Reviews
Reviews of KEKÄLÄINEN & COMPANY
1996-2000 Physical Art Theatre, P.A.T.
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V. Sutinen, Tanssi-magazine, Finland, 1997
"Finnish choreographer Sanna Kekäläinen stood out - as an Artist-in-residence in WUK - with two solid pieces which presented high-quality dancers and choreographic know-how. The good-old-modern dance is not dead any longer, but required: with historical consciousness and such high quality one never reaches in Vienna."
Helmut Ploebst, Wiener Journal, Austria, 1998
PÄÄ-HEAD, 2008
"In her work, Kekäläinen is again in the very heart, in which the whole art of dance as an art dwells, is born, breathes and also dies, if it looses this heart. When one has reached this heart, and has that uncompromised insight based on very deep bodily understanding and level of professionalism which Kekäläinen has, one doesn't need to invent any post-it-meanings or -narratives for ones works."
Olli Ahlroos, www.liikekieli.com, 4.3.2008
"Pää-Head brings back to the spectator some of those forms of bodily existing, which have disappeared from the ready-chewed bodily images that are produced by the present western mediasociety. The work both deconstructs and reconstructs the conceptions of self and its consistency."
Kaisa Kurikka, Turun Sanomat -newspaper, 27.2. 2008
Puna-Red-Rouge, 2007
"Sanna Kekäläinen's latest work, the Puna-Red-Rouge solo for herself, is awesome. It keeps you in its grip every moment because Kekäläinen fills the time and space by constantly transforming and changing into something new. . No one can move like Sanna Kekäläinen. Her moving never cease to surprise and amaze, to fascinate the viewer. In Red, Kekäläinen electrifies with her voice and talent as a singer. . The controlled and the uncontrolled, the general and the personal, are simultaneously written in Kekäläinen's movement and voice, her body."
Kaisa Kurikka, Turun Sanomat -newspaper
"Very few of our dance artists can create a solo like Sanna Kekäläinen, one that opens out at myriad levels, including the political, cultural, philosophical and personal. . In her hands the solo form grows into something entirely different from a personal manifestation. Dance and the corporality become a form of expression for thoughts and reflection. And vice versa. . There is nothing in the whole that could be classified as detached or unmotivated. Kekäläinen has the ability to create a thrilling impression that anything could happen at the next instant. . Her unrestrained metamorphoses are purely phenomenal in terms of both concept and physical expression. The work as a whole gives us great freedom to construct our own understanding and, through that, to partake in the creative process."
Jan-Peter Kaiku, Hufvudstadsbladet -newspaper
"Sanna Kekäläinen has one of the most unforgettably peculiar stage presences of anyone working today. A limbre, living avant-garde cartoon, she fusses, fidgets, folds and unfolds her elongated flesh like origami . Puna-Red-Rouge was surprising ... intermittently fascinating."
Donald Hutera, Dance Europe, October 07
The Afternoon of a Faun and La Petrushka, 2006
"This performance, The Afternoon of a Faun reflects perfectly the style of Sanna Kekalainen presented at previous editions of Lublin Festival: after performances exploring the human's body and the social circumstances influencing its existence, this time the Finnish choreographer and dancer has reached for the myth and created again a fascinating performance."
Andrzej Z. Kowalczyk, Extra16 November 2006
"The half an hour long solo is a wild combination of Kekäläinen's characteristic movement language and Kari Hukkila's text, which are complemented by Debussy's impressionistic composition. Kekäläinen's figure, a human transformed to an animal, functions in a state of narcissism and auto-eroticism. In the movement the animal and the human blend, the figure kisses itself occasionally and sniffs its own scent. One IS following Kekäläinen's movement and doing intensively, it does not let go" " Kekäläinen's movement language is original and truly demanding and so captivating for the audience."
Kaisa Kurikka, Turun Sanomat 24.4.2006
"The place of performance, groups intimate rehearsal studio in Cable Factory, functions perfectly for these crystallised intensive as well as strongly thought-provoking and emotionally charged works in the smaller scale" "Her interpretation has steadfast authority and a subtle grasp to this versatile and physical performance with its conceptual depth."
