Next Generation Festival: Finnish National Ballet Youth Company

Linbury Theatre, The Royal Opera House, London
July 7 & 8, 2023

The Youth Company of the Finnish National Ballet opened the Next Generation Festival bringing not only young dancers but young ideas. We see young dancers testing their technical skills, testing the waters in emotional encounters while not forgetting the very real fears and anxieties that beset young adulthood. I attended both performances, both pretty equal in technical delivery but the second was definitely warmer as the tension of performing at the Royal Opera House diminished. It was a joy to watch them.

Fragment by Emrecan Taniş is a poignant sharing of the choreographer’s struggle with anxiety attacks. It’s a study in extremes for the young man, David Rathbun, and an almost faceless tormenter Viivi Ketolainen. She stands apart, head thrown right back, every muscle tense and beats her breast before attaching herself like a leech to the back of the nervous man.

The sweet strains of Debussy’s Claire de Lune contrast with her hands clawing his body and seeming to infect his very soul. The movement is fast and furious, cleverly devised with rapid response in a frightening interpretation of the power of the anxiety attack that leaves the man gutted. It was a riveting performance by the couple, their emotions spilling over into the auditorium.

Finnish National Ballet Youth Company (Shizuku Ogawa, left) in Over Glow
Photo Roosa Oksaharju

Jorma Elo’s Over Glow is in part an exuberant expression of his love of the music of Mendelssohn and Beethoven and in part a serious reflection on departing from and renewing life. There is a chance for the men, Clark Eselgroth, Luciano Ghidoli and Flavio Paciscopi, to display their virtuosic talents, leaping and flying across the stage, bare chested and virile.

However, the women, Shizuku Ogawa, Nancy Hedberg and Anni Martinsé, get their opportunities, proving to be well up to professional standards. The pas de deux are not only unusual in conception but also have context: a look brings a response, a touch an answer. They are relationships, wonderfully alive and human.

Ogawa interprets the cycle of life and death, caught in her partner’s arms, she continues to run, frantically, her legs cycling in the air. Eventually her limp body lies on stage only later coming alive to a burst of Mendelssohn matched by a brilliant dance. It’s a chance for the company to indulge in Elo’s witty choreography, the classicism punctuated with cheeky exclamations. The work made a first-rate introduction to the young company, showing the strength of their technical training delivered with confidence and charm.

Finnish National Ballet Youth Company
in A Collection of Connections by Kristian Lever
Photo Roosa Oksaharju

A Collection of Connections by Kristian Lever continues the theme of dancers as people, with a stronger narrative and in a contemporary dance style. The movement, notably in the ensemble sections is rhythmic and expansive, an exciting use of the whole body in fluid structure as dancers join and realign.

The duets follow a range of emotions, sometimes accusatory and angry, at other times inquisitive or merely friendly. The different needs bring innovation both in the choreography and the lighting, by Nino Salsinha. A final casual encounter of concern between Ketolainen and Rathbun becomes an almost romance as the lights fade. It was a piece that left you wanting more.