Dancing Diamonds: Encounters
Premiere at the Kokkola Winter Dance Festival, November 18, 2023
In Encounters, as the title suggests, a variety of bodily encounters are experienced, each feeling different from the other. Playful, touching, and adventurous interactions occasionally extend from the performers’ exchanges to include the audience as well. Visual and auditory elements mix energetically with the human bodies on stage.
The choreographic thinking behind the piece is based on the respect for the relativity of life and existence. Everything in the manifest world is intertwined, affected by one another, supported by one another, coexisting, and in relationships with each other.
The performance has been created with the idea of mentorship in mind: What can we learn from each other, and how do we learn together? The choreographic tasks that form the foundation of the performance were born through listening to the interests of all involved and through shared rehearsals. Our working methods cultivate the parallel existence of various possibilities for action, ways of interaction, and interpretations. We have aimed to find numerous ways to communicate, ensuring that each group member is heard and that we understand one another.
Encounters is the second collective work by the Dancing Diamonds group. Their first work, Quartetto (2019), was performed at the Tampere Theatre Festival in 2021, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022, and at Zodiak – Center for New Dance in Helsinki in 2021.
Dancing Diamonds is a dynamic, emotionally expressive dance group that learns to dance the vibrations of different emotions, the trust of the body, and awakens feelings in people. "They grow like the world of dream fulfillments," describes dancer Jarmo Patana.
In Encounters, in addition to the group's dancers Maria Lahti, Jarmo Patana, and Sanna Tornikoski, dancers and artists Riina Kalmi and Anders Lillhonga also perform. The choreographic structure and production are by Kati Raatikainen, the dance tasks and material are by the dancers and Raatikainen, sound design by Markku Essel, and visual design by Minttu Nikula.
The production is supported by the Alfred Kordelin Foundation, the Antti Wihuri Foundation, the Central Ostrobothnia Fund, the Arts Promotion Centre Finland, and the Ostrobothnia Dance Region Centre.
Photos: Ulla Nisonen