Jan-Peter Kaiku, Hufvudstadsbladet 1.5.2006
CREATURE and Unidentified dancer, 2006
"The works are philosophical and conceptual, and in the context of Finnish contemporary dance, Sanna Kekäläinen has a unique way of embodying abstract concepts." "The thought of "being whoever" is extremely fascinating especially in relation to dance. Since, dance is often understood as an extension of the dancing self's identity, as an expression of one's own bodily identity. Becoming "whoever" is revolutionary philosophy and identity policy in dance, and hence very welcoming." "Sanna Kekäläinen and Katri Soini are magnificent dancers, who are aware of their every gesture and movement."
Kaisa Kurikka, Turun Sanomat, Finland, January, 2006
"Kekäläinen's conceptual aesthetics and novel way of representing femininity is pathbreaking in the Finnish dance scene." "Most meaningful is however the movement language."
Jan-Peter Kaiku, Hufvudstadsbladet, Finland, January, 2006
"How to exist without alterity, the other? How to live without metaphysics: without an idea, symbol, afterlife, identity, truth, God, absoluteness... Physical moving body is not more true than a word, it does not tell the truth or lie less than language. They both share the experience of being thrown to the world. Derrida deconstructs language with language, Kekäläinen deconstructs movement with movement."
Anna Makkonen, Web magazine www.liikekieli.com, Finland, January, 2006
TODELLISUUS-REALITY, 2005
"...The archaic "animal" - a kind of a "dream animal" with deliciously articulated movements- danced by Kekäläinen herself,.."
Jan-Peter Kaiku, Hufvudstadsbladet, Finland, April, 2005
TEO, 2004
"...The aesthetics of the new work TEO fits into its author's long series of works smoothly. ... Among the work's most impressive scenes, in its grotesque beauty and cheerful humour, was Kekäläinen's solo where through an ecstatic breathing sequence she ends up to describe consumers' insatiableset of values verbally. ... Kekäläinen's movements emphasise joints and bones, resulting in marionette-like expression that looks not only directed but also mechanical. It brings an ironic shade to the whole piece of work. This is often the way that movement and the tradition of dance have been used to create a contextual frame of reference."
Jan-Peter Kaiku, Tanssi-magazine, Finland, February 2005
"Sanna Kekäläinen is one of the "big ones" in the Finnish contemporary dance scene. Kekäläinen has worked two decades and in that time she has expanded the idea of dance art... Both the thematique and the action of Kekäläinen are intensive in the performance."
Jan-Peter Kaiku, Hufvudstadsbladet, Finland, November 2004
Persoona - Person, 2004
"All her choreographies prove that the dance theatre is not only a movement, but a domain of very strong intellectual character, and in this case I would even say: epistomological. Sanna Kekäläinen`s works are always significant events of the following editions of Lublin Festival."
Andrzej Z. Kowalczyk, Nasze Miasto, Poland, November, 2004
"The whole concept of the new work is liberated. It opens to ironic humour. The work truely celebrates with the diversity of human mind... The work produces a strong personality of a woman... Kekäläinen herself is sovereign in her work. Her technique is fabulous especially because she crosses it... Kekäläinen`s self-dependent way of making dance art leaves an impressive trace till deep, once again."
Kaisa Kurikka, Turun Sanomat, Finland, September 2004
"The dancing is elegant and fluent and arouses rich associations."
Jukka O. Miettinen, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland, April 2004
"The quality of the dance is fumbling, sketching and reflective that gives the trace of spontaneity and the feeling of immediate moment; though the piece has a clear shape. Kekäläinen exaggerates the perfection, in lifting the leg and in the sudden split to give her performing a touch of irony and absurdity. The piece has an open end, which fits perfectly together with the intensively developing and form reshaping performance."
Jan-Peter Kaiku, Hufvudstadsbladet, Finland, April 2004
Mieli-Mind, 2004
Sanna Kekäläinen's unique and original movement language is always facinating and demanding. Its occasional roughness and animal-like gestures and at the same time skillfully controlled rhythmics captivate. Mieli-Mind surprises and facinates and its atmosphere full of dynamics keeps the mind in a strong hold from the beginning to the end.
Kaisa Kurikka, Turun Sanomat, Finland, January 2004
In a manner unique in the field of Finnish dance Sanna Kekäläinen has almost over two decades dealt with cultural, social and politic issues with a bite and drive and has clearly taken a stand generating her public to do so too. Mieli-Mind is one of Sanna Kekäläinen's best works.
Jan-Peter Kaiku, Hufvudstadsbladet, Finland, January 2004
Sanna Kekäläinen does powerfully unique physical art standing strongly behind her thinking.
