Jarkko Lehmus Diary

Touch of Snow

"In winter check the local weather forecast for warnings of icy or snowy weather. DO NOT drive in these conditions unless your journey is essential." -The Highway Code. All for art... ©

A slow morning in Inverness. ©

Where were we last time? Miserably late writing the last entry of 2007 in January 2008? That sounds about right. This time around I'm actually sticking a few lines together before the end of the month. New year, new tricks...

The first leg of the Sleeping Beauty tour is done and dusted and all that is left is a little porlogue in Newcastle in two week's time. we've done 41 shows and the last six seem so far away that it's actually quite funny. I've got all manner of plans to really ham it up for the geordies. Yellow contact lenses, chest hair and some fishnets should get the party started...

This week has been a relatively quiet one for most of the company and, judging by the amount of sore bodies and glazed eyes, it's much needed. Ashley's started work on his new piece Pennies From Heaven for next autumn. So far a bunch of duets set into some 1930s tunes. I'm jazzing it up with Claire and having a right ball after all those days and nights of posing and pseudo-balletics I've been clocking in for the Beauty. Although there have been a couple of departures from the trend, the company's rep has actually been increasingly balletic over the past few years, so it's nice to have a little detour. Ashley seems to enjoying himself as well.

Now that he's got three full-length productions in the back for Christmases of the future he can take it a bit easier for a bit and concentrate on creating some groovier work for the company. I hope. The stability on both the repertoire and financial fronts is beginning to also show in the longer term planning of the company and Ashley's plan of introducing a fourth performing season is finally coming true this year in the from of the small scale national tour, so that we can finish our year performing rather than rehearsing before the summer holidays.

Krzysztof Pastor is coming in with his team next week to kick off the new R&J. Apparently they've cropped a bit of the music and a few roles to make it a more manageable task to put it on in only two months. It'll be interesting to see what he does with it. I haven't been bothered to squeeze out too much info so far since we'll know next week anyway, but the usual practice of the rest of the house knowing before the dancers seems to be prevailing with some girls already having costume fitting without knowing which role the costumes are for. That's just silly in my books. I just hope that I'll get to do some dancing and maybe even cut my hair and grow some facial hair again. Then again I might as well keep my hair before it's all gone for good. Hydroxyl compounds and receding hairline go hand to hand...

Diana has also started work on the piece the company commissioned from her for the small-scale tour and I've landed in the thick of it exploring my far too long abandoned softer side. It's early days still with both Ashley's and Diana's pieces, but I feel quite a bit more comfortable with that type of movement and also feel like I can actually contribute something and tap into all those old reserves of movement quality, sensitivity and depth.

Speaking of latent softness and sensitive qualities, I've also started work on my own piece for the choreographic workshops. Kenny and Susan, the lovely people of Cinephile, are already working on the score for the piece, so I'm doing my best to make justice for their musical talents. Check these guys out at http://www.cinephileonline.com/

Most of the piece revolves around exploring the finer nuances of relationships and touch and Jo, Mark and Glauco, the dancers I've managed to properly work with so far, have come up with the goods in style. As above, the process has only started, but I just find it fascinating what professionals do to the movement. You ask them to do just a little gesture, coax them to listen to each other and then just sit back to watch what happens and they always deliver more than you ask from them when you let them to. It's beautiful. I'm keeping the piece choreographically pretty simple, but therein lies the challenge. I can't wait to get my hands on the first rough sketch of the score, so we can play around with the timing of things now that I have a better idea what each moment needs to have it's own breathing space. Hopefully I could also bring Kenny and Susan into the studio to watch what we do. All in good time.

I'd also like to film the piece once it's all done. It should render itself fairly easily to the screen, so there's a few chats to be had here and there to see what's possible in the future. If it all works out well, the structure of the piece is such that I could use it as a platform to develop the theme further. Ideas-a-plenty.

