Reykjavík Grapevine - mar. 2020, Side 26

Satisfy Your Lust
For Life
Elina Pirinen’s ‘Rhythm Of Poison’ will
reawaken your primal libido
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen Photos: Art Bicnick
Info
'Rhythm Of Poison' will play on
March 7th and 15th at 20:00 at
Borgarleikhúsi#.
Tickets are 4,900 ISK.
Chimes jingle. A dancer flexes his
foot, clutching desperately onto a
red scarf. In your lap lands another
dancer’s head. She twitches and
pets your hair. On the other side
of the floor—there is no stage—
guttural growls emerge from a
singer’s snarling mouth as a dog
scurries around her feet. The smell
of garlic overwhelms your senses,
no doubt due to the cloves currently
being stuffed into the mouth of a
dancer in the centre. It’s a chaotic
smörgåsbord of images—in every
direction a new spectacle—and at
many times, you don’t even know
where to look.
This is no fever dream or bad
trip; it’s the eclectic, sensual, pri-
mal work of Finnish choreographer
Elina Pirinen’s new show with the
Iceland Dance Company, ‘Rhythm
Of Poison.’
Sensual transgression
“The essentials of the work are
based on my own personal experi-
ence dealing with the artistic body,
but also related to the feministic
body and the deeply shared one,”
Elina explains. “Our bodies are
charged with many fantasmatic
and peculiar processes and [the
dancers and I] practise many weeks
to make and enjoy the connections
between those affectionate pro-
cesses and the anatomy itself—the
vulvic area, eyeballs, hair, tongue,
saliva, teeth and nails.”
The movement of the show is
subsequently heavily based around
these areas, in fact, intensely so. In
truth, while watching ‘Rhythm Of
Poison,’ the viewer often gets the
feeling that they’re in the midst
of a physical breakdown, manic
episode, or, perhaps, a debauched
orgy.
It’s an apt experience, though,
as ‘Rhythm Of Poison,’ Elina de-
scribes, is based on the larger need
to show the libidian movements in
dance art, or as she
refers to it, the lust
for life. “The lust
for life is shared
between all people,
and it’s good to re-
mind oneself that
we are existential-
ly people with de-
spair, i ntimac y,
desires and obses-
sions, not bourgeois and reason-
able by heart. For me, I try to do
work that is transgressive in the
way that beauty comes from the
unheimlich core rather than the
imagery of person,” she says.
For dancer Saga Sigur!ardóttir,
Elina’s work, with its lack of stage,
focus on audience interaction,
and pure sensuality, has allowed a
certain amount of delightful free-
dom in her movements. “You are
bringing your own sensuality into
the space,” Saga explains, a bright
smile taking over her face. “I am
fascinated by how Elina deals with
intimacy. What does it mean when
you are in a space full of strangers?”
Five year plan
And though it’s but a small mo-
ment in the production, one cannot
help but fixate on the fact that the
performance involves dogs, which
join the dancers and audience on
the floor for a few minutes, run-
ning about the room, allowing pets
and cuddles at their leisure. “They
bring such wonderful energy to the
space,” Saga laughs.
“Liveliness. Pure
liveliness!”
Elina has long
been k now n for
her transgressive
choreography. For
the artist though,
‘Rhythm Of Poison’
is just one step in
her progression.
“The older I get the wilder my
stage becomes,” she says. Elina’s
still young, though, so one can only
dream about what she’ll be up to in
five years. When asked, the artist
smirks. “Jail.”
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“Our bodies are
charged with
many fantas-
matic and pecu-
liar processes.”
You could wash a load of laundry on those
Choreographer Elina Pirinen (le#) with dancer Saga Sigur"ardóttir (right)
Stúdíó Ólafur Elíasson
The Marshall House
Grandagarður 20
Tuesday - Sunday 12-6pm
and Thursdays until 9pm
i8 Gallery
Tryggvagata 16
101 Reykjavík
info@i8.is
t: +354 551 3666
www.i8.is
VISIT !ÓPAVO"#$
C#LT#$E HO#SES
AND EXPERIENCE

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