THE NINTH FULL MOON.

THE NINTH FULL MOON FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY FINNISH DANCE AT PYHAJARVI (THE FULL MOON DANCE FESTIVAL) PYHAJARVI, FINLAND VARIOUS VENUES JULY 25-29, 2000

The deceptively cozy Full Moon Dance Festival, now in its ninth year, possesses an admirably long reach. The first edition was an unlikely but organic outgrowth of dance classes held in Pyhajarvi, a town (population approximately 7000) in mid-Finland's Lake District. Course participants started performing for each other; the local community was supportive. Full Moon has remained an intimate, informal event that primarily showcases some of the most promising independent talent in the small, struggling, yet vibrant arena of contemporary Finnish dance.

Spread between two spaces, of 120 and 350 seats respectively, Full Moon 2000 presented an impressive six world and three Finnish premieres. The work offered ran a healthy gamut of experience from relative newcomers to veterans.

In the vanguard of the former category was Gruppen Fyra, four young female dance graduates whose brightly conceived, quirky pieces tend to last the length of a pop song. Belgium-based Riina Saastamoinen was exceptionally compelling in Random Stories, a text-laced solo in which she both withholds and reveals herself emotionally. The ambiguous tension this produced was beautifully sustained. Helena Franzen, visiting from Sweden, also made a strong showing in her solo Squig.

The seasoned choreographer Soile Lahdenpera was represented by a far too harmonious quartet called Memories--Now, a piece best chalked up as an honorable failure.

Alpo Aaltokoski's Promises is a technologically inventive and utterly accessible study of the ups-and-downs of a relationship. His and Pirjo Yli-Maunula's performances in gigantic video settings were tremendous, complex and physically always clear. This meaningful dramatic entertainment was a festival highlight.

The star of the week--and, indeed, of the current Finnish dance scene--was undoubtedly the unassuming but patently gifted Jyrki Karttunen. As a dancer only, but a creatively involved one, the tall, wiry Karttunen and compact, dynamic Katri Soini scored a deserved audience hit in KJp. Danish choreographer Palle Granhoj (the lower-case p of the initialed title) constructed this commissioned duet around a layering of kinetic obstacles, monologue fragments and popular music (from "Fever" to a Finnish-language version of Gypsy's "All I Need Is the Girl" sung in turn by the performers). For instance, a series of phrases would be repeated, only with one of the dancers holding the other's hand or stepping on his or her partner's foot. It was a smart exercise in which Karttunen and Soini were engaging as stylized versions of themselves.

Karttunen gave further evidence of his talent for comedy and motion via his own choreographies, Very Important Persons and Mr. and Mrs. Betlehem. The first is an adaptable, site-specific celebrity spoof, with Karttunen and Yli-Maunula as gilded movie-star grotesques who slither, simper and frustratedly mug before a what-else-but-adoring public. In Pyhajarvi, their almost butoh-esque glamour routine was cleverly staged on the steps of the town hall with all the area politicians and bigwigs in attendance. Betlehem is a casual, charming ensemble piece in which Karttunen perpetuates the wigglingly playful fascination with Spanish dance seen in his breakthrough piece Digital Duende.

The Full Moon Festival ended vividly with a double bill from Apostolia Papadalnaki, a Greek choreographer working with the Finnish dance group M.A.D. Rebounds, a carefully restless, imbalanced piece inspired by an earthquake in Athens in 1999, was just the right length at twenty minutes. The ambitious ritual Persephassa (Greek for Persephone) possessed a primitive, earthy ecstasy that would have been even more effective performed outdoors. Both dances were made as homage to Greek composer Iannis Xenakis. The music for Persephassa has never been presented as intended, as a composition for six percussionists in the round. Here a kind of surround-sound system was rigged to complement the superb playing of the sole musician, Dimitris Dessylas.