Lumen sets up a landscape of imagined memories and rearranges the world in a way in which he wants.
Riku Lehtopolku’s dance piece is a window to a post-truth era where the word of the most ruthless person defines a course of events. When nothing is true, everything is possible.
“The initial spark to Lumen is my own personal frustration and also the fear of whether anyone in the near future will know anymore what is true and what is not. The opportunities provided by AI are developing and spreading like wildfire, those in positions of power are ruthlessly writing their own truths that please themselves, and social media is making everything a mess, and when untangling it, even a critical eye isn’t necessarily always enough. At the same time, however, I myself am captivated by the thought of parallel realities, and the stage in itself is one of them. Even though there’s a lot of friction in the foundation of Lumen, I aimed at approaching the theme with humane gentleness,” Lehtopolku reveals, explaining his basis for the piece.
Lumen is Lehtopolku’s first piece during his time as AB Dance Company Artistic Director. In addition to himself, others interpreting the piece are Elina Raiskinmäki, Suvi Nieminen, Anu Sistonen and Antti-Pekka Pudas.
“For me, the dancers are always of paramount importance, and they greatly influence what kind of form the piece will ultimately take. The performers sharing the stage are experienced yet quite different from one another, which, to me, is a tremendously inspirational basis for doing the work. I hope that every dancer’s distinctiveness and physical virtuosity will blossom, and I am eagerly looking forward to getting to dive into sharing the process with them,” Lehtopolku says.
The sound designer for Lumen is Eero Auvinen, who does the same work for the Finnish National Opera and Ballet. Lehtopolku has previously worked with Auvinen on 16 collaborative pieces. The pair first met at AB Dance Company in 2014 when they worked on the piece Ennen viimeisiä ajatuksia (‘Before Final Thoughts’) by Jorma Uotinen.
Premiere: 26 February 2026 | AB Dance Company, Turku
Age recommendation: 12 and up
Tickets
31 € single ticket
28 € pensioners
15 € students, children (under 18 years), unemployed persons, and persons in civil service or in the army
12 € members of Teme, Finnish Actors Union and Taku, persons having the Theatre Card of The Association of Finnish Theatres, dance and theatre students (vocational) and persons with press card
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