★ ★ ★
Kvartetto is Finnish for Quartet. Although I felt this radical dance piece from Kati Raatikainen should’ve been called Kolmikätinen as only three dancers worked on the stage. The presence of Markku Essel as an on-stage sound engineer, I could’ve done without. The very accomplished contemporary dance of Maria Lahti, Jarmo Patana and Sanna Tornikoski were deserving of our entire focus. Each dancer had a story to tell, that was revealing, intimate yet self-possessed. Their inner emotions, desires and longings were brought to life, and honed by Raatikainen as any choreographer would do. The groups movement was instinctive and naturalistic.
My problem with Kvartetto isn’t the dancers, nor the central message of ‘Should people with intellectual disabilities be allowed to be professional dancers?”A question they’ve answered with a resounding yes; as Lahti, Paana and Tornikoski, all of whom have Down’s, were as poised, expressive and original as anything you’d see from a Sadler’s Wells company. My problem was with the non-disabled practitioners taking leading roles. I would feel more comfortable (and is it even for me to say if I am comfortable or not, not being from the community represented on stage) if there were disabled practitioners leading the choreography too, leading the sound engineering, and that Raatikainen and Essel took a minimally visible role as facilitators.
Within the pieces, there were some bizarre and alienating moments, including the first dance, performed with music that only the dancers could hear through headphones, a clever idea, but a bold risk for the opening of a show. Perhaps that was the point. The middle section became more accessible and the ending rather schmaltzy which I personally loved! Who can’t resist a Whitney Houston romantic sparkly jacketed routine?
There is a lot to be said about working together, we are an interdependent society, and disabled and non-disabled practitioners should and do work together well. But I feel it needs to be an equal partnership, and perhaps with Kvartetto it was, it just didn’t seem to come across in the presentation.
Kvartetto succeeds in what it set out to do, and the work of its three leads is exceptional, I would’ve preferred that the attention remained solely on them.
This review is written by someone who isn’t from the community they are writing about, we welcome opinion from the Down’s community and happy to publish further comment on this show.
Kvartetto Summerhall – Old Lab 14:15 (45m) Aug17-18, 20-21, 23-24 £13/10
