March 07, 2006 -

OTTAWA -- The Tero Saarinen Company glides elegantly into the Theatre of the NAC on Tuesday March 21, 2006 at 19:30. Award-winning choreographer-dancer Tero Saarinen -- one of the most fascinating dancers of his generation -- combines classical ballet, Butoh and Western contemporary dance into a unique personal style. He unites sensitivity of thought with refined grotesqueness of movement and clarity of texture.

This triple bill features Hunt, Saarinen’s first self-created solo in nearly a decade -- an ecstatic, gender-bending, technology-infused solo take on Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, in which visually imaginative photographs (by leading Finnish multimedia artist Marita Liulia) are projected onto Tero Saarinen’s bare torso and white dress. His back to us, Saarinen begins by moving in trademark style with scooping stretches and spirals, balancing on the balls of his feet. He paws at the air, arms licking like flame. Saarinen’s stunningly elegant movement shows great inventiveness as it abolishes the stereotypical male-female image, turning the dancer into a figure of myth.

“Hunt proved to be extremely popular with the audience and indeed it is a very effective piece, perfect to show the art and body-mastery of a great dancer like Saarinen.”

Dance Europe, December 2002

[Hunt]“Tero, extremely focused … creates and develops a strong crescendo of action and emotion with ease. He burns up all his energy and gets exhausted at the very end, exactly like ‘The Chosen One’, a mythical figure, should.”

Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino, Ballet2000, July/August 2002

Also on the bill is the powerful whiplash energy of Westward Ho!, which gave Saarinen his international breakthrough as a choreographer in 1997. A Finnish critic aptly characterized this work as “humanistic minimalism”. Three men stride through stunning blue light; their smooth side-to-side tread moving them forward by increments. They’re like ships or a mirage of desert riders. The repetitive patterns are supported by the famous creaky-voiced tape loop of Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet by Gavin Bryars and fugitive Moondog percussion. Every time the men interject a sharp movement, or one breaks away, or two touch, it’s a major event. Tautness yields to tension as new movement is spliced in. This is emphatic dancing, not cerebral permutations on cumulative phrases. Writing in The Village Voice, Deborah Jowitt wrote that “The piece has an almost faultless dance logic.”

“Like much Finnish design, Westward Ho! was striking in its sense of color and composition, focused on clarity of line. Add the force of controlled energy, channelled into repeated geometric shapes and occasionally erupting into whiplash twists and turns.”

Anna Kisselgoff , The New York Times, 1998

“Westward Ho! by Tero Saarinen is a jewel from Finland, a real poem danced in a light of aurora borealis….Tero Saarinen is both great and modest at the same time. He nourishes an intense inner life.”

Bernard Raffalli, Les Saisons de la Danse, 1998

The triple bill concludes with Wavelengths, a fluid and sensual duet using sustained contortions and permanently moving legs. Caught in an uncertain and tumultuous situation, two people realise they must forge an entirely new path if they are to re-establish and nurture their relationship. Composer Riku Niemi uses the ecstatic and dramatic arc of Ravel’s Bolero as inspiration.

“Bodies get closer then part, dancers touch then become more guarded. --- the choreography contains a form of classical “pas de deux”, which Saarinen moulds into a surrealistically elastic and fluid course of movements.”

Auli Räsänen, Helsingin Sanomat, January 2000

CHOREOGRAPHY Tero Saarinen

Hunt (2002)
MUSIC Igor Stravinsky
LIGHTING Mikki Kunttu
MULTIMEDIA Marita Liulia
COSTUMES Erika Turunen

Westward Ho! (1996)
MUSIC Gavin Bryars, Moondog
LIGHTING DESIGN Mikki Kunttu
COSTUMES Tero Saarinen

Wavelengths (2000)
MUSIC Riku Niemi
LIGHTING DESIGN Mikki Kunttu
COSTUME DESIGN Erika Turunen

Tero Saarinen Company performs Hunt,Westward Ho!,and Wavelengths in the Theatre of the National Arts Centre on Tuesday March 21, 2006 at 19:30. Tickets are $42.25, $40, and $30.50, $22, $21, and $16.25 for students (upon presentation of a valid student ID card). Tickets are available at the NAC Box Office (in person) and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at (613) 755-1111; Ticketmaster may also be accessed through the NAC’s website at www.nac-cna.ca. Last-minute tickets (subject to availability) for full-time students are $10 at the Live Rush Centre in the NAC Foyer after 18:00 on the day of performance only, upon presentation of a valid ‘Live Rush’ card. NEW for 2005-06! Groups of 10+ save 15% to 20% off regular ticket prices to all NAC Music, Theatre and Dance performances; to reserve your seats, call 947-7000 ext. 384 or e-mail grp@nac-cna.ca.

Photos for all dance events can be viewed and downloaded at: www.nac-cna.ca/media/

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Information:
Gerald Morris
Marketing and Media Relations,
NAC Dance Department
(613) 947-7000, ext. 249
gmorris@nac-cna.ca

TERO SAARINEN
Dancer-choreographer Tero Saarinen (born in 1964) began his career as a dancer at the Finnish National Ballet in 1985, where he soon gained attention as a soloist. Despite his success, he left the ballet in 1992 to search for new influences from contemporary dance from Western Europe and Japan, where he studied traditional Japanese dance and Butoh from 1992 to 1993. Even though Saarinen's work displays features of classical ballet, Butoh, and Western contemporary dance, he has managed to create a unique style of his own. In his work, sensitivity of thought is combined with a refined grotesqueness of movement and a clarity of texture.

Saarinen founded his own group, Company Toothpick, in 1996 as a canvas for his own choreographic work. In 2002, the company changed its name to the Tero Saarinen Company. The repertoire of the company consists mainly of Saarinen's choreographies, but it also displays solos that have been created for him by other choreographers.

Saarinen has also made choreographies for numerous other major companies. The Batsheva Dance Company, Ballet Gullbenkian, the Lyon Opéra Ballet, the Gothenburg Opera Ballet, Ballet National de Marseille and the Finnish National Ballet, among others, either have or have previously had Saarinen's works in their repertoire. In 2006 Saarinen will create work for Nederlands Dans Theater.

Tero Saarinen is regarded as one of the most brilliant dancers of his generation. Several highly esteemed choreographers, such as Carolyn Carlson, Jorma Uotinen, and Murray Louis, have either created or given him solos.

Saarinen has received several acknowledgements for his work as an artist. In 2001, he was awarded the Finland Prize, the most prestigious recognition given to artists in Finland. Most recently, Saarinen was awarded the ‘Best male performer’ prize at the first International Movimentos Dance Prize 2004 in Germany. In June 2004, he was nominated for the ‘Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ by the Ministry of Culture of France.