LEFT PANEL
A sorry sight back in June: football practice in arctic Finnish summer. Men in ski caps, woolen socks and Long Johns running back and forth in the Töölö football fields. Though, upon looking out my living room window I can hardly distinguish them through the heavy curtains of icy rain. They seem to be professional players, so why are they here in the first place? Shouldn’t they be in Brazil where the rest of the world is playing? I recall what physiotherapist Jarmo Ahonen once concluded in our dance physiology class at the Theatre Academy: Finland will never produce a top class national football team since half of the year our children have to waddle around looking like Michelin men in their winter overalls. Consequently, their kinesthetic awareness will not develop to the full. Moreover, I would argue that being driven in a SUV to indoor football practice cannot be compared to running after a provisional ball in the dusty streets in the equatorial regions. Our climate being as it is, shouldn’t we pay special attention to not sitting all day in schools and offices? Recently, to my great joy, I heard about a young primary school teacher who has every now and then been seen jogging around the school building with his class in the midst of lesson hours. A much welcomed break to memorizing multiplication tables and learning the alphabet it is. However, a mother expressed to me her doubt regarding the teacher’s competence. Why does he not stay indoors in the classroom? What is this nonsense about? So much for innovative teaching methods – conservative parents are likely to put an end to such frivolous practices and lost is the possibility of ever seeing a Finnish football team play in the World Championships!
CENTER PIECE
Arriving in Venice at the end of June is as overwhelming as ever. Italy being the epicenter of La Bella Figura, one becomes painfully aware of what the Finnish climate does to the body. Having spent the long winter season draped in bland colors, the dilapidated Renaissance splendor is just too bright for the eyes to behold! And the locals seem to carry the sense for elegance in their genes. Summarizing La Bella Figura in D’Agostino Mautner’s words: “The foreign visitor to Italy is typically amazed to observe how polished the men and women of the bel paese look, how good they appear to feel about themselves, and how graciously they interact with one another. Italian life is undeniable lived with a constant eye toward aesthetic beauty, dignity and civility. Learning to enhance the body and mind one is born with is more important than having been endowed with genetic perfection.” As goes for dignity and Finnish winter, there is not much dignity in slipping on icy roads or being splashed by wet snow when waiting for the bus to arrive. And regarding the choice of shoes, in most cases aesthetic beauty has to give way for practicality. Incidentally, Venice is a merciless city for disembodied tourists: a maze of canals and narrow lanes, stairs up and stairs down, hours of walking in circles with blistered feet. As a matter of fact, the most undignified sight of this summer was the heavy carcass of an American tourist dragging her suitcase up the stairs when heading for Santa Lucia railway station. In this case bella figura had been replaced by drive-in figura. Apparently, her knees could hardly carry her weight and were bent into an unnatural angle. Another sorry sight indeed! And I promised myself to schedule an additional morning ballet class once back in Finland.
RIGHT PANEL
July became the month of lifting, carrying, heaving, bending and collapsing from fatigue at the end of the day. This was due to our five-person family having to relocate as a result of
the impending water pipe and sewage renovation in our apartment building. Putkiremppa in Finnish –an almost onomatopoetic word for the horror of it. Yet, it´s not altogether horrendous. I would argue that it is actually an extremely embodied experience. Moreover, as it happened to be the warmest July in half a century, one truly became aware of the existence of the body. For once, the skin turned into the primary sense for perceiving the world around. When clearing out the clutter from all corners, we gradually saw the past ten years of our lives unfolding: joys and hardships, the slowly ticking years with infants and toddlers. A lost decade represented by a couple of blurred memories and faded post-cards. Day by day the air became easier to breathe as the dust lifted and vanished into the womb of the vacuum cleaner. Dust and clutter symbolizes stagnation whereas empty space gives room for dance and movement as well as flight of imagination. Accordingly, in Hinduism the creation of the world is seen in following terms: “the world was created when God invented movement. God began to dance, particles were aroused and danced with him. The world took shape in a symphony of movement.” (Stockholm Dance Museum). So now when a new academic year is about to start, I promise myself to move more, not letting the dust settle in the corners of my mind.
