Lehtovaara & Ferreira

Light as a Feather, Green as an Apple

This duet created and performed by Veli Lehtovaara and Maria Ferreira Silva is a minimalistic and visual, all most picturesque, exploration on the Roman Catholic imagery and Christian myth. Well-known biblical images, characters and events are presented in mould-breaking ways, yielding unexpected insights into the relationship between iconography and choreography. During the last two years the work has been going through endless changes until the very moment. It has become a delicate dance of images where time plays an important role.

Maria: Inspired by the work of João Cesar Monteiro and José Saramago, I became intrigued by the way they used time. With the long, almost never ending scenes of Monteiro's films and with the long sentences of Saramago's books, I was fascinated with their poetry. Light as a Feather, Green as an Apple became an exploration of biblical myths and images choosing to use them as raw material. Exploring the natural or unnatural speed of their time.
For me this work is a dialogue between iconography and choreography. An exploration with the body of those biblical myths and images. I see it as a rather slow tempo composition deriving from gestures and simple walk that has obtained a quality of a dance.

Veli: For me it is still a little wonder that we ended up working on a dance piece with such a theme. I did my confirmation at the age of 15, but otherwise I had a secular upbringing. When it comes to religion, for me it is not an existential question or a question of believing. It is rather a question of how. How does god exist and what does it mean in different contexts. This work is not a comment on Christianity. It is an exploration on choreography and iconography, and hopefully it is reconciling with the beauty of those images.

photo: Elina Brotherus

Production: Theater Malpertuis, Zodiak-Center for New Dance, Veli Lehtovaara &
Maria Ferreira Silva
Choreography & performance: Veli Lehtovaara (FI) & Maria Ferreira Silva (P) (P.A.R.T.S 2010)
Light design: Jani-Matti Salo
Sound design: Oula Susi
Coaching: Peter Vandembempt, Pauliina Hulkko
Special thanks to: P.A.R.T.S.

photos: Elina Brotherus

BIOS:

Veli Lehtovaara (1982) is a Finnish choreographer living in Brussels. Lehtovaara graduated from P.A.R.T.S. in 2010 and from Helsinki Theatre Academy (MA) in 2011. He is Artist-in-residency in Zodiak - Center for New Dance in Helsinki and collaborating with Theater Malpertuis in Belgium. His most recent works are: Light as a Feather, Green as an Apple with Maria Ferreira Silva, Doubt in Frame / Queen of Sweden Killed Descartes with Dasha Mazurka and On the Threshold with Mikko Hyvönen.

 

Maria Silva (1988) From 1998 until 2006, Maria studied at the National Conservatory of Dance in Lisbon. In 2006 she moved to Brussels to study at P.A.R.T.S.. Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian supported her studies by granted her a scholarship for tree years consecutively. She graduated in 2010 and since then she has worked as a performer for different artist as well as developing her own work.