Tero Saarinen

Tero Kalevi Saarinen (born September 7, 1964, in Pori, Finland ) is a Finnish dance artist and choreographer, and Artistic Director of Tero Saarinen Company. Saarinen has made an international career as both a dancer and choreographer.

As a choreographer Saarinen is known for his unique movement language that plays with balance and off-balance, combining influences from Butoh and martial arts to classical ballet and Western contemporary dance. Saarinen's movement language has been described as “organic” and “inventive”,

He began his career at the Finnish National Ballet in 1985. His long international career as a soloist took off in 1988, after he won first prize at the Concours International de Danse de Paris.

Saarinen left the Finnish National Ballet in 1992 to seek new influences in Western Europe and Japan, where he studied traditional Japanese dance and Butoh from 1992 to 1993.

Saarinen founded his own group, Tero Saarinen Company, in 1996. By April 2018, he has created 46 original works, many of them for other dance groups. Nederlands Dans Theater, the French ballets of Lyon, Marseille and Lorraine, the Portuguese Ballet Gulbenkian, the Israeli Batsheva Dance Company, the Swedish Gothenburg Opera ballet, the Finnish National Ballet, and others, have featured Saarinen's works in their repertoires.

Saarinen has received numerous acknowledgements for his work as an artist. In 2001 he was awarded the Finland Prize, and in 2005 the Pro Finlandia medal. In 2008 The Finnish Cultural Foundation gave him an award for his achievements as an artist. International recognition includes the international Movimientos Dance Prize for Best Male Performer, and the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, granted by the French government, both in 2004. In middle school he became inspired by the visual arts, and his other hobbies had to give way, until a dance school opened in Pori and Saarinen's father encouraged him to take up jazz dance. This interest in visual arts can still be seen in Saarinen's choreographies: he has said he sees the stage as his canvas.

Saarinen was 16 when he started taking dance classes in Pori. He soon developed a passion for dance, and his dance teacher Liisa Nojonen sent Saarinen to Helsinki to take the entrance exam for the Finnish National Opera Ballet School. Saarinen was accepted for the ballet school in 1982, at the age of 17. He had practised dance for a little over a year when he started at the school, while the other students were only 12 years old.

In 1988 Saarinen won first prize in the contemporary category at Concours International de Danse in Paris with Jorma Uotinen's choreography B12. After his victory in this prestigious competition,

Saarinen started creating his own choreographies, and began receiving invitations to appear in productions outside of the National Ballet. He was a visiting soloist with the Helsinki City Theatre's dance group in 1989-1991. Saarinen's first opportunity to make a group piece came when his former dance teacher Liisa Nojonen asked him to create a work for her company. They then gave the result, More Milk, its premiere in 1991.

The start of an international career After his competition victory in Paris, Saarinen toured the world as a soloist. a solo piece by Murray Louis, which had previously only been permitted to be danced by the choreographer himself and Rudolf Nureyev.

With success, Saarinen found it increasingly hard to settle for the male roles and opportunities as a dancer offered by classical ballet. His breakaway came with the solo piece Takana (1992), a declaration of new beginnings and of leaving the past behind. This process first led to Saarinen taking a year off, and eventually resigning from his tenured post at the National Ballet in 1993. under the instruction of Rajendra Shestra.

In addition to Kazuo Ohno and other influences from Asia, Saarinen often mentions Carolyn Carlson, Tommi Kitti, Marjo Kuusela and Jorma Uotinen as important artistic role models.

Years as a freelancer Upon his return to Finland from Asia in 1993, Saarinen started working as a freelancer. Most of his time was spent on tours with various dance groups in Germany, Italy, the US, and elsewhere, as part of Daniel Ezralow's group and, together with Ismael Ivo and Mara Borba, in the triumphant production of Francis Bacon directed by Johann Kresnik. He was a visiting soloist with Teatro Comunale di Firenze in its production of Aida in 1994. The conductor was Zubin Mehta, and the production toured Italy and Japan. created for the Tampere-based dance theatre MD Mobita Dansco in the fall of 1993, launched his still ongoing close cooperation with lighting designer Mikki Kunttu. Wanha, which Saarinen created for himself and Kenneth Kvarnström, received its premiered as a licensed work for the 1994 Kuopio Dance Festival. Saarinen also created Lifewheel (1994) for PDC, as well as Lelulaatikko (1995) for Tampere Hall and Sirkus Bohemia (1995) for the Kuopio Dance Festival.