Jussi Tossavainen, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland, January 2004
Proposal for a Duet for Two Men and Women's duet, 2003
" 'This performance is an absolute must for every dance and theater lover.' 'Women's duet is a brilliant example of deconstructed choreography with many different layers. If you've seen the original piece from 1993 you can still create your own memories and echos.' 'In Proposal for a Duet for Two Men Jyrki Karttunen's incredibly strong stage presence is compelling. It makes the viewer thoughtful and also touched.' 'Sanna Kekäläinen's humour is clear. It's underlined with rhythm and slapstick structure with surprises and unexpected features. It's a performance that has to be seen. Not because of nostalgia but because of art.' "
Annika Tudeer, Hufvudstadsbladet, Finland, April 2003
" 'Jyrki Karttunen is a virtuoso!' 'The figures are totally integrated in their expression, they have their special physical qualities, expressions and sometimes voices.'
'I will not describe more. Go and see for yourself!"
Auli Räaänen, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland, April 2003
"Kekäläinen discovers Donald Duck as the godfather of expressionism, and finds the perfect Hardy for Karttunen's Laurel."
Katja Werner, Dance Europe, Etiquette and the Inner Ape, January 2004
BODY - Fragments of The Human Body, 2002
"In this work body is not only a personal experience. It´s also very much public, conceptual and political place. The female dancers in the work, Sanna Kekäläinen herself and Johanna Rantanen, have processed and absorbed this demanding challenge so well, that the viewer can see in their dancing bodies the most widest range of different kinds of ideas about the body." "In its entirety BODY is a courageous and heavy statement which makes you consider body deeper than just superficially."
Kaisa Kurikka, Turun Sanomat, Finland, November 2002
"BODY consists of fascinating movement and realizations of human body´s possibilities and limitations." "The movement of Sanna Kekäläinen and Johanna Rantanen is strong and there´s a strong tension. The original images get broken with banal movements, which are far away from sublimity."
Jussi Tossavainen, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland, November 2002
"This is one of the most interesting Finnish dance companies established in 1996. The leader of the group, Sanna Kekalainen had the unusual gift to build magical pictures from her body. Therefore her performances have the specific climate. Sanna looks for the inspiration in the world of animals, but the sources of new performances can also be poetics or philosophical conceptualism. "
THE DANCE ZONE, The Festival of Varieties, June 2003
"The body is the well of lust, and this naked scene in the performance creates a wonderful vision... The dance is inspired by the pulse of time."
Von Philip Rössner, Ostsee Zeitung OZHGW, 30.06.2003
"...Two extremely fragile bodies open up. In a cubical spiral the dancers look for restless stream of humanlike movement to clear new ways to a world of utopia. "
WOCHENENDAUSGABE, 28/29 Juni 2003
"The time Sanna Kekäläinen went even further in her searches: she went beyond the conventional biology up to the social sphere in its most delicate manifestation - the artistic activity. This performance should be seen especially by those who have just started their adventure with the contemporary dance, including some critics and journalists, because the can learn a lot from it."
Andrzej Z. Kowalczyk, Nasze Miasto, 14.11.2003
TIZIAN FROM THE DARK
Rough, disturbing roar from the chaos: "Eh yes... I moved, moved parts of my body. My body. It moved. It moved without moving. It moved and I was moved..." This message spoken in the darkness, Kari Hukkila´s longer text, makes clear that first of all the following is about momentary presence and the strength of the body becoming visible. Finnish choreographer and dancer Sanna Kekäläinen's fourth study of the human body at Nokia's former cable factory in Helsinki appeared even more minimalistic, hermetic and concentrated.
The tireless interaction between two bodies begins unforgettably with heartbeats. These beats are composer Aake Otsala´s musical outline to the dancers, Sanna Kekäläinen and Johanna Rantanen ever continuous and pulsating movement. Even when the dancers come very close to the audience and seem to stay completely still the fingers cut up the air and their heads slightly shiver.
The space made up of pillows indicates to a cell with a vulnerable membrane. Inside this membrane a restless and often very quick flow of movement is trying to clear new routes for itself. Dancer's cooperation reminds a lot of an exploration to utopic world done by two children who are lead by constant curiosity. It´s fascinating to see what unfamiliar movements both bodies provoke: after they have moulded themselves in a crushing experience and happily found their own form they start to express things that we have never been able to find a name in human language. The asexual childlike bodies are at the same time fine and strong, their movements are extreme and fragile, like human animals.
