In September, I was one of the people to go and check out the candidates of Premiere on the Stage of Independent Dance – five choreographers who wished to develop their productions. Two out of the five were picked out. It is odd, but these two seem to be of one and the same person, or, to be more exact, one story from two different viewpoints. Keity Pook and Sigrid Savi – both young fair-haired females – came across as the two faces of Janus. One, Keity Pook, solves nerve twitches twirling beneath the skin, forming a social network impersonated in a metaphoric vision. The other, Sigrid Savi, solves the physical world or the surrounding macro-level, creating a kind of cupola around herself, in which she also draws the viewer, creating a new network in the process.
In case of Keity Pook’s production „Synapse“, we are more in the role of a traditional viewer. We sit silently in our seats and peek at the stage. As a doctor I know said – it’s synapse alright, it really does form a contact point of nerves with pink threads, as in what happens with nerves and, naturally, also human relationships. Getting into contact with someone or something other than ourselves, we change and, from there, the changes go on to other networks, behind or in front of us. It’s a strange moment of recognition, which grips one while watching Keity Pook and the reality she creates on the stage. This is where the shadows of the nets come, the main character, the glittering electricity, which moves along the nerves and people, who change themselves and who change the main character.
Seeing the original version of this production in September was kind of scary – because nets are not always good. There is a lot uncomfortable and even disgusting in them. Not that all human relationships are always comfortable and nice. They can create the exact same feeling of being tied up as the pink nerve withes, which were at some point tied to Keity Pook’s head. Scary and beautiful at the same time – in the light and shadow simultaneously. Keity Pook has written on her homepage: „We suffer. Despite the extensive entertainment world we are alone in this world.“ When we watch her production, we do not see loneliness, however – we see being related to different parts of the net, we also see how the network is made a net in front of our eyes. Keity Pook is alone on stage, despite her stage partner Lauri Mäesepp. And perhaps that’s why a kind of sadness sets in. Maybe even tragedy.
Sigrid Savi, on the other hand, comes across as totally different from the beginning. She is not alone. She has decided to include the audience in her story. Kind of like Mart Kangro in his 2012 production „Talk to Me“. Savi does not go through net exercises. She is like a young housewife, who hums to herself while tidying up the room – how things should be, where the aquarium is, where the carpet is, how a banana should be eaten, how to move correctly from one corner of the room to another, using this or that tool. Sigrid Savi creates a new role for the audience for a moment. Perhaps she does it right in the beginning of the production when the viewers find flowers on their seats. No one knows what to do with them. And it’s weird that sooner or later it becomes clear what to do with oneself as audience in this room. Sigrid Savi comes across as authentic and comical – she has the essence of a performing artist who can create space using the stage, her own body, and the audience. She draws the audience into her bubble. If Keity Pook’s question is related to the net surrounding us, then Sigrid Savi’s question is related to the items that surround her. Talking about those items, Sigrid Savi creates her own net. And turning to the audience, at times with a little shaky voice, she notifies us of her need for our presence.
Tying these two viewpoints into one production has a liberating effect on the viewer. Keity Pook’s network becomes a real network consisting of the people sitting in the auditorium with Sigrid Savi, and therefore in a way with Keity Pook. Savi and Pook are like one in two. I can therefore agree with the opinion of Erle Loonurm in the cultural portal of the Estonian Public Broadcasting: „The contrasting productions started to work very intensively in a symbiosis, unravelling parallel threads of thought […]“ Some of Keity Pook’s tragedy becomes Sigrid Savi’s comedy. Or while Janus changes faces, he is still one and the same. Nevertheless, he is a being who is once in a social and at other times in a less social situation. And that’s what makes being a human so exciting.