Wanha started Saarinen on the road to a career as an internationally acclaimed choreographer. After seeing it, Ohad Naharin, the director of Batsheva Dance Company, commissioned a work for his Israel-based group. Saarinen's choreography Flock premiered in Tel Aviv in late December 1994.

The group's first piece, Westward Ho! premiered at Stockholm's Dansens Hus on 18 February 1996. In 1997 an invitation was received to perform piece at the first Aerowaves platform held in The Place Theatre in London. The performance was to be Saarinen's international breakthrough as a choreographer,

Nowadays Tero Saarinen Company is considered one of Finland's leading cultural exports. The company's own works are created as international co-productions, and include many of Saarinen's best known choreographies. Tero Saarinen's richly original live music, and striking visuals. The group has performed in nearly 40 countries, and an international teaching programme has been a part of its operations since its foundation. a solo that Saarinen had performed 174 times and in 32 countries by the end of 2013. Another of his solo career highlights has been Carolyn Carlson's decision to pass on her famous full length piece Blue Lady to Saarinen. The re-interpretation, Blue Lady (Revisited), first premiered in 2008 at the Biennale de la danse de Lyon, and has been an international success.

Movement technique Saarinen is known as a poetic interpreter of reality. As a choreographer he has been able to renew the movement language of dance and create a unique vocabulary and style of his own, shifting between beauty and the grotesque.

Alongside Saarinen, the Head of Artistic Development Sini Länsivuori is in charge of developing the company's teaching operations. (2001) and HUNT (2004), "Morphed" (2014) set to the music of Esa-Pekka Salonen and "Kullervo", a large-scale co-production with The Finnish National Opera and Ballet featuring the music of Jean Sibelius.

The solo piece HUNT and it has been dubbed one of the most significant choreographies made for Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Tero Saarinen ceased performing HUNT in 2013, after the centennial of The Rite of Spring.

Borrowed Light, performed at dozens of leading venues in Europe, Oceania and North America since its creation in 2004, has also attracted significant critical acclaim in the international media.

Of the choreographies that Saarinen has created for other groups, some of the best known are Gaspard (1996), premiered by the Lyon Opera Ballet, Transfigured Night (2000), commissioned by the Gothenburg ballet, and the large scale work Mariage (2007), commissioned by the ballet of Lorraine and the opera of Nancy, France. This last work, set to Igor Stravinsky's composition Les Noces, reinforced Saarinen's reputation as an important Stravinsky interpreter of our time. in addition to the choreography and interpretation, music and visual presentation are important components in his works. Among Saarinen's trusted collaborators are Lighting Designer Mikki Kunttu and costume Designer Erika Turunen.

Saarinen makes use of live music in many of his works. His musical collaborators include The Boston Camerata, Ensemble InterContemporain, the accordionist duo James Crabb and Geir Draugsvoll, the chamber orchestra Avanti!, composer-musician Jarmo Saari and Finnish accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen.

Saarinen has created numerous works for other dance groups. The Dutch Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT1), the French ballets of Lyon, Marseille and Lorraine, the Portuguese Ballet Gulbekian, the Israeli Batsheva Dance Company, the Swedish Gothenburg opera Ballet, the Finnish National Ballet, and others have featured Saarinen's works in their repertoires.

