| News Visit us on Facebook 4.6.2010 Coming in November 2010: HÄPEÄMÄTTÖMÄT - SHAMELESS In the autumn of 2009 K&C started the Shame-project. The first part of the project, Sanna Kekäläinen's choreography Häpeä-Shame, was premiered in February 2010. The season was a success with 12 sold-out performances and the work was praised by both the press and the audience. Now it's time for the second part of the project, Häpeämättömät - Shameless, choreography and concept by Sanna Kekäläinen. This work will be premiered in K&C Space, Cable Factory, in November 2010. In the work group with Kekäläinen are Andrius Katinas, Lilja Lehmuskallio, Laura Norppa and Panu Varstala. Lighting design is by Heikki Paasonen. 2.6.2010 ONNI-BONHEUR-HAPPINESS 2 Sanna Kekäläinen's highly successful solo performance Onni-Bonheur-Happiness had its premiere in Kiasma Theatre in February 2009. The acclaimed performance returned to Kiasma Theatre in a new transformed version in April 2010 with the warmest welcome."This version, Onni-Bonheur-Happiness 2, is not the same piece that had its première on the same stage last year. I knew already then that I would be performing it again in Kiasma in a year's time, and from the start the idea was that the work would be allowed to change, not only in its international performances, but also in terms of the method. This is not the first time I have reinterpreted my earlier work, but it is the first time the idea has been present already when I was making the first performance.” S. Kekäläinen. Read more at www.kiasma.fi . Press clippings: "Kekäläinen combines conseptuality with her physical presence in a way typical for her. She processes happiness as a meaning and as an abstraction and approaches it from different angles: the pure pleasure of existence, geography, childhood memories, orgasm. Simultaneously, as their opposite, are present anger, the eternal tragedy of the family, pornography that flattens humanity and human being's desire to make consumption into a religion." "Kekäläinen dramatizes herself, but at the same time she disappears in a way. At the end it is not about her, but about painful - or pleasurable - things, that are rammed through her like Santa Teresa of Avila was pierced by God's iron spear. Although few people believe in the possibility of a catharsis on stage anymore, Onni-Bonheur-Happiness is a very good try to deliver that kind of a purifying simultaneity of pleasure and pain. Happiness is a stage, a place, through which people are connected with something larger than themselves, together with others." Maria Säkö, Helsingin Sanomat, 9.4.2010 Preview: 7.4.2010 at 19.00 Premiere: 9.4.2010 at 19.00 Performances: 11./14./16./18.4. Kiasma Info & ticket reservations: +358 (0)9 1733 6501 Read more 5.11.2009 HÄPEÄ-SHAME Kekäläinen & Company’s production, Sanna Kekäläinen’s new work HÄPEÄ – SHAME will be premiered on January 16th 2010 in K&C Space, Cable Factory. The performance is a cross-section to the concept and manifestations of Shame. Shame is the opposite of human autonomy; it is an archaic, primal feeling. HÄPEÄ - SHAME takes a strong stand on our thoroughly capitalistic society – it is up-to-date social criticism at it’s sharpest.In the work group with Kekäläinen are Lilja Lehmuskallio, Laura Norppa and Panu Varstala The production is the first part of the SHAME –project, which started in the fall of 2009 and includes two large scale works and demonstrations of the working process. Press clippings “Sanna
Kekäläinen’s
new
work
Häpeä
–
Shame
is
an intensive
work with substance and it is equally as strong as it is touching.” Jan-Peter
Kaiku, 22.1.2010, HBL Maria Säkö, 18.1.2010, HS Premiere:
16.1.2010 at 7 pm 5.11.2009 ONNI-BONHEUR-HAPPINESS , Turku, Manifesti-festival, “ Dealing with the concept of Happiness, Kekäläinen moves sovereignly from critic towards capitalism to personal history, from psychoanalytical to sacred, even to deity. “ “ Kekäläinen has analyzed her subjects throroughly until the very heart of them, and doesn’t toss out anything unnecessary.” “ Kekäläinen’s dancing and the whole range of expression, is very broad, fascinating and her physical existance is always authentically holistic. She doesn’t have to artificially maintain boundaries between abstract and material, philosophical and poetical, physical and mental but she indicates their incontrovertible connection.” “It’s never