Thar Be Dragons: Eternal Return

Welcome to enjoy dance safely!

JoJo’s autumn 2021 program consists of the OuDance Festival and performances of JoJo’s own productions

About the performance

Thar Be Dragons: Eternal Return

Performance schedule

Valvesali
Fri 5.11. at 19, premiere
Sat 6.11. at 19
Sun 7.11. at 16

Description of the performance

Eternal Return is a strange ride. Imagine being able to view your entire life from any vantage point. What if you could observe your older self through the eyes of your youth or watch yourself from the perspective of a houseplant in the dusty corner of your childhood living room? This performance dives into the topic of alternate perspectives of life from a place of humor and great seriousness. Set in an otherworldly waiting room, we watch as one deals with trials and tribulations of a predetermined experience. In this uncanny space, a story unfolds and refolds in on itself stumbling through an ineffable existence from multiple viewpoints.

Thar Be Dragons’ production, Eternal Return is a full-length evening work drawing inspiration from concepts of eternal recurrence, a concept that the universe and all existence and energy has been recurring, and will continue to recur, in a self-similar form an infinite number of times across infinite time or space. This philosophical science fiction focuses on bending the perception of time by warping everyday movement into extreme physical states to expose deeper layers of the psyche.

Direction: Annamari Keskinen | Performance: Ryan Mason, Annamari Keskinen, Meriheini Luoto | Music: Meriheini Luoto | Text: Ryan Mason, Annamari Keskinen | Sound design: Kaj Mäki-Ullakko | Light design: Jukka Huitila | Set design: Aino Koski | Photo: Hans Hannibal-Bach | Production: JoJo – Oulu Dance Centre, Thar Be Dragons | Supported by: Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Dance All Year Long, Shawbrook Dance, Tanssin talo | Duration: 1 hour | There are strong lights in the performance

Thar Be Dragons is a platform for theatrical dance research, education, and performance, created by Annamari Keskinen and Ryan Mason in 2018. Here, both choreographers bring their professional experience and individual artistic vision into collaboration. Their work explores notions of subconscious communication, revealing dense and sometimes unseen intimacy between the layers of our inner landscapes. Their staged work shifts between rapid changes of mood, sustained states of tension, and layered imagery, often encircling themes of death, the unknowable, the paradoxical, borders, silence, light, the mystical, and the quotidian. Thar Be Dragons presented their first full-length work, Dying Animals Don’t Feel Sorry For Themselves at the Kaiku Club in Helsinki in 2018. They have been commissioned to create work for the Staatstheater Kassel, Staatstheater Braunschweig, and Hubbard Street Pro. 

Meriheini Luoto is a Helsinki based composer and multi-instrumentalist focusing mainly on violin, nyckelharpa and vocals. Her compositions often have their basis in improvisation, timbre qualities, the experiential, and intuition. The possibilities offered by different architectural spaces inspire her to seek new and unusual ways of performing and experiencing music. With an adventurous mind and the knowledge of Scandinavian folk music tradition she creates soundscapes of something truly old and new at the same time.In 2017 Meriheini released her debut album Metsänpeitto (lit. covered by forest) which has been critically acclaimed and nominated for the Teosto Prize, which is one of the most noteworthy art prizes in the Nordic countries. Besides her solo career, she’s been working together with several groups and musicians including a Finnish electronic pop music pioneer Husky Rescue, an avant-garde folk music duo Akkajee and an contemporary folk music group Hohka, as well as collaborating with artists from other fields. In 2019 she’s been working together with the renowned choreographer and dance artist Valtteri Raekallio. Meriheini holds a M.Mus majoring in folk music from the prestigious Sibelius Academy. She’s been performing in Canada, USA, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and Finland among others.

Tickets

15 e / 12 e / 6 e (JoJo Members)

Kaikukortti: 4 tickets / performance on Sat 6.11. at 19 | Sun 7.11. at 16

From Ticket office at Cultural Centre Valve and from Ticketmaster

Duration: 1 hour

There are strong lights in the performance.

Kaikukortti logo

Other information

Please remember to follow the general safety and hygiene instructions for events:
– Don’t participate in events when having symptoms
– Keep safety distance
– Take care of hand hygiene; wash your hands or use hand sanitizer
– Cough on a handkerchief or sleeve
–Up-to-date instructions for using the mask can be found at ouka.fi/korona

You can find up-to-date information on the corona situation and the City of Oulu’s press releases on the City of Oulu’s Korona page at ouka.fi/korona.