KVARTETTO Comes to Edinburgh Fringe Next Month

A quartet of performers with their own unique perception of the world join together in a radically tender dance show to celebrate love and affection. Choreographed by the Helsinki-based Kati Raatikainen, Kvartetto (translation: quartet), delivers a softly pitched challenge to how society understands individuals labelled as intellectually disabled. At the work's heart is an appreciation of the embodied power of dance and the implied joy of coming together in a communal space. Each performer expresses their own emotional mosaic of desires and longings through choreography with an instinctual, naturalistic edge. A digital version of the show was streamed by Summerhall for Edinburgh Fringe 2021.

Drawing on the lived experience of the performers, the contemporary dance work represents the dancers onstage as full, adult participants in society with complex thoughts, emotions, memories and wants. Kati Raatikainen's personal philosophy of performance and choreography, developed over a number of years, instils the work with a deeply empathic aura. The relationships between the performers themselves and the relationships between the performers and audience become vital components to a contemplative work which invites those watching to rethink their own views.

Kati Raatikainen said, "For me as the choreographer, the central issue of the work is the relationship between intensity, fluency and 'stumbling.' Why aim at the illusion of fluency, if reality is occasionally slow, halting and stumbling - even dull? I believe that if we set out ambitiously to create accessible performance art from its early origins to the staging, and aim to listen to the interests of the whole working party in addition to our own visions, we'll be compelled to abandon restrictive concepts, which we use, routinely and without noticing, to practise multilevel exclusion and discrimination. Inclusion requires the right attitude and financial resources but when practised, it increases every participant's potential for changing their automatic patterns of thought and action, and for finding themselves searching for new ways of being human in a changing world."

Kati Raatikainen is a Helsinki-based performance artist and choreographer. Her work is an ever-evolving exploration into how to choreograph empathy and how to depict the relationships between human and non-human beings in performative situations. Kati's preferred method of creating new work involves collaboration and a long development period. Her work has previously been performed at venues including the Zodiak - Centre for New Dance in Helsinki and at URB, a festival at the Kiasma contemporary art museum.

From Start to Finnish is an annual showcase presented at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that represents the best in Finnish performing arts. Returning to Edinburgh for its tenth year, From Start to Finnish 2022 features four additional shows: Johnny Got His Gun (ZOO Southside), Receptionists (Summerhall) Raging Mother (ZOO Southside) and Lion (Assembly). In previous years, the showcase has included the award-winning Cock, Cock... Who's There? and The Desk, the Fringe First-winning physical theatre piece based on first-hand experiences of being in a cult.

Running Time: 45 mins | Suitable for ages 14+

Company information

Choreography by Kati RaatikainenSound design by Markku Essel

Spatial and lighting design by Milla MartikainenLight technician Perttu Lähdesmäki

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