The naturally lyric team work of the dancer's doesn't break until the final scene. The other is placed down as an object to the gaze like the well known Tizian's Venus. The body moulded like this is itself a thousandfold story and a reality. What has glimmered out of the movement of the two bodies that used to be so restless, the BODY - Fragments of the Human Body is focusing even more than the other body studies IHO - Skinless, 2001, Uhri - Sacre, 2001 and VERSO, 2002 to the body itself and it's preconditions or as Sanna Kekäläinen says "being in the body". Uhri-Sacre was an interpretation of Stravinsky´s Le sacre du printemps and it caused a polemic in the Finnish press. It confirmed again the important position that Kekäläinen has as a pioneer of contemporary dance field in Finland. Since the ´90´s she has in her physical art theatre consistently put in perspective the human body in it's political and historical dimensions.
Jürg Zbinden, Ballet-Tanz - Tanz Aktuell, Germany, January 2003
VERSO - Two Versions of Transientness, 2002
"She, Sanna Kekäläinen is extremely unique and because of that a true gift for dramatic art." "In VERSO, just like in all the other latest pieces Kekäläinen is in the focus as a solo protagonist in a very aesthetic format and she does it with sizzling radiation."
Jan-Peter Kaiku, Hufvudstadsbladet, Finland, April 2002
"Kekäläinen is an interesting and innovative in her movements." "There are many impressive and photogenic scenes like the final scene."
Anni Valtonen, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland, April 2002
Uhri - Sacre, 2001
"- an Icarus image - as a symbol of an attempt to free oneself from the role of the victim and boundaries." "Sanna Kekäläinen has as a choreographer and a dramatic artist a special talent to fuse large-scale and intimacy into a cohesive whole."
Jan-Peter Kaiku, Hufvudstadsbladet, Finland, November 2001
"The expressive Kekäläinen & Company of Finland performed choreographer Sanna Kekäläinen's highly impressive Uhri-Sacre."
Newspaper in Gdansk, Poland, February 2002
"On Sunday, the last day, the stars performed: the expressive dancer of the Finnish company K&C Kekalainen and company, the dynamic company xIda of Austria and the revelation Wojciech Mochniej."
Natalia Ligarzewska / Mirella Wasiewicz, Gazeta Wyborcza Trojmiasto, February 2002
"On Sunday performed the solist of the theatre Kekalainen & Company with the expressive performance "Uhri-Sacre".....
Tadeusz Skutnik, Dziennik Baltycki, February 2002
IHO - Skinless, 2001
"The performance is full of different associations and gives them space for development in the mind of the spectator., -- Kekäläinen's, -- body is extremely elastic and her long extremitire appear to be astonihingly animal like. The effectiveness and fascination of it is there, that she is not trying to imitate the animals as such but merely represent their physical abstraction."
Annikki Alku, Uutispäivä Demari, Finland, April 2001
"The dance scene of the human female is deeply touching. Also otherwise the work awakens warm emotions for the different, most surprising and animal forms of existence."
Jukka O. Miettinen, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland, April 2001
"The performance appears to be an allegory of evolution from animalistic origin towards the human primitive as well as more developed forms. Sanna Kekäläinen sketches, -- pictures of different animals with great precision."
Jan-Peter Kaiku, Hufvudstadsbladet, Finland, April 2001
"From choreographic and performing side Sanna's solo was a masterpiece. Each form presented by the dancer was enriched with her own, individual character. When one watches her dancing it is very easy to see the whole evolution of homo sapiens hidden in every single person. Although, not everybody can highlight it. Sanna Kekalainen can."
Andrzej Z. Kowalczyk, Kurier Lubelski, Poland, November 2001
"Sanna Kekäläinen from Finland showed a radically analytic work. The Finnish dancer exposed the presence of primitive animal's passions in biology of human movement. That close movement enabled her to extract instinctive layers of corporality from the human cultural canon. The dancer was able to tell us about how much we are involved in biology - it was a very surprising and alarming story. Sanna Kekäläinen uncovered our inclinations to insect's symmetry, our hidden atavisms and instinctive sexuality - no doubt we are a part of the nature. IHO is full of basic animal's gestures which exist in our culture, and the human nakedness seems to be rather a complicated rich costume."
Miroslav Haponiuk, Kresy, No 48/2001
"One of the most impressive productions was Sanna Kekäläinen's solo called IHO - Skinless. Choreographer studies, analyses and reconstructs animal movements which she transforms into human movements that have a specific meaning."
