In Fugue in Two Colors, a study of the ancient relationship between music and dance, Carl Knif returns to explore the expressive power of movement. In the piece, the strict musical form of Dmitri Shostakovich’s preludes and fugues is juxtaposed with the rambling movement of the dancers.
The piece is based on choreographic scores created with Knif’s methods of improvisation, focusing on the dancer as a perceiving and sensing being. The relationship between the prelude and fugue, two entities, related yet different, is a basic characteristic of the choreography. On the other hand, the audiovisuality of the piece deliberately breaks the form of the music, a form that Šostakovitš has borrowed from Bach, thereby creating a third generation adaptation of the traditional form.
Fugue in Two Colors is a study of the enigmatic nature of the concept of performance and performing. The different sections of the venue (the house, the set and the side of the stage) are all spaces of the piece, at the same time they are places shaped by the conventions and traditions of the performing arts. The spaces themselves depict our role in interacting with the performance at hand. Can the performance itself deal with these roles and can dance express our experiences of the different spaces. What do we wish from a performance? What do we need it for? What we experience in Fugue in Two Colors is a performance within a performance and the relationship between these two entities. We trace the journey of the work out of its own context towards the viewer. Does a piece really matter? Can it change something in reality?
Carl Knif tells more about the piece here
Duration: 60 min
Premiere: 12.10.2020, Studio Pasila
Working group
Choreography: Carl Knif
Dance: Jonna Aaltonen, Jyrki Kasper, Pekka Louhio, Heidi Naakka, Mikko Paloniemi, Anna Stenberg/Terhi Vaimala, Eero Vesterinen
Set and light design: William Iles
Sound design: Janne Hast
Costume design: Karoliina Koiso-Kanttila
Photos: Yoshi Omori
Image processing: Marko Mäkinen
Co-production: Carl Knif Company & Helsinki City Theatre
“A seven-member dance group assembled of Carl Knif’s own dancers and dancers from the Helsinki City Theater is doing a really good job. The short solos and duettos as well as the various strange encounters are the highlights of the evening. Chilling black, shadowy characters also appear to control the situations seen on stage.”
Jukka O. Miettinen, HS 13.10.2020
“The co-production by Carl Knif Company and Helsinki Dance Company is internally flawless and completely controlled in terms of its atmosphere, movement and structure. Enigmatic but logical in its own world, Fugue in Two Colors is a rare combination of extreme coolness and total wildness. It constantly surprises the viewer, but when it’s over, nothing could have been in any other way. ”
Henna Raatikainen, Liikekieli.com 1.11.2020
“Carl Knif was, in part, inspired by the strict musical structure of Shostakovich’s Preludes And Fugues, seeking to juxtapose them with something more random. The two forms work well together, and in amongst the many moments of curious surreality, there is also tenderness and beauty to be found.”
Kelly Apter, edinburghfestival.list.co.uk 25.8.2021
Gallery