Premieres Original Work Premiere Performing Group Artistic Team Production Ondekoza Fall 1989, Mies tanssii-Gala, Savoy Theatre, Helsinki, FinlandDancer: Tero SaarinenCostume and lighting design: Tero Saarinen Kehtolaulu (Lullaby) November 1990, Moving in November- Festival, Stoa Theatre, Helsinki, Finland Dancer: Tero Saarinen Costume and lighting design: Tero Saarinen Music: Meredith Monk More Milk 1991, Pori Theatre, Pori, Finland P.D.C. Pori Dance Company Costume and lighting design: Tero Saarinen Music: Collage P.D.C. Pori Dance Company Takana (In the Past) 1992-09-09, Savoy Theatre, Helsinki, Finland Dancer: Tero Saarinen Costume and lighting design: Tero Saarinen Set design: Susanna Laurola Music: Jan Garbarek Vajonneet (The Sunken) 1993-05-06, Finnish National opera, Helsinki, Finland Finnish National Ballet Lighting design: Juha Westman Costume and set design: Tero Saarinen Music: Henryk Górecki Finnish National Opera Hurmaa 1 (Exuberance 1) 1993-09-03, The Old Customs House, Tampere, Finland Dance theatre Dansco Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Costume and set design: Tero Saarinen Music:Tiensuu, Czukay, trad. Dance Theatre Dansco Lifewheel 1994-05-28, Pori theatre, Pori, Finland P.D.C. Pori Dance Company Costume and lighting design: Tero Saarinen Music: Hamza El Din P.D.C. Pori Dance Company Wanha 1994-06-13, Kuopio Dance Festival, Kuopio, Finland Dancers: Tero Saarinen and Kenneth Kvarnström Lighting design. Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Tero Saarinen Music: Henryk Górecki Flock 1994-12-22, Susan Dellal Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel Batsheva Dance Company Costume design: Tero Saarinen Music: Henryk Górecki Batsheva Dance Company Lelulaatikko (Box of toys) 1995-03-03, Tampere Hall, Tampere, Finland Dancers: Tero Saarinen and Andrea Ladanyi Music: Debussy, performed by Tampere Filharmonic Orchestra (dir. Tuomas Ollila) Lighting design: Jari Tervakangas Costume design: Tero Saarinen Tampere Hall and Dance Theatre Mobita/Dansco Sirkus Bohemia 1995, Kuopio Dance Festival, Kuopio, Finland Sirkus Bohemia Music: Mikko-Ville Luolajan-Mikkola Costume and lighting design: Tero Saarinen and Karoliina Heiskanen Set design: Metti NordinBig Flock 1996-01-13, Theatre Academy, Helsinki, Finland Theatre Academy, Department of Dance Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Tero Saarinen Music: Henryk Górecki Theatre Academy, Department of Dance Westward Ho! 1996-02-18, Dansens Hus, Stockholm, Sweden Tero Saarinen Company Also in repertoires: Introdans (2000, Department of Dance, Theatre Academy (2000), Nünberg Ballet(2002) Lighting design. Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Tero Saarinen Music: Collage Tero Saarinen Company Daydreampeople 1996-03-18, Finnish National Ballet, Helsinki, Finland Finnish National Ballet Lighting design: Olli-Pekka Koivunen Costume design: Tero Saarinen Music: Collage Finnish National Ballet Kohta (Passage) 1997-01-18, Helsinki City Theatre, Helsinki, Finland Helsinki Dance Company Music: Ali-Zahed Lighting design: Juha Westman Costume design: Tero Saarinen Helsinki Dance Company Overdosed Mood 1997-06-30 Kuopio Dance Festival, Kuopio, Finland Tero Saarinen Company Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Costume Design: Keren Nissim Music: Collage Tero Saarinen Company Un/Do 1998-05-14, Susan Dellal Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel Batsheva Dance Company Also in repertoires: Tero Saarinen Company (1998), Ballet Gulbenkian (1999) Lighting design. Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Tero Saarinen Music: Collage Batsheva Dance Company Gaspard 1999-02-12, Lyon Opéra Ballet, Lyon, France Lyon Opéra Ballet Also in repertoires: Tero Saarinen Company (2003), Göteborgs Operans Ballett (2007) Music: Maurice Ravel - Gaspard de la Nuit Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Keren Nissim Lyon Opéra Could you take some of my weight..? 1999-05-28 Théâtre de Saint-Quentin-en Yvelines, Paris, France Tero Saarinen Company. Also in repertoires: Ballet de Lorraine (2004), NorrDans (2008) Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Rachel Quarmby Music: Collage Tero Saarinen CompanyPulcinella 1999-10-27, Helsinki City Theatre, Helsinki, Finland Tero Saarinen Company and Helsinki Dance Company Lighting design. Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Tero Saarinen Music: Collage Tero Saarinen Company and Helsinki Dance Company Wavelengths 2000-01-28, Finnish National Opera, Helsinki, Finland Finnish National Ballet Also in repertoires: Tero Saarinen Company (2004) Music: Riku Niemi Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Erika Turunen Finnish National Ballet Sini 2001-04-17, Lyon Opéra, Lyon, France Lyon Opéra Ballet Lighting design: MIkki Kunttu Costume design: Erika Turunen Music: Collage Lyon Opéra Ballet Kaze 2001-06-22 The Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy Tero Saarinen Company and Yas-Kaz Unit Music: Yas-Kaz Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Sound design: Jukka Cavén Costume design: Rachel Quarmby Tero Saarinen Company in co-production with the Venice Biennale Petrushka 2001-06-03 Queen Elisabeth Hall, London, Great Britain Tero Saarinen Company Music: Igor Stravinsky, Petrushka lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Costume Design: Erika Turunen Arrangement and performance of music: James Crabb and Geir Draugsvoll Sound design: Jukka Kavén Tero Saarinen Company Even more milk 2002, Pori Theatre, Pori, Finland P.D.C. Pori Dance Company Costume and lighting design: Tero Saarinen Music: Collage P.D.C. Pori Dance Company Transfigured Night 2002-03-02, Gothenburg Opera, Gothenburg, Sweden Göteborgs Operans Ballet Also in repertoires: Finnish National Ballet (2005) Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Rachel Quarmby Music: Arnold Schoenberg Göteborg Ballet Hunt 2002-06-02 The Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy Tero Saarinen Company Music: igor Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring Multimedia: Marita Liulia Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Erika Turunen Multimedia programming: Jakke Kastelli Tero Saarinen Company and La Biennale di Venezia in co-operation with Octobre en Normandie Georgia 2003-03-21, Finnish National Opera, Helsinki, Finland Finnish National Opera Also in repertoires: Göteborgs Operans Ballet (2007) Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Erika Turunen Music: Collage Finnish National