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Liisa Pent­ti +Co:
Spaceparticles #23

Fri 17.3.2023 at 19.00
Sat 18.3.2023 at 15.00

Duration ca. 1 hour

Cirko – Center for New Circus, Maneesi
Kaasutehtaankatu 1, Helsinki 


Tickets 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 eur
Comboticket for Spaceparticles #23 + WE 18 eur  


Book tickets online via Fienta

Wheelchair user space bookings to performances via email: info@liisapentti.com.
Free entry for personal assistants and interpreters.
The venue is accessible with an elevator.

Venue box office will open 1 hour prior to the performances if tickets available.



Spaceparticles # 23, a concert for five dancers and space particles


 
Spaceparticles #23 is the next chapter in choreographer Liisa Pentti’s series Spaceparticles. It is based on the musical work In C (1964) by composer Terry Riley. The working group challenges the concept of choreography by creating a living, spatial-kinesthetic experience out of the parallel worlds of dance and music. Music and the concepts of time and duration form the framework for the bodily journey of the dancers, creating a choreography of self-directed simplicity. The dancers play their bodies and add new frequencies to the music. Each dancer is an instrument that actualises Riley's composition in their own individual way.

The first part of the series was performed at Liisa Pentti +Co's studio in Helsinki in June 2012. The next part was seen in May 2013 at Galleria Augusta on Helsinki’s Suomenlinna island, and the third part at Media Centre Lume in October 2013––which was also the dance company’s first collaboration with Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy's contemporary music group, the NYKY Ensemble.

Terry Riley is one of the founders of minimalism in music. The form of his pioneering composition In C had a significant impact on the development of music throughout the 20th century, and most notably on the compositional work of Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and John Adams. In C consists of 53 musical phrases, which each musician repeats as many times as they want before moving on to the next one. The result is a rich and complex, static, but at the same time ever-changing rhythmic and harmonic pattern.

The duration of In C has not been defined, but over the years it has varied from fifteen minutes to an hour and a half. The number of musicians performing it has also varied: on the original 1960s recording, 11 musicians play the composition, but in 2006, the piece was performed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with no less than 124 musicians. Spaceparticles #23 uses the version of the composition recorded in 2002, performed by European Music Project with the electro duo zignorii++.

Working with Terry Riley's composition 'In C' (1964) opened up a new perspective on choreography and dance for me. Dancing is still at the heart of the piece, with the music and the conceptual mind staying in the moment, so that the dancing body has space to "play" the music. There is an element
of metamorphosis in Riley's composition and the repetitiveness of the dancers' movements that challenges the narrative understanding of the dance. The dance concert finds its shape from the merging of bodily states, rhythms, and space created by the dancers with Riley's music, bringing out the suggestive brightness of the composition.

Now, 11 years later, the work is performed at the Maneesi space of Helsinki’s Cirko Center for New Circus with almost the same cast as in 2013. The timeless world of the work creates a kinesthetic and hypnotic space that each viewer can fall into in their own way. The movement-based empathy that unfolds in the work together with the music creates mental images and gives space to the audience member to experience the work in their own way. Throughout the unstoppable journey taken by the suggestive music and the dancers, each moment counts––and nothing is left unrevealed on the way to the light.

Furthermore, the bodies and the bodily memories of the dancers formed in
the past ten years create new layers and frequencies in the piece. Spaceparticles #23 is still the same, yet different.
Liisa Pentti, choreographer



Credits


Concept and direction
 Liisa Pentti

Choreography
 Working group

Dance
Kimmo Alakunnas, Rea-Liina Brunou, Johanna Ikola, Leila Kourkia, Sara Soulié

Music
 Terry Riley, “In C”
Performed by European Music Project with electro duo zignorii++
Lighting design
Meri Ekola

Sound design
Jouni Tauriainen

Producer
Hanna Nyman

Production
Liisa Pentti +Co

Photos: Spaceparticles #10 / Esko Koivisto