ICHOS

CHOREOGRAPY AND DANCE Virpi Pahkinen
MUSIC AND PERCUSSIONS Mika Takehara
LIGHTING DESIGN Tobias Hallgren – Lumination of Sweden
COSTUME Emelie Janrell
PRODUCER Emelie Bergbohm
ADMINISTRATION Birgitta Ström
Length: 30 min.

A production by Virpi Pahkinen Dance Company. With support from the Swedish Arts Council, City of Stockholm, the Swedish Arts Grants Committee and the County Council in Stockholm.

ICHOS premiered on November 4th 2015 at Dansmuseet in Stockholm.

"Ichos is one of those Virpi solos that you want to carry away with you like a valuable treasure. A shimmering, rhythmic opener of doors to different worlds, which once more make you believe in the human capacity to listen to the sound of movement."

"The solo encompasses all Pahkinen’s signature movements; the rapid turns and karate-sharp kicks interspersed with still sections. She depicts a woman who is open to and controls the force field that the rest of us can only guess at. In “Ichos”, with Mika Takehara she builds a vast temple of sound, beautifully wrapped in Tobias Hallgren’s warm, shimmering copper light."
Svenska Dagbladet

"It is magical and unique with a precise harmony between movement and music. A body that performs something similar to a ritual, in movements that seem absolute, exact, without being able to be interpreted in any one single way."

"Percussionist Mika Takehara lets the rhythms meet recorded sections, conjures up a world of sound, with herself, while Virpi Pahkinen’s choreography unfolds in the space. Takes place in it, intensity and struggle shifting to inward-looking and contemplative and back again."
Kulturnytt

“The solo is strikingly familiar, yet surprising, which is partly the genius of the choreographer: through her eclectically unique movement material and fabulous presence transforming the dance into something more than simply dance. Her curled up position on the floor and the secret messages of the finger alphabet, are followed by what is for Pahkinen a typically organic dynamic in which the body gradually rises, then, standing with fighting spirit, takes the stage before finally opening up the movement to what is found above.”
Dagens Nyheter

“Yesterday I saw Virpi Pahkinen perform the human battle with magical movements. Her little finger says as much as a whole novel.”
Theodor Kallifatides, author

Photo: Mattias Lindbäck