about pleasing the audience in Kekäläinen’s work. It bothers and touches. It might be sentimental to write this, but in any case: the way Kekäläinen makes art is sheer Happiness.” Kaisa Kurikka, Turun Sanomat, 14.9.2009 22.6.2009 Onni-Bonheur-Happiness Kekäläinen & Company's commissioned solowork Onni-Bonheur-Happiness by Sanna Kekäläinen was premiered in Kiasma Theatre, Helsinki on the 22th of February 2009. Onni-Bonheur-Happiness was also performed in the Institut Finlandais, The Finnish Institute in Paris, France on the 4th of April 2009. K&C is invited to the Tanz ist-festival in Dornbirn, Austria. Sanna Kekäläinen's soloworks The Afternoon of a Faun and Onni-Bonheur-Happiness will be performed there on the 10th of June 2009. Onni-Bonheur-Happiness is also invited to Manifesti-festival in Turku, on the 12th of September 2009. Happiness has to exist somewhere! Press clippings Afternoon of a Faun & Onni-Bonheur-Happiness, Tanz ist-festival, Austria “The Excellently interpreted Faun”“Kekäläinen brings on the stage her enormously concentrated body- and movement-language.” “She is perfect as interpreter and performer in every smallest move and in every smallest statement. She has the wits to incorporate small humorous insertions without disturbing the wholeness of her message.” “Kekäläinen will make every spectator, who is searching for innovation and perfection – also calm ingenuity - in the field of dance, truly satisfied.” Christa Dietrich, Voralberger Nachrichten, 11.6.2009. “Direct, outright and uncompromised“”The artist states uncompromised arguments on different aspects of existence, specially from the angle of femininity.” “Tenderly she goes through personal refences and perspectives on consumption binge, and thus she little by little reveals how consumption destroys emotions, individuality and existing. She searches for more and more intensive perceptions and radical verbal ways to question consumer-society.” Martin Juen, Voralberger Tageszeichnung, 13.6. 2009. Onni-Bonheur-Happiness “With a massive soloperformance Sanna Kekäläinen presents the theme Happiness from societal, philosophical, art- and culture-historical and also personal aspects. She gets in and out off different costumes and beings when she changes aspects. She reasons in monologue-form and gives a corporeal display.” “She is the primus motor on stage and the sovereign protagonist with a firm grip of both matter, audience and game – like the genius and versatile renaissance-artists! The changes of perspective are very quick and the handling very intensive.” “I’ve had the opportunity to follow Kekäläinen’s artistry for over 20 years. Conceptual features have been seen in her work from the very beginning as well as an interest for existential, societal, historical and philosophical topics.“ “Now we see the richness and the wide views in the exceptionally strong solo-performances of recent years. That the intellectual and the emotional exist on the same level in her performances have I always liked the best.“ “One gets so strongly impressed every time by Kekäläinen’s performing. She gives her all every time. That is the thing that makes her artistry last through time and what speaks to all audiences.” Jan-Peter
Kaiku, Hufvudstadsbladet, 24.2.2009 21.10.2008 Puna-Red-Rouge in Stockholm in Dansens Hus A numerous public met the performances of Puna-Red-Rouge with extatic welcome in Danses Hus the 26th and 27th of September. In Svenska Dagblabet, one of the biggest newspapers in Sweden, critic Anna Ångström writes with a title: “Kekäläinen is a clown who refuses to conform” and Dagens Nyheter, also one of the biggest newspapers, praises the performance to the heavens with a title “Absolutely disarming”. “A body, a soul, razor-sharp brains and a great big heart: Sanna Kekäläinen speaks truly with her entire power of self, invasively but at the same time absolutely disarmingly. Kekäläinen's grand integrity and belief on a spectator as a thinking and feeling individual make Puna-Red-Rouge significantly strong a statement.” Olsson also praises the fully undisputed uncompromised quality, the originality and always astonishing and polemic character of the performance, as well as Kekäläinen's quality as performer and dancer. – Cecilia Olsson, Dagens Nyheter, 28.9.2008 “Kekäläinen is a clown who refuses to conform” Anna Ångström, Svenska Dagbladet, 28.9.2008 Sanna Kekäläinen's solowork Puna-Red-Rouge was also invited to Internationale tanzmesse nrw in Düsseldorf, Germany with two performances. The successfull performances were on the 29th of August 2008 in FFT/JuTA –theatre at 16.00 and at 21.00. 