Odd Meters

”Mikko Niemistö’s trip to the outskirts of movement and language is a wonderfully stubborn, risk-friendly and ”whacky” adventure. With a keen feeling for irregular rhythms and a precise understanding of intuitive states, the young artist from Finland succeeds in bringing about an impressively controlled loss of control.” -Jury’s special mention, ImPulsTanz -festival, [8:tension] - Young Choreographer’s Series 2022

”In the end, it doesn't matter what underlies the sixty electric minutes of Odd Meters, during which Mikko Niemistö, a teenage-like figure, took us into his inner waves. The tension of this proposal is so strong, and the gesture so sure, that the moment seen Thursday evening at the far°, in Nyon, will be remembered.” -Marie-Pierre Genecand, Le Temps, 8/2022

”As a whole, Odd meters feels very refreshing precisely because it is not only essayistic and analytically dissecting but also emphasizes intuition, feeling and the illogical. All this in a way that finely resonates with this time in which information flows freely, and one must remain online at all times.” -Jan-Peter Kaiku, Hufvudstadsbladet 9/2020

”In recent contemporary dance works, I have found the body’s sensitivity to its hidden memories inspiring. It is as if the very things we often try to cleanse from our bodies and our minds might be the most important social information, the very things we need in order to survive our constant online lives without losing our ability to make independent decisions. Odd Meters, bursting with atypical rhythms, is exactly such a performance. In addition, Odd Meters pulsates with titillating humour, which resonates all over your body.” -Maria Säkö, Helsingin Sanomat 9/2020

Odd Meters is a frenzied dance that bounces between rhythms in an attempt to reconstruct itself from fragments of dreams, time and the body. It works with rhythms found in the moment that overlap, argue and shake the flesh.

Odd Meters* by Mikko Niemistö is based on the dreams he saw at the Bjällansås farm in Uddevalla, Sweden in summer 2018 while in residency there: the intertwined layers of natural cycles, dancing, and 4G connectivity to newsfeeds and entertainment, seeped into his night-time reality.

Odd Meters explores a human body that is alienated from itself and its environment; it is lost in obsessive dreams, adventure fantasies of the digital realm and the polyrhythmic labyrinth of an illogical relationship with nature. In this intersection the chronic insomnia of a thoroughly technologized era collides with its own impossibility.

The work desires to bring the experience of the dream to public circulation while working from a non-linear understanding of time. The performer is wide awake but simultaneously channelling unfiltered impulses swelling from the memories of REM dreams – fragments of stories where the narrator is not in control of the narrative.

* Odd Meters is a musical term used to describe untypical time signatures.

Choreography and performance: Mikko Niemistö

Spatial design: Elina Lifländer

Sound design: Johannes Vartola

Lighting design: Teo Lanerva

Producer: Riikka Thitz

Artistic dialogue: Karolina Ginman

Production: Zodiak - Center for New Dance

Premiere and tours: Premiere 2nd September 2020, Zodiak - Center for New Dance, Helsinki

Kutomo, Turku, 4th December 2020, XS -Festival

Routa Company, Kajaani, 5th March 2021

Moving in November -festival, Helsinki 13th and 14th November 2021

ImPulsTanz -festival, Vienna, 22th and 24th July 2022

far° festival des arts vivants, Nyon, 17th and 18th August 2022

Residencies: KID - Konstnärsnämndens Internationella Dansprogram, Kutomo / Ehkä productions

Supported by: The Kone Foundation, Arts Promotion Center Finland, The Finnish Cultural Foundation and Svenska kulturfonden