Finnish dance duo discovers the human complexity of simplicity in The Days
Maria Nurmela and Ville Oinonen got their wish for a more intimate piece that works as a metaphor for a life lived
Ville Oinonen and Maria Nurmela in The Days. Photo by Karoliina Korvuo
BC Movement Arts Society presents The Days on June 17 and 18 at 7.30 pm at the Finnish Organizational Hall in Sointula; on June 19 at 7.30 pm at the Port McNeill Lions Hall; and June 21 at 7 pm at 'Namgis Lawrence Ambers Memorial Recreation Centre in Alert Bay; it copresents with the Dance Centre on June 24 and 25 at 8 pm at the Scotiabank Dance Centre
FOR DECADES, Finnish dancers Maria Nurmela and Ville Oinonen had performed amid the rigorous world of professional companies—her for Tero Saarinen's Company TSC, the freelance Oinonen for the same troupe, as well as Dance Theatre MD and Sweden’s Art of Spectra. But when the pair met to perform a piece in Sweden a few years ago, they formed an instant connection and found they had some things in common: both came from places outside Finland’s capital city—Nurmela from seaside Turku, Oinonen from Tampere—and both yearned for something radically different and more intimate than the larger virtuosic spectacles they were used to.
Together, they approached British dance-theatre innovator Theo Clinkard in 2017 to make just such a work. The result is the quietly affecting The Days—a small-scale, lovingly crafted piece based around two simple humans performing a movingly intimate choreographic “task”. (It involves holding, embracing, and supporting each other; see the video snippet below for an idea of its quiet humanity.)
Sponsored by the new Nordic Bridges program, it visits BC Movement Arts Society’s circuit on BC’s North Island before heading to Vancouver’s Scotiabank Dance Centre next week.
“In choreography, you can always try to make the steps ‘better’, at least as we learn it classically,” the upbeat Oinonen says on a Zoom call with his affable dance partner; she’s already in Vancouver before heading to the North Island and he’s beaming in from Tampere before heading to BC. “But in this performance that doesn't matter. It’s just about the presence and quality of whatever happens–it’s a dropping away. The more lifelike and the less polished, the better it is. What awakens our presence is this thin ice we are on. You have to trust and listen to other’s choices.”
Amid the piece’s most unexpected elements is the integration of an elderly couple selected from each community where the pair performs The Days. Appearing in juxtaposition with the younger couple, their presence prompts a possible reading that we are seeing the same couple many decades later in their relationship, still negotiating the same task.
“It’s kind of a metaphor for a lifetime,” Nurmela explains. “We get to meet such lovely people; we dance and we share our own lives with each other.”
“They bring the beauty of a lived life—and it is incredibly beautiful,” Oinonen adds. “They just do the task as we do the task. And every time we do it our jaw drops.”
Nurmela and Oinonen host workshops in preparation before each show in every community they perform in around Finland and the world—as intended, often in spots, like the ones where they grew up, that have little exposure to contemporary dance. By integrating performers over the age of 65, they also seek to emphasize that contemporary dance belongs to every body and every age.
Don’t let the modest scale of The Days, or its community-participation aspect, give you the wrong idea, however: what sets the work apart is that Oinonen and Nurmela, and an impressive artistic team that includes soundscore composer James Keane and lighting designer Kalle Ropponen, bring such vast experience and nuance to the piece.
Explains Oinonen: “The goal was that there are no compromises with the artistic values: let’s make an international collaboration and make it high quality and then take it to small places. It’s a very intricate kind of piece that doesn’t need all the huff-and-puff around it.”
And don’t assume it’s easy, either. “We are always talking about it: ‘My gosh, how difficult it is in its simplicity!’” Oinonen says.
“Theo gave us a big act of trust,” Nurmela reflects. “He did not give us steps to practice–the choreography is not set moments that we rehearse and rehearse. We basically choreograph it every time we perform.”
Related Articles
