Everything is connected through ecology

Although Lehtovaara grew up in a forest landscape, to him a connection to ecology means much more than the obvious connection to the forest or the environment. To his way of thinking, ecology is everywhere: in the interconnections and dynamic relationships between both living and inanimate things.

In his doctoral research, Lehtovaara investigates the occurrence of bodily experiences created by a fossil energy-dependent culture and how they inevitably change with ecological reconstruction of the society. The thesis consists of a written and an artistic element and includes research and methods of both dance and environmental philosophy. As part of the thesis, Lehtovaara created the Nature Untitled triptych between 2022 and 2024. The performances of the dance piece took place in three different sites in Helsinki: Oil Silo 468, Zodiak Centre for New Dance and shopping center REDI. 

The movement of energy and information between the environment and the performing body are at the heart of Lehtovaara’s artistic practice. Dance and choreography are ways of perceiving the relationship between the body’s inner experience and the living environment. Lehtovaara chose the oil silo as one of the sites for this triptych firstly because it has actually been used to store oil. It is also a place where marine nature and the architectural, built environment meet. 

He wanted to study the ghosts of fossil fuels– the rhythm, shape and intensity of the movement created by the oil once flowing through the silo. Lehtovaara talks about the energy economy of the body and its connectedness to the fossil metabolism of society as a whole.

“I wanted to know how choreography is created in such a place and how the physical circumstances of the space affect the human body and vice versa. The oil silo is both a steel-hard and porous space. Light seeps into it and the wind blows through it. The body’s energy management is clearly revealed in the space, for example in the dancers’ steamy bodies and breathing.”

Lehtovaara explains that he writes dance in relation to the space, its shapes and proportions. The energy of the body can also flow into the space as the voice of the performer, circle the round space like an echo and flow into the other dancers and the audience. Like a circle, everything is ultimately linked to society’s metabolism.

“I sometimes use the term site-responsive, which may lead people to thinking about responsibility (responsibility as an ability to respond). It’s about the ability to communicate, transfer information, respond – for example, the way the choreography responds to the space and within the space, or how the space intertwines with the choreography and speaks to the performing bodies.”

People have been talking about the post-fossil era and the transition to it for at least a decade. In Finland, BIOS researcher Tere Vadén and environmental philosopher Antti Salminen, among others, have written about it. We have not yet entered a fossil-free era, but that is the goal. 

But Lehtovaara does not think that green energy is completely problem-free either. 

“Total global energy consumption continues to increase at a rapid pace. When looking at the big picture, it’s clear that renewable energy has not replaced fossil fuels but complements our ever-growing energy consumption. There is also a lot of talk about energy efficiency, which in the capitalist system is often seen as economic profit rather than ecological sustainability.”

According to Lehtovaara, society’s metabolism is linked to how we exist in bodily awareness, how we perceive and use our own bodies. The industrial revolution and the capitalist system have effectively harnessed and tied bodies to be used as a resource, a mindset that we humans have collectively internalised. Similarly, in today’s world, nervous stimuli are flooding in from all sides.

For Lehtovaara, the key to artistic work is the transition from the body as a performing object to a body that senses, perceives and experiences things. 

“In my work, I try to create places and situations that invite you to stop and listen to your own body in relation to the environment, perhaps in a new way or at least in a thought provoking way.”

The paradox of vibration as a choreographic starting point

Lehtovaara uses various somatic methods in his artistic work. One of them is TRE, Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises. This method uses the body’s natural muscular shaking or vibrating mechanism as a stress relief method. The vibration reflex is activated with muscle stretching and tensing movements. In short, it is a nervous system-based vibration that can be induced by accurately targeted exertion and relaxation.

The vibrations generated by TRE can be used to release, direct and regulate the energy circulating in the body and produced by the body. The vibrations can move around the body, changing shape and intensity. 

For Lehtovaara, this too is, above all, a way of working with the energy flowing through the body. The shaking or vibrating may also create an access to embodied memory. It can reveal kinaesthetic sedimentations of things you have done and experienced in your life. 

“It can feel spooky when kinaesthetic memories emerge without me consciously producing the movements. The conscious mind may get a fright, thinking, who the heck is making these movements.”

Lehtovaara explore these movements and craft them into a choreography. This also implies a certain impossibility or paradox. TRE movements arise from the unconscious part of the body. If the conscious mind kicks in and tries to take control of the situation, the vibration often stops. 

“This is a contradiction and, at the same time, a link at the heart of my practice. It reveals, momentarily, the body’s connection to ecology and nature. I think we are primarily connected through our bodies to other non-human beings, other entities and organisms. We position ourselves and our bodies in a situation of reciprocity. It’s a way of sharing our existence with other beings.”