Interview with Anna Torkkel
Mad House: What does dance mean to you personally and in relation to the world? You have worked for years in intertwining dance and music. Can you tell about your practice?
Anna Torkkel:
The immediate, grounding effect of dancing brings comfort and helps in dealing with even difficult contents. Personally, I think that dance is a unique way to relate to fundamental aspects that cannot be controlled or escaped, such as death, grief, transience, love, happiness, or a major global phenomenon causing great distress. It is also comforting to think that when I dance, I join the timeless continuum of dancing bodies, and that dance is something that unites us, it is within all of us. Dance creates meaning and significance; it is a wonderful enjoyable play.
My choreographic work draws from dancing to music and examining the happening of dance. I work with compositional processes emerging in the present moment. Since the solo piece Heart piece (2012), I have developed and articulated a choreographic practice that supports the dancer's surrender to music and relinquishing the valuation of the self and movement influenced by music. The movement that arises through the practice is individual and depends on the dancer's background. By immersing in music, we find a dance to which the dancer has a precise, personal relationship. The task also enables the discovery of the body's latent potential and the emergence of unknown dance for the dancer. I guide the dancer to focus in dancing through trust and love, so that the dance that evolves from the task is like a desire to be in touch with the gift of existence. I believe that the way of presence proposed by my practice and its intensity is an opportunity to delve into existence and find joy in the present moment. By relinquishing the analysis of movement, the dancer creates a so-called emptiness that opens up space in the body for happening of dance, the miracle of dance. In practice, the dances do not arise from reasoning, the subjective choices of the performers, or the pursuit of excellence; rather, they emerge from allowing oneself to remain sensitive and letting go.
Mad House: Ray of Light is a collaborative and polyphonic work by the creative team. Could you tell us a bit about the process?
Anna Torkkel:
The process of Ray of light has been multi-phased and inspiring. Part of the team and I worked on the piece in the spring of 2021, creating the first version for the site-specific AVANTGARDEN exhibition in the garden of Villa Nuottaranta in Turku's Satava district. The stage production premiered at Ehkä-production's Contemporary Art Space Kutomo in February 2023. Throughout the process, we contemplated transformation in different elements and interconnections between components. In this piece, I also wanted to shake up my choreographic practice a bit. Key questions during the work included themes of presence and absence and their potential simultaneity in the performance's time. We aimed for a result where different shades and moods of light and darkness could coexist. It's great that the process now continues at Mad House.
As the convener and choreographer, it's important to me that all members of the team feel genuinely involved in the process. My way of working relies on dialogue, and I expect the working environment to be sensitive, sustainable, and equitable. While working on Ray of light, I felt that we created a new kind of dialogue between different elements, which I want to further develop in my future works. The piece also reflects traces of long-term collective work and continuity over a longer period. I have worked with Mira Kauto, Kristian Palmu, Johanna Porola and Piia Rinne in several different productions before. It feels meaningful and valuable to be able to continue our collaborative work and deepen our collegial relationship.
