PAULA TUOVINEN: BLONDE & THE LAND OF FARAVID Oct 25, 8pm Oct 26, 8pm Zodiak - centre for new dance The Cable Factory Blondi Choreography and dance: Paula Tuovinen Music: Lotta Wennäkoski The festival kicks off with a double bill of Paula Tuovinen's works in which naked sexual heat freezes in the woolly hat and puffy jacket clad northern cold. Paula Tuovinen's solo choreography Blonde and Land of Faravid, her work for a group, have represented Helsinki on the Trans Dance Europe 2000 Festival which has toured the European Cities of Culture. The solo dance Blonde was premiered in the Kiasma Theatre in January 2000. In the work, Paula Tuovinen attempts to peel away the genetic, historical and cultural layers covering the idea of blondness using semi-scientific and self-ironic means, as well as actual self-exposure. Is the blonde a part of nature or culture? Did the blonde evolve from a monkey, via black into an exotic blond? Why has blondness become a culturally desirable feature? It has equalled power and wealth and been an instrument of the war between sexes. The blonde of the jokes is characterised by dumbness, sexual promiscuity without pleasure to herself, fragmentedness, artificiality and urbanness. Is the wild and dangerous city blonde about to return to the woods? Paula Tuovinen has performed Blonde in Avignon, Bergen and Brussels. Land of Faravid Choreography: Paula Tuovinen Dancers: Timo Loponen, Mikko Orpana, Riikka Korppi-Tommola, Riikka Räsänen, Kirsi Saastamoinen, Sami Vartiainen Music: Jukka Koskinen Land of Faravid was premiered in the Zodiak theatre in February 1998. Later that year the performance was awarded first prize at the national Bagnolet choreography competition in Finland. In Land of Faravid, Tuovinen explores her northern background, life in the Northern Finnish city of Oulu in the 1980s, before the current boom of technology. It is not only an autobiographical work but also an anthropological study of the mental climate prevailing in Oulu. In it we can see reflections of the freezing chill of winter, and the silent, laconic people with a peculiar sort of madness and a sense of humour of their own. The work is a blend of movement, rhythm and performative elements. It is not based on polished stylisation; rather, it is composed of fragments of the choreographer's and the dancers' motional memory. Choreographically, the work sets out to study the virtuosity of unvirtuosity, rhythm and duration. Inspired by Oulu and its people, Land of Faravid creates a cartoonish reality of its own. This year it has toured in Avignon, Bergen, Prague, Bologna and Brussels. Paula Tuovinen has worked in the field of dance as a dancer, instructor and choreographer since 1982. Her chief activities have been to take part as a freelance dancer in the works of various choreographers and to perform her own solo works. Tuovinen's work as a choreographer is characterised by irony and humour. <<<