Anna Torkkel & working group: Ray of light
And I feel quicker than a ray of light
Then gone...
Madonna, Ray of Light (1998)
Ray of light is a solo dance performance by Anna Torkkel and the working group, which plays with wavering, fading out, and fantasy. The performance 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 Villa Nuottaranta’s garden in Turku in May 2021.
Choreography, dance, and convener: Anna Torkkel
Costume design: Piia Rinne
Lighting and projection design: Kristian Palmu
Scenography: Kristian Palmu and Piia Rinne
Live mixing of the sound and singing: Johanna Porola
Sound design: Johanna Porola and Biitsi (Heidi Wennerstrand and Kaino Wennerstrand)
Artistic dialogue and co-dancing: Mira Kautto
Residencies: Cité international des arts (Paris), Ehkä-production/Contemporary Art Space Kutomo (Turku)
Production: Ehkä-production, Anna Torkkel
Supported by: The Arts Promotion Centre Finland, The Finnish Cultural Foundation, Regional Dance Centre of Western Finland
Duration: approx. 50 min
Photography: Katri Naukkarinen
Premiere: Thursday 23 February 2023 at 7 pm at Contemporary Art Space Kutomo, Turku