Ballet The Captain 2004-05-22, La Criée, Théâtre National de Marseille, Marseille, France Ballet National de Marseille Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Rachel Quarmby Music: Collage Ballet National de Marseille Borrowed Light 2004-10-08 Octobre en Normandie Festival, Le Havre, France Tero Saarinen Company and The Boston Camerata Arrangement of the original Shaker music: Joel Cohen Music direction: Anne Azéma Lighting and set design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Erika Turunen Sound design: Heikki Iso-Ahola Tero Saarinen Company in co-operation with: Octobre en Normandie (France), Dansens Hus (Sweden), Kuopio Dance Festival (Finland), Festival Civitanova Danza (Italy), le Volcan – Scène Nationale du Havre (France), Teatri di Civitanova (Italy), Atelier 231 – Pôle régionale des Arts de la rue (France) Huukit 2006-01-18, Theatre Academy, Helsinki, Finland Theatre Academy Helsinki, Department of Dance Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Terttu Torkkola Music: Collage Theatre Academy Helsinki, Department of Dance Frail Line 2006-03-09, Lucent Danstheater, Haag, Netherlands Nederland Dans Theater (NDT1) Lighting and set design: Mikki Kunttu Cotume design. Erika Turunen Music: Collage Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT 1) Mariage 2007-12-14, Opéra National de Lorraine, Nancy, France Ballet de Lorraine and Opéra National de Lorraine Also in repertoires: Finnish National Ballet (2012) Music: Igor Stravinsky: Les Noces Lighting and set design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Erika Turunen CCN – Ballet de Lorraine and Opéra National de Lorraine Next of Kin 2008-05-09 Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, Vilnius, Lithuania Tero Saarinen Company Music. Jarmo Saari Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Erika Turunen Sound design: Heikki Iso-Ahola Tero Saarine Company. Co-producers: Biennale de Lyon (France), the Joyce Theater (US), Alexander Theatre (Finland), Southbank Centre (UK), Helsinki Festival and Lithuanian Dance Information Center in co-operation with Vilnius European Capital of Culture 2009- Organization (Lithuania) Scheme of Things 2009-02-05, Lucent Danstheter, Haag, Netherlands Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT1) Also in repertoires: Tero Saarinen Company (2011) Lighting and set design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Erika Turunen Music: Collage Nederlands Dans Theater 1 Double Lives 2010-02-12, Oldenburgisches Staatstheater, Oldenburg, Germany Nordwest/Tanzocompagnie Oldenburg and Tanztheater Bremen Lighting design: Ville Konttinen Set design: Ville Konttinen, Tero Saarinen Costume design: Erika Turunen Music: Jarmo Saari Video: Jakke Kastelli, Ville Konttinen, Tero Saarinen Oldenburgisches Staatstheater and Theater Bremen Vox Balaenae 2011-11-05 Automne en Normandie, Le Rive Gauche, Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, France Tero Saarinen Company and Ensemble InterContemporain or Avanti! Music: George Crumb: Vox Banealea Lighting and set design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Erika Turunen Sound design: Marco Melchior Tero Saarinen Company in co-operation with Arts 276/Automne en Normandie (France) and Red Brick Project/CNN Roubaix Nord – Pas de Calais - Carolyn Carlson (France) Absent Presence 2011-11-23, Alexander Theatre, Helsinki, Finland Tero Saarinen Company Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Erika Turunen Music: Jarmo Saari - Jarmo Saari solu Tero Saarinen Company in co-operation with Alexander Theatre MESH 2014-02-02, Saitama Arts Theatre, Tokyo, Japan Saitama Dance Association in co-operation with Saitama Arts Theatre Lighting design: Iwashina Takeaki Costume design: Izumi Miyamura Music: collage Saitama Dance Association, Tero Saarinen Company VORTEX(Haeori) 2014-04-16, National Theater of Korea, Soul, South Korea National Dance Company of Korea Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Erika Turunen Music: Be-being National Dance Company of Korea Morphed 2014-08-16, Finnish National Opera, Helsinki Festival, Helsinki, Finland Tero Saarinen Company Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Teemu Muurimäki Music: Esa-Pekka Salonen Tero Saarinen Company in co-operation with Helsinki Festival and Opéra Théàtre de Saint-Ètienne Kullervo 2015-02-13, Finnish National Opera, Helsinki, Finland Finnish National Opera and Ballet and Tero Saarinen Company Lighting design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design : Erika Turunen Music: Jean Sibelius: Kullervo (Symphony Op. 7) Tero Saarinen Company in co-operation with Finnish National Opera TRAIL 2015-12-12, Kenya National Theatre, Nairobi, Kenya Ghetto Exposed Lighting design: Ville Konttinen Music: collage Tero Saarinen Company in co-operation with Ghetto Exposed Loopit 2017-2-4, Hällä Stage, Tampere, Finland Dance Theatre MD Lighting design: Ville Konttinen Costume design: Erika Turunen Music: collage (The Tiger Lillies) Dance Theatre MD in co-operation with Tero Saarinen CompanyZimmermann Trio2018-1-19, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, USATero Saarinen Company and Los Angeles PhilharmonicLighting and set design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design, Element construction: Erika Turunen Music: Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Cello Concerto en forme de pas de trois (1966)LA Phil in co-operation with Tero Saarinen CompanyBreath2018-4-12, Grand Théâtre de Québec, Quebec City, CanadaTero Saarinen Company and Kimmo PohjonenLighting and set design: Mikki Kunttu Costume design: Teemu Muurimäki Music: Kimmo PohjonenTero Saarinen Company in co-operation with Tampere hall and Alexander TheatreThird Practice2019-5-29, Teatro Amilcare Ponchielli, Rassegna di Danza & Festival Monteverdi, Cremona, Italy Tero Saarinen Company and Helsinki Baroque OrchestraMusic: Claudio Monteverdi Music direction, Arrangement: Aapo Häkkinen Lighting and set design: Eero Auvinen (TTT-Theatre) Projection design Thomas Freundlich Costume design: Erika Turunen Sound design: Marco MelchiorTero Saarinen Company Supported by Jane & Aatos Erkko Foundation (Finland) In collaboration with Fondazione Teatro Amilcare Ponchielli (Italy) With thanks to Rassegna di Danza & Festival Monteverdi (Fondazione Teatro A. Ponchielli, Cremona, Italy), ATER – Associazione Teatrale Emilia Romagna (Italy), Kuopio Dance Festival (Finland), Stoa (Finland), the Finnish National Theatre and TTT-Theatre (Finland)

