Anna Torkkel and working group: Ray of light

Ray of light is a mirage where something begins and ends and begins again transformed. It exists for a moment just to disappear. The dance is framed by metamorphosis and vanishing, breaking away and circulating. In Ray of light a body of work ends when, after several group pieces, Anna Torkkel dances to the music according to her practice in a solo performance. The working group examines the tentative illogicality, experimentation, and amorphous nature of dancing to extend the same logic to encompass all the aspects of the performance. The makers are staying open to an outcome, which might not be structured and set, but as sparse and erratic as life.

For approximately an hour, dancing merges with the haptic and entrancing aesthetic, as well as with music made from found and self-made soundscapes. The dancing happens within poetic light and video design by Kristian Palmu and scenography by Palmu and Piia Rinne. The sensory and unconventional costume by Rinne creates an unnamed character, which forms from the essence of what dancing feels like. Biitsi, a collaboration between Heidi Wennerstrand and Kaino Wennerstrand together with Johanna Porola supports the emergence of dancing with a non-conforming sound design, made to entwine with the dance.

A work-in-progress performance of Ray of light was seen as part of the site-specific group exhibition AVANTGARDEN initiated by Hertta Kiiski in Nuottaranta’s garden in Turku in May 2021. The piece is co-produced by Ehkä-production and premieres at Contemporary Art Space Kutomo in Turku in February.

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