Event

Kekäläinen & Company _ The Afternoon of a Faun

choreography, concept and dance: Sanna Kekäläinen music: Claude Debussy text: Kari Hukkila

The Afternoon of a Faun was originally commissioned from Kekäläinen & Company in 1996 by Kuopio Dance Festival. Mika Backlund, one of the founding members of Kekäläinen & Company, danced as the faun. Now ten years after Sanna Kekäläinen choreographs a version for herself.

The Afternoon of a Faun (1912) was ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky’s debut as a choreographer. The choreography was based on Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem and on Claude Debussy’s composition. In her work Kekäläinen uses the composition of Debussy, but the theme and some of Nijinsky’s motifs are interpreted from a contemporary perspective.

Kekäläinen & Company produces Finnish dance at its best. The mission of the company is to promote dance as an intellectual art form with strong emotional and political potential. The creator of the company is Sanna Kekäläinen, choreographer and dancer. Her work expands the experience of a dance performance combining poetical and conceptual thinking, philosophy and strongly physical and original movement language.The international dialogue in dance is and has been essential to Kekäläinen & Company. Since its birth in 1996 the company has toured extensively. The company has been internationally recognized as a highly artistic, courageous and outstanding dance group.

www.kekalainencompany.net / kc@kekalainencompany.net