ARTICLES
MANY POSSIBILITIES OF STAGE NARRATION
By Eeva Kauppinen / Finnish Dance in Focus 2009-2010
Glims & Gloms dance company, which was formed in Espoo in 1999, has fascinated its audience with mythical, symbolic and fantastic subjects. Its works are characterised by stylish and inventive visuals, multi-layered themes, and visual harmony.
Glims & Gloms has made dance works based on classic fairytales and folk tales, and on the other hand brought charismatic animal and fantasy figures from Finnish graphic art and comics to life. The pig ballet (Sikabaletti) was inspired by Julia Vuori's popular comic-book pig, while Extended family (Suurperhe) is a beautiful homage to the graphic artist Outi Heiskanen and the universality of her art. A person and an animal meet through its characters.
The group´s founders, artistic directors and dancers Simo Heiskanen and Tuomo Railo deconstruct and thoroughly read through the "texts" they have chosen to work on. - We are both fascinated by the many possibilities of stage narration. The dialoque between direct, estranged, layered, visual, comic and realistic scenes in our works creates rhythms. Our aim is to get into the spectator´s unconscious and engage it through playing with associations, says Railo.
Heiskanen's newest work Ample Moon is a good example of the ambiguity of Glims & Gloms dance company's stage expression and the carnecalistic construction of their characters. Expressive and playful movement and mythical, symbolic and philosophical content rarely meet so flexibly.
- African and e.g. Papua New Guinean tribes' rituals include costumes and material objects that feel closer to me than many western art genres. the intense expression of tribes that have a close relationship with nature awakens the experience of being human, which is easy to empathise with. The expressiveness of this collection of deities and spirits represents theatre to me, says Heiskanen.
Close to postmodern theatre
One can speak about Ample Moon as a transformation from stage space into landscape, which has similatrities with postmodern theatre. Theatre spaces are self-contained; part of them are virtual diaprojections and made by light.
The work is full of metamorphoses: Pierrot´s feminine equivalent takes the form of Miss Moon, while a busy businessman in a costume uniform changes his skin into a deep sea extra-terrestrial fish creature.
- The mythical can´t be exhausted by explanations. It is forever bewildering, surprising and true. We are not afraid of complicated subjects and we love the feeling of the here-and-now, so that the stage character often develops internal conflicts, a nature and some kind of development process. Symbolic elements in our work mainly serve the narration, Railo explains.
This kind of layering and overlapping produces at least two ways for the spectator to read events: there is a possibility to synthesize things, or read the levels in parallel or one after the other.
Heiskanen and Railo feel that they are anchanted by the magic of the stage, choreographers plying with a magic box. - I always remember my fascination as an enthuastic child when the stage was covered by a mountain in Helsinki City Theatre´s play Hasara. Today I look for the kind of courage that children use when they are playing, says Heiskanen.
- It's true that our works have characteristics of performance art, as we take pleasure in questioning the conventions of stage dramaturgy and try to find fresh ways to relay the events. Dance is important to us, and that's why we we often first try to find narrative solutions through physical expression. We both love songs, puppet theatre, live music and acrobatics, so our works include other types of stage art, adds Railo.
Railo and Heiskanen's works emphasise experience and are easy to watch, but without exception they also have possibilities for deep intepretation. The atmosphere and stage of things in their works is just as important as the "story" or "dramatic plot". Glims & Gloms' works create a dialogue not just between people, but between people, objects, images and/or lights. The works' makers share their desire to valorise not just the characters but also the objects and materials on stage.
The most recent Glims & Gloms premiere is a new interpretation of Yrjö Kokko's pacifist story Pessi and Illusia, which is important to Finns. The starting points for the interpretation are the ballet that Irja Koskinen choreographed in 1952 and Ahti Sonninen's ballet music. Tuomo Railo's choreography was premiered at the Helsinki Festival in August 2009.