Hana Pecharová, Tanecní Listy, Poland, January 2002
"Monoperformance IHO-Skinless by Sanna Kekäläinen from Finland was full of subtlety and fragility." "Kekäläinen researches the world of real animals. Her body painted in white with black spots of dalmantine standing close to a wall and slightly stirring reminded a big insect hiding itself through attempts to merge with the surroundings. Then a little monkey, racoon, frog, fish, different birds and many other creations appeared on the stage for a moment. Her endless motion, full of small detailed movements, hypnotised, creating a desire never to come to a stop. But suddenly light eyes start looking from under the black cap, red dress was pulled over the black spots, and a woman stood up in front of the audience trying to constrain everyone to conceive, that we all have come from the animal kingdom and still carry on old habits somewhere deep inside."
Vita Mozuraite, Kulturos Barai, Lithuania, March 2002
"Finnish dancer Sanna Kekäläinen finished New Baltic Dance -02 festival with her curious, charming and mind blowing performance IHO - Skinless. In the beginning she performed as different animals with her naked body painted with black spots on white - slowly and incredibly accurately. Halfway through the performance S. Kekäläinen opened a black package with no big gestures. The package contained a scarlet dress which she put on. That worn-out cloth changed the animal to a woman and the magic disappeared. That´s the kind of human being that we run into everyday. The dancer did not flatter that person; she didn´t show her as more sophisticated or noble." "It´s obvious that New Baltic Dance is one of Lithuania´s greatest art festivals which is not lacking of audience or attention of dancers from wide range of countries."
Ruta Oginskaite, Lietuvos rytas, Lithuania, April 2002
"Individuals from the Wild West prefer the noise of braking of the waves instead of the noise of a train. Ecological catastrophy against the communal one. They stay alone on the stage don´t grappling the partner. As Finnish Sanna Kekäläinen does. Her body, painted in style of a skin of a wild animal, for fifty minutes imitated habits of different creations. She rocked as a seagull on the waves, flogged invisible sand with invisible claws, balanced on the stage as the lightest insect thrown in the stormy wind. Before Finns nobody except of Japans could join a male and a female, animal and a human being in one body. Finnish butoh dance becomes more and more popular on the European stage and is not so frightening as the Japanese one, but it seems to take the ideas from the results of catastrophy - ecological if not personal." "Finnish Sanna Kekäläinen without any efforts turns herself from a swallow into a little duck, from a little duck into a girl."
Olga Gerdt, Daily Gazeta, Russia, April 2002
Body Metamorphoses
Sanna Kekäläinen's solo 'IHO - Skinless' in Helsinki
Picture a primeval cave: outside the sea is raging; now and then seagulls screech. In the pale light a strange mottled creature presses itself against the side of the cave. Awkwardly and distractedly a foot and a hand fumble along the black wall. Gradually the being - half animal, half human - feels its way out of the darkness, now calmly and gracefully. Full of innocence, the human-animal shows what the body was capable of before purpose began to rule the world.
It experiences its skin as a natural dress and boundary that it scratches and scrapes. When the creature sees its reflection in the water it transforms into a young woman. She admires herself in a pretty pleated skirt. Now she has reached her limit as she can neither shed nor create a new one and because this she loses her soul and becomes a mere puppet. The machine-man's soulless dance is one of the most impressive passages of this performance, where alienation is extreme and skin has become nothing more that a membrane for a destructive machine. Exhausted, the creature subsides into melancholy to the sound of Debussy's "Ariettes oubliées".
'IHO - Skinless' is an allegory on evolution and is designed to portray a metamorphosis. The main theme is the conflict between nature and animals, skin and nakedness. "Iho" means skin in Finnish. Along with the brain, skin is formed from the ectoderm in the embryo and is the largest and most vulnerable organ of the body. This boundary between self and world is both permeable and hard. In contemporary art the body's exterior is defined as a surface for projection of fantasies and fetishes; as the scene of wounds and stigmatizations; as an individual or social straitjacket.
