It may seem like a wild jump from an austere religious movement founded in 1772 to a cutting-edge contemporary dance production performed in Wellington in 2008, but the jump is a clear one for Finnish choreographer Tero Saarinen. His work 'Borrowed Light,' which is being performed as part of the International Festival of the Arts in March, is an exploration of strong communal values, austerity and devotion inspired by the Shakers.

The path to inspiration

Saarinen has been intrigued by the minimalism and austerity of the Shakers since the late 1980s, when he first saw a documentary about Doris Humphrey's Shaker-inspired choreography. Saarinen was inspired by the strong communal values and strikingly beautiful, functionalistic aesthetics of the 18th and 19th centuries.

After learning more about Shaker architecture, design and ideas over the years, Saarinen came across The Boston Camerata album 'Simple Gifts.' The music's manic repetition touched him deeply and, in 2002, he contacted Joel Cohen, director of The Boston Camerata about the possibility of a joint production.

'Borrowed Light' is named after the Shakers' architectural practice of building windows into interior rooms, thus maximizing daylight and productivity. Saarinen and his trusted collaborators, lighting designers Mikki Kumttu and costume designer Erika Turunen, also approached light as a religious metaphor. The visual appearance of the piece reflects this. The costumes combine heavy felting with airy, transparent fabrics. The light design emphasises mystical shadows against piercingly bright light.

Broader themes

Despite the strong influences of the Shakers, Saarinen sees 'Borrowed Light' as addressing the theme of the communitarian society on a general level: "My main source of inspiration was the Shakers and I ended up using only original Shaker music, but this piece is not about Shakerism. It is about creativity and devotion. To me the nature of total commitment – whether religious, artistic or political – is fundamentally the same."

Tero Saarinen Company dance technique pays a lot of attention to the feet, fingers, eyes and skin. "I focus on acknowledging the weight of the body and activating the extremities of the body - all the nerve endings. When dancers are aware of all these nerve endings they become authentic, alive and also more versatile. My goal is to reach a state of awareness where even the skin is curious and sensitive. All this leads in to a dance that is constantly alive and surprising, like our flora and fauna."

A global collaboration

It took eighteen months of hard work by Saarinen and his collaborators to finalise the choreography and visual form of 'Borrowed Light.' The collaboration with the Boston Camerata began with the selection of a few Shaker songs from an archive of hundreds – some never published before.

During the creative process, Saarinen and Cohen met several times in Europe and the U.S, and they also travelled to the Sabbathday Lake Community to meet the four remaining Shakers. Initially the two ensembles practiced separately, but towards the end of the process they had several inspirational encounters. For example, Cohen and soprano Anne Azéma worked with the dancers in Helsinki, and Saarinen traveled to Boston to meet the singers.

Coming together

Even though the entire production team did not meet until a week before the premiere, the extended working period and the devotion of all the artists involved allowed these two ensembles to be seamlessly integrated into each other, into one performance.

"Dance is my attempt to understand human nature and its multiple manifestations – friendship, love, strength of spirit", says Tero Sarrinen. "Even though I believe in constant change and evolution, at the same time, I also feel a deep respect for tradition and for the past; we can't avoid carrying around our inheritance from our ancestors in our minds and bodies. With my dance I want to reach the unspoken, the inexplicable, the unnamed. I believe in dance that touches, and dance that speaks for itself."

'Borrowed Light' will be performed 12 - 15 March 2008 at 8.00pm at the St James Theatre in Wellington.