Other than all that new work all the rest of my waking hours have been occupied by the toils of looking after the dancers' interest especially on the maternity and injury fronts. Diana is well on her way and glowing in a lovely round manner and Eve has joined her with her own little bump of pride. There are a few issues that need to be straightened up, but I hope we can come to an agreeable arrangement for all sooner rather than later. Paul's knee has been operated this very morning by the same chap who sorted the footie star Henrik Larsson's broken bits. It's always good to have some closure in life and the past few months have been pretty hard on him, so it's good to see that he's on the way to recovery. I've got a meeting with our GM and the people from Hampden National Sports Injury Clinic tomorrow to talk about possible future collaboration and we'll also have me and a couple of people from the staff getting trained as sports injury first-aiders, so, although things are slow, at least they are moving.

I'll keep this fairly short and pretty sweet and leave you with a last little bit of debauched inspiration to retire to my cave to pack for a weekend of art, laughter and petrol fumes in London. Ta, ta.

New Years, New Tricks

Ho-ho-ho! Ballet Stylee. Photo by me.©

Happy New Year to all and sundry!

I was supposed to put pen on paper before 2008 was ushered in, but unfortunately the time to do that didn't materialise, so here I am picking my Monday brain for your sporadic entertainment.

Ashley's Sleeping Beauty is well and truly on the roll with 21 pretty much sold out performances in the bag and another 26 still bearing down on the company. We've got 7 extra dancers contracted for the production, but the pressure is still pretty heavy on everyone and it's starting to show with a few niggling injuries and some ragged nerves. The shows itself have been pretty good so far. The audience certainly has been enjoying the run so far, but the constantly changing casting is taking it's toll.

There's another principal casting going on on Thursday night bringing the grand total of different Aurora/Prince combinations to five. As the king I've had a ringside seat watching the gradual physical degeneration of the hardest worked dancers. I feel the need to help where I can, so I've been working a bit more on the massage front to keep the poor things going. Luckily the worst is over already and the performance schedule for the rest of the tour will be a little more spread out, but at the same time the stages of the future will be either hard, raked or both.

Paul Liburd is going under the knife to get his knee sorted, Diana is still pregnant, me and the dancers' committee are trying to sort out some maternity leave issues and generally just trying to keep the schedules organised in a decent manner and keeping up the communication with the management, so that everybody knows what's going on, when and where to keep things running as smoothly as possible to minimise the external stress to keep the company as happy and productive as possible.

You'd hope that especially at this moment the general well-being of the dancers would feature heavily in the minds of the management team. You'd hope...

In my view clear well thought-out information, supportive and trust building attitude, inspiring ways of motivating your employees, keeping them intellectually challenged and making each person feel that they are cared for and understood are the cornerstones of effective management. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's something to aspire to.

If any of you readers disagree with me or are willing to contribute to my continuing education especially from the viewpoint of managing a dance company, please do not hesitate to contact me. I'd be more than happy to hear from you. you can find a link to my email underneath my picture on the left side of the page.

Other than the usual toiling and boiling I've bothered my little head with the oncoming choreographic workshop. A beautiful love duet, a very reserved man and his madness and a sandwich are taking from. I'm trying to pull off a commissioned score for the piece to make it that little bit more special. Let's see how that one goes.

After The Beauty is put to bed until the next Christmas season Krzysztof Pastor will hop on the plane from Holland and whip up a new version of Romeo and Juliet using the Prokofiev score. The classic tale will be set in a slightly more classic setting of the 30s and 50s Sicily. I don't know much about the casting yet, but creating a new work is always interesting. I suppose I'll end up in another character part with not too much dancing in it. I really should learn to point my feet and do so pretty twirly things one of these days. Then again, if I'd be one of the Three Lords-a-leaping, who'd be the daddy? I guess I'm stuck with serial fatherdom for the rest of my days in this company. Maybe I'll get to be a real bad-ass Tybalt for the second cast. I savour the thought.

I've been trying to inject a bit of character into my second role of the Romanian Prince with some rougher moves, a shaggy hair and some gray streaks to bring the wolf out. Now all I need is some yellow contact lenses...

Having thoroughly lost my thread there I'll just leave you with my observation of the speed that technology moves forward from the streets of Glasvegas.

Only yesterday it was the big 70s tellies on the street... Photo by me.©