That is one reason why 'IHO - Skinless' is reminiscent of Beckett's "How it is". A creature is stumbling around in a no-man's-land. As in Beckett's monologue, the conceptual viewpoint is combined with sensual flow of movements and pictures. With this solo performance, dancer and choreographer Sanna Kekäläinen picks up on her deconstruction of the traditional body concept. Earlier experimental solo studies on the subject of movement and female body such as 'Santa Maria delle Grazie' and 'My Sword Has Seven Edges And Three Knots' created a sensation and established her role as a pioneer of modern dance in Finland. In 1994 she became the first female choreographer to receive the prestigious "Young Finland State Award". In the mid 1990's she alone succeed in forming a permanent ensemble independent of the National Opera's ballet and the Municipal Theatre of Helsinki's ballet. Today the ensemble goes by the name Kekäläinen & Company, K&C.
'IHO - Skinless' was performed in the engine room of former Nokia cable factory in Kaapelitehdas. This huge brick building by the sea is now a centre for modern art and home to Kekäläinen. Here she goes about her exemplary work, proving how thrilling developments in Europe's outer reaches can be.
Ballett International - Tanz Aktuell, June 2001, Jürg Zbinden
NET - Images of the Other, 2000
"In Sanna Kekäläinen´s choreography the athletic intensity of movement was inseparably weaved with the comfortableness, the brave sensuality and excited even hysteric expression. P.A.T. from Finland has presented the piece 'NET', one of the most interesting proposition of this year Dance Theatre Festival." "Thanks to P.A.T. we have seen extraordinarily intensive spectacle, conceptually fully fledged, original and most awkward, awkward as awkward are sometimes nightmarish, we wish we forgot them immediately."
Miroslaw Haponiuk, Kurier Lubelski, Poland, November 2000
Death in Venice, 1999
The Physical Art Theatre* stages Mann's Novel at the Helsinki Opera
December light. The day has hardly begun when night falls again. The two of three hours of daylight seem like a monument . the ideal atmosphere for a reworking of Thomas Mann's novella "Death in Venice". For exactly this purpose, the Helsinki Opera House has invited the Physical Art Theatre, P.A.T.*.
In semi-darkness on the middle of the stage, Death, Sanna Kekäläinen awaits the audience, alternating in the prologue solo between two types of movement: laboriously wading in wellington boots through the swamp of the underworld, then suddenly agilely leaping across the earth, as light as a feather. Several times, an adagietto from Mahler's 5. Symphony fades away painfully. And instead of Mahler's delicate music that Visconti fans are accustomed to, they get subjected to the foreign underwater sounds of the young composer Harry Ahponen, which weave along in an unexpectedly powerful manner, industrial music.
The signs are clear. The introduction of the figure of death and the fading away of Mahler's music make it obvious from the start that the choreographer Sanna Kekäläinen will be using neither the famous original, nor Visconti's film version. The barren set is therefore very apt: in the background a horizon divided by neon strips, a few pillars, patio furniture and a barber's chair.
The meeting between Aschenbach, Jorma Uotinen, Tadzio, Mika Backlund and death is central. Tadzio is surrounded by his three sisters, Johanna Rantanen, Reetta Rönkkö and Ruusu Sunnila and his mother, Anna Airaksinen while on the outskirts, Aschenbach, marked by life, discovers the payful young ones running round in circles in the centre of the stage and cannot escape their thrall. In order to lure Tadzio towards him, he attempts to press forward into their midst. This comes across as both comic and tragic at the same time, as the respective body languages could not be more different. While Aschenbach is slow, measured and weak, the children are fast. Impulsive and strong. His nervous wooing of Tadzio ends on the malevolent barber's chair. Again, Tadzio is able to escape his sweet embrace. But whoever rebels against the law of ageing - like Aschenbach - simply speeds up the process: macabre dance of death.
The Finnish Dance legend Jorma Uotinen plays Aschenbach to perfection, convincingly portraying Aschenbach's attempts to absorb youthful freshness, accelerating his own failure. The final scene is impressive: Uotinen, in a monologue by the writer Kari Hukkila, reflects upon his situation and reveals a vocal potential that the audience loves.
For P.A.T.*, founded in 1996, and it's director Sanna Kekäläinen, the invitation to Helsinki Opera House is further confirmations that their role as pioneers of modern dance in Finland is being honoured. Their recipe for success: various art forms are combined as a means of finding new perspectives on dance as physical performing art, last seen in 1998 with Studies in Hysteria, My Sword has Seven Edges and Three Knots and in 1999 with Prisoners of Love.