20.10.2008 K&C Demo Club K&C Demo Club is searching for altering concepts and multiple experiences of performative realities. We find it important to broaden the working-environment to fully meet today's world. Demo Club is a way to approach the movement and it's existence as a part of everyday life. K&C Demo Club offers the possibility to live through an intensive process that is lighter and shorter and not so systematic than the usual rehearsal-processes are. We feel that work which is tolerant towards incompleteness is extremely important. Demo Club has been active since 2007. The first work-in-process-performance was Tanssijan tunnustuksia – Confessions of a dancer. In the spring of 2008 Demo Club presented its' work Rakkausharjoitelma - Love-rehearsal in K&C Space, choreography and concept by Sanna Kekäläinen and performance by Sanna Kekäläinen, Lilja Lehmuskallio, Laura Norppa and Tiia Vainonen. In the fall of 2008 Rakkausharjoitelma - Love-Rehearsal was performed to a delighted audience at Manifesti-festival in Turku, Finland. 1.4.2008 Reviews on 14.12.2007 PÄÄ-HEAD 14.12.2007 Sanna
Kekäläinen's solowork Puna-Red-Rouge
visited Fullmoon Dancefestival in Pyhäjärvi Finland in July
2007 and Manifesti-festival in Turku Finland in September 2007.
Puna-Red-Rouge had also a successfull premiere of it's new version in
Kiasma-theatre's /theatre.now-festival in October 2007 in Helsinki. Reviews on Puna-Red-Rouge Premiere 21st of February 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 12.1.2007 Puna-Red-Rouge Kekäläinen & Companys new production Puna-Red-Rouge is a solo of choreographer-dancer Sanna Kekäläinen. The work has its premiere in Kiasma-theatre in February - March 2007. In the work the opposite poles of scrutiny are the extreme private and the universal, the common that we all can identify. The choreographer asks Is it possible that by showing or living the extremely private we can end up with universal and common experience. Premiere: February - March 2007, Kiasma-theatre Read more Lue lisää 12.4.2007 Reviews on The Afternoon of a Faun (premiere on the 22nd of April 2006) The Afternoon of a Faun (2006) "This performance 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, Extra 16 November 2006 27.9.2006 Sanna Kekäläinen: Afternoon of a Faun, Mobile Dance -programme / IETM Helsinki K&C Space, Cable Factory, Tallberginkatu 1 C , 4th floor. Thursday 9.11.2006, 21.00 PM Friday 10.11.2006, 22:00 PM Saturday 11.11.2006, 17:00 PM Duration: 30 min 22.5.2006 Reviews on The Afternoon of a Faun and La Petrushka (premiere on the 22nd of April 2006) The Afternoon of a Faun and La Petrushka (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 9.3.2006 New Productions Kekäläinen & Company's spring performances celebrate dance history in the spirit of Vaslav Nijinsky. The Afternoon of a Faun and La Petrushka will have their premiere on the 22nd of April 2006 at K&C Space. 9.3.2006 Kekäläinen & Company's CREATURE and Unidentified dancer had their premiere on the 10th of January 2006 at STOA, Helsinki. Here are some reviews: "The Works are philosophical and conceptual, and in the context of Finnish contemporary dance, Kekäläinen has a unique way of embodying abstract concepts." "Kekäläinen and Soini are magnificent dancers, who are aware of their every gesture and movement." Kaisa Kurikka, Turun Sanomat, 12.1.2006 "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, 12.1.2006 6.9.2005 Kekäläinen & Company performing in France The artistic leader of Kekäläinen & Company Sanna Kekäläinen has been invited to perform in the Festival Les Plateaux 2005, Biennale nationale de danse du Val-de-Marne. She dances her solo, IHO - Skinless, from 2001. The work has been characterised as meditative and deep dive into cultural identity via physical metamorphoses. For further info: Les Plateaux 23.9.2004 The artistic leader of Kekäläinen & Company Sanna Kekäläinen recieved the five-year state grant from the National Council of Dance. The Council received 97 applications and supported 13 artists with one five-year grant, 2 three-year grants and 10 half-year grants. For further info: www.taiteenkeskustoimikunta.fi |