WIND VIGIL

WIND VIGIL

Wind Vigil is a journey into the hydrosphere, embodying transformations of water. Movements may meander, as silent as snowfall or roar and flow before settling in the secretly still clarity of a snow crystal.

(About the title) The Swedish title for Wind Vigil, “Vindvaka”, means watching out for the power of the wind. “Vindvak” is the winding movements of water in a hole in the ice, literally “woken water”, while the Sami word “suddi” also means fontanelle. But choreography is not only true to its title; it also leaps free, out into a spiritual space beyond words.

Virpi Pahkinen first met composer and multi-instrumentalist Roger Ludvigsen when she was working on the Tibetan-Sami musical Ayra-Leena for the Sami National Theatre Beaivváš in Kautokeino in Norway in 2001. That same year she commissioned him to write music for a solo, Prayer for one whose trembling hands are still.

In Wind Vigil we hear a broad spectrum of Roger’s original sound works, from music meditations gliding over the open landscape to shamanistic driving five-beat rhythms.

REVIEW

“The dance work “Vindvaka” by Virpi Pahkinen is about water and the different forms it takes. A powerful artistic experience and an intuitive chemistry lesson combined, according to our reviewer.”

“The dancers act as H2O molecules that form falling raindrops, a rushing spring flood, and a fire or a sun that warms the water turning it to steam. “Vindvaka” simply embodies a magical cycle that exists within us and around us, while we are oblivious to how it works. “

“The music transcends genre – traditional and ritual trance, electronic ambient with organic elements. In a highly charged sequence, Virpi Pahkinen sings live in a duet with an invisible joiking voice – possibly the most soulful thing I have ever heard. “

“It is all beautiful and extremely therapeutic. A purifying bath for the mind easy to take on board even for someone who isn’t a hard-core dance fan.”

Eskilstunakuriren Carina Nitz

“Enchanted frost flowers. Virpi Pahkinen’s “Vindvaka” is a swirling study in ice.”

“There are several beautiful solos, and a typical physically humorous synchronised sequence in which the palms and the soles of the feet of all the dancers form perplexing sculptures. The strongest impression is made by a group on stage where the dancers are intertwines with projected art works by Kristin Tårnesvik.”

“Her undulating figures, line-drawn in patterns similar to guilloché, grow across their bodies like enchanted frost flowers.”

“And I know that this is not the first time that Virpi Pahkinen herself has sung in a work but having never heard her before, I was astonished. Wordless song, like the rare note of a flute or birdsong rising over the landscape.”

Dagens Nyheter Maina Arvas

PHOTOGRAPHERS: Mattias Lindbäck, Jukka Rintamäki