Grants and prizes Saarinen has received numerous acknowledgements of his work as an artist. In 2001 he was awarded the Finland Prize and, in 2005 the Pro Finlandia medal – the most prestigious award given to artists in Finland. Saarinen was awarded the international Movimientos Dance Prize for Best Male Performer in Germany in 2004. In June 2004, he was honoured with the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Ministry of Culture in France.

Saarinen received a 6-month grant from the Arts Council of Finland in 1987, a 3-year grant in 1996, and a 5-year grant in 1996 and 2004. At the beginning of his career as a choreographer he was awarded numerous other scholarships and grants, including from the Väinö Tanner Foundation, Antti and Jenni Wihuri Foundation, and the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

First prize in the contemporary dance category at the third Concours International de Danse de Paris in 1988 Silver medal, contemporary choreography, ITI Ballet Competition, Helsinki, 1991 Phillip Morris Ballet Flower award, 1993 Jury award for interpretation in Les Nuits de la Danse d’Istres competition in France, 1996 Finland prize, 2001 Culture Prize, City of Helsinki, 2002 International Movimientos Dance Prize, Best male performer, Germany 2004 Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France 2004 Pro Finlandia, 2005 The Finnish Cultural Foundation, award for artistic achievements, 2008 Jean Sibelius commemorative coin, 2015