Loopit is choreographer Tero Saarinen’s 20th anniversary gift to Dance Theatre MD. Marking a departure from Saarinen’s recent, large-scale works, Loopit is an intimate and experimental limited-audience piece that examines the relationship between a dance performer and an audience while exploring the performance space itself.
Drawing inspiration from the 1947 literary classic Exercises in Style by French author Raymond Queneau, Loopit focuses on the unfinished, repetitive and topsy-turvy nature of the human condition. Tero Saarinen turns Exercises in Style into a looped choreography set to the tune of songs of The Tiger Lillies.
Choreography Tero Saarinen
Dance Suvi Eloranta, Elina Jakowleva, Anniina Kumpuniemi, Ville Oinonen, Samuli Roininen and Mari Rosendahl
Choreographer’s assistants Sini Länsivuori and Henrikki Heikkilä
Light and set design Ville Konttinen
Set construction design Teemu Kiiskilä
Light technician Sari Mayer
Costume design Erika Turunen
Costume realization Osk Työhuone Hengari
Sound design Tero Saarinen and Henri Puolitaival
Photos Harri Hinkka
Music The Tiger Lillies
Music written and composed by Martyn Jaques, © and(p) Misery Guts, London – First performed at Repbublique Theatre
Quotations from William Shakespeare’s As You Like, Macbeth, The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest and Hamlet
History behind the collaboration
Dance Theatre Dansco, MD’s predecessor, was the first company to commission a full evening creation from the then up-and-coming young choreographer Tero Saarinen. The result, Charm 1 (1993), also marked the beginning of Saarinen’s collaboration with lighting designer Mikki Kunttu.
In 1997, the year when the dance theatres Mobita and Dansco merged to form Dance Theatre MD, Charm 1 was performed to celebrate Mobita’s 25th anniversary. The performance was taped for television by the Finnish Broadcasting Company.
Loopit marks the 20th anniversary of Dance Theatre MD.
ACCESSIBILITY
Please notice that the audience will be seated on separate stools without back rests and the stand is not accessible.
Accessible seats are situated on different side, thus the viewing point differs from the main seating.
For more information and to book accessible seat please contact Dance Theatre MD.
Contact: liput@tanssiteatterimd.fi / p. +358 (0) 50 556 6025.
Escorts for physically challenged have free entrance.
Tero Saarinen
Choreographer Saarinen’s works have captivated audiences and critics in nearly 40 countries. His rich choreographic style is characterized by multidimensional artistry – expressive dancers, live music, and striking visuals. His distinctive movement language has been described as “organic”, an ”inventive mixture of grotesqueness and beauty” and “like butoh with wings”.
Tero Saarinen Company
Tero Saarinen Company was founded by dancer-choreographer Tero Saarinen in 1996. The primary aim of the company is to promote a humane worldview and basic human values through the language of dance, while also increasing people’s understanding of their own physicality and its significance for a good life. Its operating principles – Attentive, Aware, Alert, Alive – apply not only to artistic work, but all of the organisation’s activities.
Tero Saarinen Company employs a network of up to 80 professionals each year, ten of whom work on monthly salaries. The group is the resident company of the Alexander Theatre in Helsinki. Its operations are supported by Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture and The City of Helsinki.
Dance Theatre MD
Dance Theatre MD, the only professional dance theatre in Tampere and the Pirkanmaa region, was formed in 1997, as two Tampere-based dance companies, Mobita (1972) and Dansco (1988), were joined together.
Dance Theatre MD has become known for its high-class choreography and versatile performers. The broad repertoire features shows from classic fairy tales for children to contemporary dance pieces for adults.
Funded by the Finnish government and the city of Tampere, MD has a permanent staff of ten people. MD’s artistic direction is in the hands of the theatre’s permanent dance artists Suvi Eloranta, Elina Jakowleva, Anniina Kumpuniemi, Ville Oinonen, Samuli Roininen and Mari Rosendahl.
Dance Theatre MD celebrates the 20th jubileum in 2017.
Ticket sales
+358 (0) 50 556 6025
liput @ tanssiteatterimd.fi
