Streamline Training & Documentation: Inspired by the Shakers

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Inspired by the Shakers

Tero Saarinen is a well-regarded choreographer from Finland whose company is appearing this week at Jacob's Pillow, a dance venue of international importance conveniently located only 35 miles from where I live.

Several years ago, Saarinen became fascinated by the Shakers, a religious community whose philosophy I discussed briefly in an earlier post. When he stumbled on a CD of Shaker music put out by the Boston Camerata, he got in touch by e-mail with Joel Cohen, the Camerata's music director, and inquired about the possibility of some kind of collaboration.

The result was this week's US premiere of "Borrowed Light,"¹ a 70-minute piece that combines contemporary choreography for eight dancers (including Saarinen) with a capella performance of 20 Shaker tunes by seven members of the Boston Camerata. The spirit of community expressed in the choreography (which does not in any literal way attempt to reproduce the dancing Shakers used in their rituals) makes for an inspiring evening.

*****
Tero Saarinen's program note for "Borrowed Light": My main source of inspiration for Borrowed Light has been the Shakers — a sect of utopian Christians with strong social values and strikingly beautiful, functionalistic aesthetics. However, this piece is not about Shakerism. It is about community and devotion. To me the nature of total commitment — whether religious, artistic, or politcal — is fundamentally the same."

Tero Saarinen's statement of artistic purpose: "Dance is my attempt to understand human nature and its manifold manifestations — friendship, love, strength of spirit. Even though I believe in constant change and evolution, at the same time, I feel deep respect for tradition and the past: we can't avoid carrying our ancestors' heritage in our minds and in our bodies. / With my dance I want to reach the unsaid, the inexplicable, the unnamed. I believe in dance that touches, in dance that speaks for itself." [from the English version of the "Borrowed Light" brochure]
__________
¹ The world premiere of "Borrowed Light" took place in Le Havre, France, on October 8, 2004.

A US National Park Service web page devoted to the Shakers explains the notion of "borrowed light": "The interior space of Shaker meetinghouses had to include large, uninterrupted floor space to allow for their religious dances ... These large dwellings also necessitated the introduction of interior windows to bring natural light into dark interior rooms." I.e., the interior rooms "borrow" light from adjoining rooms that receive natural light from the outside.

###

Labels: Notables

<< Home