Arja Raatikainen: «Numen»

Arja Raatikainen, it is true, is not the most prolific of choreographers. But although she creates new pieces infrequently, every piece is carefully considered content-wise and the concept is scrupulously carried through. Yet hers is no tidy academic approach – although her work is elegant, its dominating force is a savage and enigmatic natural element. The quality criterion for Arja Raatikainen’s work includes a sense of all-pervasiveness.

To realise this, she has found young lighting and sound designers who understand her ideas, and the sound and movement in the choreographies carry different elements functioning in full, mutually supportive symbiosis.

A woman moves on all fours with animal paws directing her agile course. In “Numen,” Raatikainen develops further the female animal, she-wolf figure which featured in her previous shamanistic works. The symbiosis of woman and wolf is a familiar, centuries-old concept in Scandinavian mythology. By adding a goddess dimension to the character, Raatikainen has borrowed from the Etruscans and the Egyptians, and blended these references into the sensual character of a “womanimal.”

The element of divinity brings elegance, particularly ...