Choreography Tero Saarinen

“Next of Kin”, a creation for six dancers and a musician, is a quest of the primitive. It questions our deepest fears, our childhood nightmares and our collective unconscious, filled with shadowy and ghoulish figures. In this choreography, Tero Saarinen drew his inspiration from a myriad of influences such as Butoh dance, German expressionist cinema, horror movies of the 1930s, the world of the writer Edgar Allan Poe and that of the painter Odilon Redon. In this work, he uses new technologies to make frightening dreams visible to us. A highly-physical dance appears suddenly out of this turmoil that harmonizes the sensitivity of thought and a particular elegance of “grotesque” movements.

Credits

Direction artistique et chorégraphie Tero Saarinen Musique Jarmo Saaric Danseurs Henrikki Heikkilä, Carl Knif, Saku Koistinen, Ninu Lindfors, Sini Länsivuori, Maria Nurmela - Musique interprétée par Jarmo Saari Solu Création lumières Mikki Kunttu Création costumes Erika Turunen Création sonore Heikki Iso-Ahola Création maquillage et perruques Pekka Helynen

Durée 65 min

Réalisation vidéo Charles Picq

Updating : June 2012

Dancer-choreographer Tero Saarinen began his career as a dancer at the Finnish National Ballet in 1985. His solo career took off in 1988, after he won first prize in contemporary section of the “Concours International de Danse de Paris”. Despite his success as a soloist, he left the Finnish National Ballet in 1992 to seek new influences in contemporary dance in Western Europe and Japan, where he studied traditional Japanese dance and Butoh from 1992 to 1993. He has worked with several internationally renowned choreographers and is still considered one of the world's most significant dancers of his generation.

Saarinen has made more than 30 creations during his career. He founded his own group in 1996 as a canvas for his choreographic work. Apart from his work for Tero Saarinen Company and teaching his movement technique, his handiwork can also be seen in the premieres  commissioned by several other prominent dance groups.

As a choreographer Saarinen is known for his unique movement language that plays with balance, and off-balance. Influences ranging from Butoh and martial arts to classical ballet and Western contemporay dance can be seen in his style. His works, which have won wide international acclaim, are characteristically total artworks : combinations of unique choreography, strong performers, striking visu    als, and often, live music.

Source : Tero Saarinen Company 's website

More information

terosaarinen.com