Milla Koistinen: Magenta Haze

In the new creation of Milla Koistinen audiences are invited to be in the space and observe the intrinsic choreography arising from the performers’ play with large brightly coloured objects. Created by visual artist Sandra E. Blatterer, the air-filled objects take on different shapes, meanings and associations as the performers explore their materiality, tactility and aural qualities.

With Magenta Haze Koistinen continues her exploration of crowd behavior, the individual within the collective, communal joy and ecstasy. Inspired by the idea that ecstasy is a state where we are taken outside of ourselves and transcend to an ‘elsewhere’ place, Magenta Haze invites the spectator to observe a choreography of subtle tipping points between distance and closeness, togetherness and estrangement; fragility and strength; group and individual.

Choreography by Milla Koistinen together with the performers, sound by composers Paul Valikoski and Grégoire Simon and space and light design by Sandra E. Blatterer.

The work is part of Dance House Helsinki’s SPARKS project. Supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, SPARKS is an artistic development project which is carried out in 2020–2023. The project will produce three premieres for both the Erkko Hall and Pannuhall.

INTERVIEW WITH CHOREOGRAPHER MILLA KOISTINEN

Synne Behrndt: Magenta Haze has been some time in development and was preceded by a solo around the same themes. Could you talk a bit about what inspired the piece and how you developed it?

Milla Koistinen: When I started to work on this new creation in early 2020 I had been intrigued by the themes of euphoria, ecstasy and collective joy, as well as the question of whether these were diminishing in our society. As collective gatherings were put on hold for quite some time and still perhaps aren’t the same, at least not for everyone, I delved into the first part of the research; a solo titled Breathe, which premiered in Tanz Im August in Berlin in the summer 2021. I was curious to study what a collective gathering or collective joy could entail at this moment or what had it been in the past. I landed on something more internal and reduced yet something which would be experienced at the same time in the same place and hopefully would trigger memories and sensations of collective joy. Minimalism and a search for something more private; internal yet shared, are very characteristic to my work in general.

SB: Breathe was an outdoor piece which was devised on a football field in Berlin, and your interaction with two air filled 'balloons' really shaped the choreography and piece. Was this a new challenge for you?

MK: Breathe was my first collaboration with Sandra E. Blatterer who created massive, air-filled fabrics for me to play with on the football field where the performance took place. It was a long journey to understand how to interact with the objects, what they were and how to relate to them. In the end it was a magnificent idea of Sandra’s to bring them on, as they became not only a landscape or a set but equal partners with whom to play. They were also tools with which to relate the physical sense of distance and closeness to the spectators.

SB: And the weather became an important factor when shaping the choreography, it was interesting to see how much the outdoor conditions would affect the piece. But you wanted to continue the exploration with the fabrics and proximity to the audience with Magenta Haze where you decided to turn the solo into an ensemble piece?

MK: It was clear to us that we would want to continue with a similar set in Magenta Haze even if we knew the fabrics would behave in a totally different manner in an indoor venue. In Magenta Haze we need to create more movement with a bigger cast of dancers since we don’t have the outdoor conditions to rely on. And this is what the dancers do; they play with the fabrics, they manipulate them and make them move in the big space without the audience tribune. Indoors we will have a closer intimacy with the audience since even if the space is big, it is not an outdoor football field. The solo and the group work share similarities yet they are two different pieces, which look at the themes from different angles. Crowd and individual are present in both, so is the absence of crowd but in Magenta Haze we now let go, surrender to the crowd and look for the joy of dancing together. The sense of melancholia, vulnerability and fragility, as well as being an observer in a crowd haven’t disappeared even if we do meet this time.

SB: The sound plays an important part in shaping the structure and dramaturgy of the piece, how would you describe the exchanges or conversations with the composers?

MK: With the composers Paul Valikoski and Grégoire Simon we had lengthy talks about colours of the tonality, how to build tension and open the space with the sound. We kept asking ourselves when the music might be too dark or too light and what kinds of associations it might provoke. The set up of the sound in the room is designed to embrace the spectators and possibly also encourage movement since the sound keeps traveling.

SB: And speaking of structure, it is left deliberately open enough for the performers to be able to improvise or respond to what happens in the room, and this includes the audience?

MK: With the performers we form an alternating cast of six to eight people so every performance is different. This has left openness to the score of the choreography even if the structure of the piece remains the same. The performers react to each other as they also react to the fabrics, which never make the same movement twice. I would like to think of Magenta Haze to be a soft invitation for the audience to join us on stage, to observe, to move and be part of the performance by occupying the room together with us and the fabric objects. The piece will be complete only when the audience is sharing the space with us and we are looking forward to seeing how the presence of the spectators will affect the performance and the sensation of a crowd.

SB: This sounds like an invitation for the audience to participate - or do what feels right to them. So the audience, just like the performers, have to make active decisions about how they want to experience the work?

MK: Yes, the audience can make their own decisions and we try to facilitate some choices in the room in a very gentle manner. As a spectator myself I am pretty shy and wish to have my space. Having that sensation in mind I try to create an environment where people don’t feel the need to do anything or that nothing is expected of them, yet if they feel safe to take our lead and follow us, they are welcome to do so. I am just curious what the audience as a crowd could do and how they might follow one another as it happened in Breathe almost unexpectedly.