, some of the work, like costume production, was also partly done in Finland.

This has been an especially interesting process for Tero as a choreographer because the nordwest dancers offer a wonderfully fruitful - but also challenging - mixture of talent due to their respective companies’ varied backgrounds. Previously led by Susanne Linke (in 1994-2000) among others, Tanztheater Bremen is considered as one of the  most influential companies of German expressive dance. On the other hand, Tanzcompagnie Oldenburg, founded in its current form in 2007,  has its roots in the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater’s ballet company.

However, now the end - or should we say the beginning, the birth - is finally at hand. Yesterday’s dress rehearsal went well and the whole team feels - as much as one ever is - ready for the big night! Just a few more hours to go…Even our Managing Director Iiris finally managed to arrive in Oldenburg safe & sound- despite a snowstorm that made some significant changes to her journey…

SNAPSHOTS:
from the last couple of months are online in Flickr

DOUBLE LIVES PERFORMANCES:
Oldenburgisches Staatstheater, Oldenburg: February 12–April 1, 2010
Theater Bremen, Bremen: April 10–May 16, 2010

PRODUCTION DETAILS:
from our website’s media-section

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….