Kekäläinen & Company’s dance work If I Would Lose My Voice opened the autumn performance season of the National Theater in 2020. The work was historical in many ways: it was the first free-field dance work on the main stage of the National Theater.
Due to the corona situation, only two performances were held at the National Theater. Therefore, an unplugged version will also be coming at K&C Space in the autumn season.
The work received rave reviews from both viewers and critics and was perceived as touching, original and important.
“Very few dance artists dare to be as committedly political as Sanna Kekäläinen.
Whereas many dance pieces are busy with similar kind of questions, very few dare to be as truly and concretely political in such a committed way as Kekäläinen – and without falling into the trap of daily politics. And above all, in every new piece she dares to go further than before.
If I Would Lose My Voice needs to be looked at very carefully, because it doesn’t manifest any change in its movement vocabulary, but rather reveals facts of humanity in the era of Anthropocene, transcending the individual: the need for touch, the longing of connecting, sexuality, the need for meaning, the attempt to perceive facts by grasping them.”
Maria Säkö, HS 17.8.2020
“Kekäläinen’s powerful performance and dance work deals with and illustrates our time, which has come to be known as the Anthropocene – a new geological epoch – where human influence over nature is the main distinguishing factor. If I Would Lose My Voice is not an exaggerated dystopia; it is a study of how we live, it is a picture of the absurd imbalance that prevails on this planet that has been taken over by a species with a big brain and a shrinking heart.
The most outrageous and at the same time ingenious image that Kekäläinen has created, and which could serve as an illustration for the Anthropocene, looks like this: A half-naked man holding a large chainsaw in one hand. With a posture of a shy and lost child, he holds the other hand around his own penis.
As an artistic whole, the work is impressive.
If I Would Lose My Voice turns out to be a masterpiece. Its message is crystal clear, the questions it asks are massive. The context, as said, eerie. What is the next means Mother Earth takes to wake us up? Ultimately, it is about love. To be in contact or not. And consequences of not being that.”
Sonja Vuori, 18.8.2020 HBL