Carl Knif Company

Fugue in two colours (2020)

In the pie­ce Fu­gue in two co­lors Knif re­turns to exp­lo­re the exp­res­si­ve po­wer of mo­ve­ment. The pie­ce it­self is a stu­dy of the an­cient re­la­tions­hip bet­ween mu­sic and dan­ce. In the pie­ce the st­rict mu­si­cal form of Dmit­ri Šos­ta­ko­vitš’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. It is per­for­med by a cast of se­ven con­sis­ting of dan­cers from both Hel­sin­ki Dan­ce Com­pa­ny and Carl Knif Com­pa­ny. The pie­ce fo­cu­ses on the dan­cer as a per­cei­ving and sen­sing being. The re­la­tions­hip bet­ween the pre­lu­de and fu­gue, two en­ti­ties, re­la­ted but 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, the­re­fo­re 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?

Creative team:

Cho­reog­rap­hy: Carl Knif
Dan­ce: Jon­na Aal­to­nen, Jyr­ki Kas­per, Pek­ka Lou­hio, Hei­di Naak­ka, Mik­ko Pa­lo­nie­mi, Anna Stenberg, 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
Pre­mie­re: 12.10.2020 at stu­dio Pa­si­la
Du­ra­tion: 60 min
Webpage: https://www.carlknifcompany.com/fi/

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Carl Knif Company has ri­sen to the fo­ref­ront of Fin­nish dan­ce with blend of high­ly re­cog­ni­zab­le nar­ra­ti­ves and vir­tuo­so dan­cing since the start of the company in 2012. The the­mes of the pie­ces are frank, per­so­nal and fear­less­ly ba­re and yet mer­ci­ful­ly poe­ti­cal. The st­raight­for­ward na­tu­re of the work, which ari­ses from a pro­found ar­tis­tic sen­si­ti­vi­ty and a st­ri­king­ly well con­cei­ved vi­sua­li­ty, ma­kes the pie­ces me­mo­rab­le.

La­te­ly Knif has broa­de­ned his work to the field of theat­re. His adap­ta­tion of Kaf­ka’s Me­ta­morp­ho­sis has pla­yed for sold out au­dien­ces du­ring mul­tip­le sea­sons. The pro­duc­tion has tou­red both na­tio­nal­ly and in­ter­na­tio­nal­ly.