Jarkko Lehmus Diary

The Great Black Dancer and The Great White House Hunter

Is it just me or are things just that bit faster after a holiday? I certainly feel like I'm in a slo-mo-mode after having a month off. Luckily I'm not the only one: trying to get your head and body around the material we were working with before the break has left the whole company looking like it's been smacked in the face with a fish. Although it might be a rather classy fish, like a large, fresh, wild salmon, it's still a fish in your face.

There have been a few changes to the company during the summer. Robin Bernadet has left to trot on some greener pastures apparently to be found in Denmark and, allegedly, Jose Perez has got a job with some Italian tv-show. I wish them both best of luck. On the other hand the company's received a rather interesting addition in the form of Paul Liburd. If the name doesn't ring a bell, and I'm very surprised if it doesn't, he's the shaven headed black bloke who made his name first with London Contemporary Dance Theatre and has been an integral part of Rambert Dance Company for the past 12 years. He's a dancer I have respected and admired for a long time. I came to UK to study dance and performing arts six year ago, I saw Paul on stage with Rambert during my first year in college and was lucky enough to have had the opportunity to attend a master class with the company, then directed by Christopher Bruce, and work on some of the material the company was working with at the time. Paul was one of the guys demonstrating and teaching Mr Bruce's Ghost Dances. I was blown away by his strenght and quality of movement and all of a sudden I'm teaching him steps. What's that about?!?! Get's a bit much for my little brain if I think about it too much, so I'd just better get on with it and enjoy and learn from working with such a nice guy.

Most of this week is spent on getting the Forsythe and Van Manen stuff up to standard and Ashley's ploughing on with his new piece. How it all turns out is still a mystery, but creating new work is always fun. Next week all the boys of the company, me included, will be on their toes since the rather lovely Jodie Gates is coming back to play with us. Nice.

Reading through some of the earlier entries, I think I've got some explaining to do. Again. This Silver Machine I've been talking about is my new old motorbike, a Honda VFR 800i to be precise, the cheap car is a Nissan Micra with furry dice, but what comes to the fast women I'll leave it up to your imagination. I firmly believe that motorbikes are far superior compared to cars on the level of coolness, so having a cool bike and a cheap car leaves more money to be spent on the other good things in life...

When I'm not busting my brass balls in the studio, I've been very busy hunting houses. They're very slippery things you know. Hard to corner and, when cornered, tend to fight back like a wounded rhino. When you finally find one that's ready for the kill it's bound to have a few aces in the sleeve. So I'm spending my hard earned paying off all sorts of surveyors, solicitors and other vampire related creatures. If anyone's got the number for a certain Mr Van Helsing please do not hesitate to e-mail it to me. Enough of talking dudu already though. Work's good and life's in the process. I'll keep you posted.