“ Maria Nurmela's new contemporary dance work incorporates themes and motifs from H.C. Andersen's The Little Match Girl. With an international ensemble of artists this multidisciplinary performance work reveals itself in a variety of emotions and visions.”

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Falling Through The Disappearing Light (2021) is an immersive contemporary dance performance created by Finnish choreographer Maria Nurmela with five internationally established professional dance artists. The work's inspiration is rooted in H.C. Andersen's epic story of The Little Match Girl, published in 1845. In this new work, the narrative is viewed from today's perspective, unpacking, fragmenting and revealing its multifaceted themes and phenomena true to current times. The performance lives inside a delicate and exquisitely crafted original sound world of contemporary musical co-composition designed especially for this work by Australian composer-soprano Jane Sheldon and Turku-based sound composer Jaakko Vastapuu. Combining Sheldon’s own choral music and textures of burning wood and fire, with Vastapuu's precisely haunting soundscapes that play through multiple sound sources inhabiting many corners of the space, the sound creeps and seeps into the audience's consciousness with the work.

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Striking, sensory and minimalistic light and stage design created by Kalle Ropponen is contrasted by the sooty handcrafted costumes by designer Heidi Wikar, hyper-alluring the visual senses to the work’s themes.
 

The performance offers its audience a multi-sensory journey of dance movement, texts, and visual and sonic designs that traverse emotive and virtuosic scopes. From eerie sparseness to breathless physicality and hypnotic drive, a touching journey encompassing the work remains true to H.C. Andersens intention of the original story. Falling Through The Disappearing Light creates a sensitive and enigmatic atmosphere that offers the viewer an opportunity to explore the ephemeral nature of life and death through contemporary dance.

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