NEW: ON ICE RE-MAKE 2012 AT KIASMA THEATRE, HELSINKI, APRIL 14TH-20TH 2012.
On Ice is a portrait of a contemporary woman in a social democratic society. With humour, the performer of the work skates on the glassy surface of the search for identity, between attributions to and/or demands on femininity and humanity, as a cheerleader gone rogue. For Hirvanen, “On Ice” works like a comic strip that is made up of episodes and associative images. Following a script of movements the performer goes through 49 actions, 49 movements and a little shouting. The result is a positive yet critical culture of “shouting and moving”.
„10 000 people are following an ice hockey game of the Finnish National league teams TPS and HIFK. I’m stepping on the ice with the other cheerleaders, with my very high heels. I clap my hands, Joan Jett’s version of Shout is played out loud, a smoke machine pushes clouds inside the light spectacle. The air smells of testosteroine, cold beer and pop corn. I’m running on a feeling of strangeness. I’m here, now, but placed outside of myself, alone amongst others. I’m an object to look at. The audience hurrays when the players skate on the ice. I’m a black cobra. I’m inside a wrong skin.“ Maija Hirvanen
Dance and performing Anna-Maija Terävä or Eeva Muilu
Lighting design Heikki Paasonen
Production Zodiak Center for New Dance and Maija Hirvanen
Image Aada Niilola
Graphic design Antti Ratinen
On Ice has been supported by The National Council for Dance. It has also been supported by the residencies at Impulstanz festival, Vienna, Weld, Stockholm and Saari residence in Mynämäki, Finland. Premiere 2nd June 2009, 19:00, Zodiak, Cable Factory, Tallberginkatu 1, Helsinki, Finland.
