Dance and music collide in collaboration between HPO and Raekallio Corp.

This year’s three-week collaboration between the musicians from the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Raekallio Corp. dance company culminates on Friday 12 April at 7pm with their performance of "Shadows, Echoes" at KokoTeatteri. During the collaboration, seven musicians and four dancers will be able to share their skills and develop joint listening and bodily observation.

“Our performance Shadows, Echoes makes visible and audible the thoughts, experiences and inner worlds that our collaboration brings out,” says director-choreographer Valtteri Raekallio, who is heading the project.

Over the coming three weeks, the dancers and musicians will get to play, move and talk with each other. Through joint movement and various observation, association and improvisation exercises, they will be seeking tools for “bodily tuning” with people in the same space. The goal of the project is to strive for dialogue, togetherness and participation.

As the basis of their performance, the dancers have practiced short dance fragments, while the musicians have rehearsed music pieces.

“These form a light ‘skeleton’ around which the performance will be built,” Raekallio describes.

“I am very excited about this collaboration opportunity! I believe that together we will create interesting ideas, cross-exposures between the arts, and new tools that will expand our understanding of our own work.”

The participating musicians from the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra are Teija Kivinen, violin, Satu Savioja, violin, Atte Kilpeläinen, viola, Ulla Knuuttila, viola, Lotta Poijärvi-Suomalainen, viola, Mariette Reefman, viola and Tuomo Matero, double bass. 

The participating dancers from Raekallio Corp. are Annamari Keskinen, Natasha Lommi, Elke Schroeder and Eero Vesterinen. The lighting design for Shadows, Echoes is by Jukka Huitila.

Shadows, Echoes will be performed on Friday 12 April at 7pm at KokoTeatteri (Hämeentie, 3, 00530 Helsinki). Tickets 10 € here. After the performance, audience members are welcome to meet members of the working group and discuss collaboration between the arts.