Jürg Zbinden, Ballet International - Tanz Aktuell 2/2000
* Kekäläinen & Company was formerly called Physical Art Theatre
Spartacvs, 1998
Spartacus in Helsinki
The Physical Art Theatre*
The psychological interpretation of the Spartacus myth, dating from the end of the 73 to 71 BC slave uprising in Rome, is one of the strongest production of the Finnish ensemble Physical Art Theatre, P.A.T.*. It demonstrates the revolt against fate, and struggling for one's freedom, ina thoroughly unheroic fashion.
The Finns pay close attention to what goes in the kingdom of Russian bears. Spartacus, throughout the entire Soviet era one of the most significant icons of class struggle and likewise a casus belli among historians and politicians, disappeared from the scene at the end of the Cold War. The Spartacus Uprising, the most successful slave revolt in Western history, supplied first proof of history forcing a dialectic-materialistic path. The material was first adapted for ballet in the fifties. For the structure and virtuosity, Grigorovitch's Spartacus choreography, staged at the Bolschoi Theatre at the end of the sixties, is considered the most effectice.
After the "red" hero of mythology and martyrology disappeared, the material was free to enjoy newer interpretations. Precisely that provoked P.A.T.* to create - according to their programme notes - a "political tanztheater brimming over with strength and heroism." The ironic gesturing fascinates. The re-enacted spectacle transpires on various levels with consistently funny and lively sense of communication. Dance, music, pictures, film and texts recalling various historic situations: scenes and quotes from Roman antiquity and the French Revolution. Past and present join together into a cyclic and historical image. This Spartacus repeats itself with accents on the comic, romantic and sarcastic. That the myth is worked through so dynamically is what initially frees the viewer's gaze for the dancelike presence. For the first time, the prestigious Svenska Theatre gives its stage to a postmodern tanztheater. For P.A.T.*, founded in 1996 and directed by choreographer and dancer Sanna Kekäläinen, this is further proof of their pioneer role in modern dance in Finland being recognised. P.A.T.* effectively combines different art forms as a way of presenting dance, as a "physical performing art", in a new perspective. Working with the troupe's dancers are Anna Airaksinen and Mika Backlund, the writer Kari Hukkila, costume designer Riitta Röpelinen, lighting designer Tuukka Törneblom, architect Olli Turunen, and the producer Hannele Kurkela. The Finnish dance critics chose Requiem - A Dance Performance in the Spirit of Mozart as Best Choreography of the Year in 1996. Since then, other productions were Afternoon of a Faun, Acts of Desire, Katharctic and Querelle-Variations, honoured with invitations to perform in Budapest, Vienna and Prague.
Jürg Zbinden, Ballet International - Tanz Aktuell, July 1998
* Kekäläinen & Company was formerly called Physical Art Theatre
Katharctic, 1997
"Slowly the dancers step out of their roles and characters letting the dance take over. The dancers take place from the casual and minimalized movement toward strong and physical gestus, which on a higher technical level breaks out of classical elements and traditional choreographic methods."
Barbara Engelhardt, Theater der Zeit, 1997
Afternoon of a Faun, 1996
" Choreographer and dancer Sanna Kekäläinen visited for a month as a guest in Artist-in-residence in WUK. In Festival Neuer Tanz she showed two works created with her company Physical Art Theatre established in 1996. In P.A.T.´s interpretation of Debussy´s Afternoon of a Faun as well as Querelle-variations the Finns combine expressive theatrical elements with storm-like acrobatic movement without compromises creating an axciting wholeness. "
Heidrun Hofstetter-Hambach, Tanzaffiche, 1998
"Sanna Kekäläinen n'y va pas de main morte avec son Après-midi d'un Faune, un duo shoc sur la figure de Narcisse."
Marie-Christine Vernay, Libération, Juin 1999
"Une Faune Fauve - The Savage Faun. Illustartion musclée avec The Afternoon of a Faun signée par Sanna Kekäläinen." "Formée à la danse classique et contemporaine comme son interpréte Mika Backlund, elle relit le ballet mythique de Nijinski à sa facon, sobre et vigoureuse."
Rosita Bouisseu, Le Monde, France, June 1999
"La choréographie que Sanna a composée pour son danseur Mika Backlund en référence à L'Après-midi d'un Faune de Nijinski, est furieusement farouche, performante et brusque; jusqu'au nu."
José Gabriel L. Antunano, International, 1999
"La choréographie que Sanna a composée pour son danseur Mika Backlund en référence à 'L'Aprés-midi d'un Faune' de Nijinski, est furieusement farouche, performante et brusque; jusqu'au nu."
Midi Libre, Juin 1999