Jarkko Lehmus Diary

Who the...

LADIES AND PLAYBOYS!!! I am proud to present to You Mr Jarkko Lehmus!!!! ... Who? The name doesn't exactly ring a bell does it? There's Christopher Hampson and Cathy Marston but who the hell's this new guy?

Now let me enlighten You: I was born and raised in the forests of Eastern Finland, in a tiny town called Juankoski to be precise. Since I was a bit of a human cannonball as a kid my parents got me into judo at the tender age of eight just to get me off their hands for a bit. I quite enjoyed a bit of rough and tumble. I kept at it three times a week for the next eight years. Ever since martial arts has held a very dear place in my heart. It's always very sobering to get punched in the head a few times.

During my teenage years I was a bit soft in the head hence my girlfriend at the time managed to talk me into finnish folk dancing. I was the only guy in the group so I had a field day spinning the ladies about. It struck me as a very nice way of spending time, so when it was time to get out of the school and look for further education I opted for the Music and Dance High School in the nearby town of Kuopio. That's when the bug really bit me.

After two years of mediocre teachers I found my way to Helsinki, had a brush with the Finnish National Ballet School and bashed into show business at full pelt. Several musicals, revues, night club/corporate/cruise ship/fashion/tv shows, half a year of selling hot dogs on the street and a soap opera later I felt the need for proper training and, being a lucky sod, ended up in the capable hands of Ikky Maas, Jacki Mitchell and Donald MacLennan at the Millennium Dance 2000, a rather smashing musical theatre school in London.

Just hanging around at the college. Photo by Peter Teigen ©

I was 21 and had some serious sequins in my eyes. Working front of house and seeing such art as Grease and Miss Saigon too many times for my own good I decided to go contemporary. One thing lead to another and I found myself on stage with National Youth Dance Company. Que plenty of exposure and contacts. In comes Mr Page, creates the rocking Acrid Avid Jam and gets me to perform it with lovely Laura Morera in one of Royal Ballet's choreographic evenings. Wham-bam-thank you 'mam. His style of working suited me very well indeed. If I ever had a chance to work with him again...

I graduated as a fully qualified monkey as part of the first Millennium vintage on spring 2001 and went straight on to work with Kim Brandstrup's Arc Dance Company creating a role in Brothers. On finishing the tour I felt the call of the wild again. It was time to swap the pantyhose to camouflage for a while and head up to the forests of my native land. A year of compulsory national service gave me 10 kilos extra weight, an operation on a collapsed lung and a rank of 2nd Lieutenant. It just happened so that there was a contract available in Scottish Ballet, now run by one Mr Ashley Page. Did I jump for it? Hell yeah!

I started work in the end of July trying to very slowly ease myself back into dancing. Fat chance. We had two months to get the Autumn Tour on the road and I had to learn Siobhan Davies's White Man Sleeps and Stephen Petronio's MiddleSexGorge. Had fun. I had to. If I'd stopped laughing the reality would have hit me square in the face. It was worth it though.

Me and Lilian Pommier rocking it in MiddleSexGorge. Photo by Mark Hamilton ©

On finishing the tour we learned that we had seven weeks to create an entire new production of Nutcracker. I really didn't fancy being in Ashley's shoes. Six weeks behind us we are entering the production week. Ashley's kept his cool through the process and squeezed together a full evening's worth of entertainment. Plenty of hard work but fun in equal measures. I've kept busy trying to get my head around creating the rather complex character of Mr Drosselmeyer. Premiering on the 17th of December in the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh we still have a few days for final tweaking. Edinburgh dates are followed by Glasgow, Inverness, Aberdeen, Hull and Belfast. Come and have a look. You might just like it...

Scottish Ballet Soloist Claire Robertson as Marie in Ashley Page's new production of The Nutcracker sponsored by Bank of Scotland.
Photo by Drew Farrell ©

Posted by Jarkko at December 9, 2003 02:39 PM