Jarkko Lehmus

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1) Do you have a favourite web site?
It has to be Google! It just finds everything and then some.

 

2) What is your favourite ballet? Or role?
The title role in Mats Ek’s Carmen always impresses me, but I am still looking for something to make me go ‘WOW – I want to do that!’

 

3) How do you relax away from the studio?
Blowing a few tunes out of my sax always chills me out. Other than that, a good session of wall climbing followed by a sauna and the steamroom does the trick.

 

4) What was the last film you saw? Did you enjoy it?
The last film I saw was Brother by Takeski Kitano. The Japanese way of telling a story is fascinating.

 

5) What is your favourite meal/type of food?
I eat just about anything as long as there’s enough of it and it tastes good. Most people eat to live, I live to eat!

 

6) Do you find it easy or difficult to get out of bed in the morning?
Webmaster’s note – Jarkko’s answer to this question has been removed for being far too rude for our delicate sensibilities!

 

7) What made you take up dance as a career?
It sort of went the other way for me. I was always a physical person and through a coincidence, I ended up dancing and was too stupid to stop! Really, I love it!

 

8) Which is your favourite ballet company? – aside from Scottish Ballet of course!
It has to be Frankfurt Ballet.

 

9) What is or has been your favourite venue to perform in?
The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

 

10) What is your greatest extravagance?
Well, I almost married a real African princess – that would have been extravagant!

 

11) Describe how you made the switch from a career in the army to becoming a dancer.
National Service is compulsory in my native Finland although there are ways of getting out of it. Being the nutter that I am, I went the whole hog and came out 12 months later as a Second Lieutenant. Thanks to working with Ashley (Page, Artistic Director, Scottish Ballet) in London, I had a contract waiting for me at Scottish Ballet. A bit of hard work and I’m back dancing again.

 

 

Biography

 

Jarkko was born in Finland and trained at the FinnishNationalBalletSchool, Helsinki and Millennium Dance 2000 in London. He has worked with the National Youth Dance Company, Fabulous Beast Dance Company in Dublin, Arc Dance Company and performed at The Royal Opera House in Turandot and Macbeth. He has also worked on commercial projects in the UK including appearances at The Record of the Year Awards and The Brit Awards.

 

Having joined Scottish Ballet in 2003, Jarkko created roles in Page’s The Nutcracker (Drosselmeyer), Cinderella (Father), Acrid Avid Jam, Nightswimming into day, Refurbished Behaviour, The Pump Room, The Sleeping Beauty (The King) and Pastor’s In Light and Shadow. He has also danced in Page’s 32 Cryptograms and Room Of Cooks, Loosmore’s Sirocco, Davies’ White Man Sleeps, Petronio’s MiddleSexGorge and Ride The Beast, Forsythe’s Artifact Suite  and Ashton’s Façade.

 

Jarkko received a Herald Angel Award for excellence in his performance of Ashley Page works during Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2005. 

 

Read Jarkko's Blog.

 

Quotes

 

The Sleeping Beauty (2007-2008)

. The Times, 13 December 2007 – ‘Eve Mutso and Jarkko Lehmus were delightful as Aurora’s high-stepping parents’.

 

.Scotland on Sunday, 16 December 2007 – Jarkko Lehmus and Eve Mutso make for a regal king and queen… in the wedding scene, their dancing, which mixes traditional ballet with fiery tango kicks, is magnificent

 

 SPRING 2007
Page’s Room Of Cooks
.The Scotsman, 16 April 2007 – Diana Loosmore, Jarkko Lehmus and Paul Liburd keep the atmosphere crackling with adulterous passion

 

.Evening Times, 12 April 2007 – The domestic disharmony between Diana Loosmore and Jarkko Lehmus is mesmerising, while Paul Liburd is a dream to watch. It’s hard to tear your eyes away from this trio whenever they are on stage – amazing.

 

.Sunday Herald, 15 April 2007 – soloists Eve Mutso, Soon Ja Lee and Jarkko Lehmus catch the eye

 

.Criticaldance.net, April 2007 - Diana Loosmore, Paul Liburd and Jarkko Lehmus were outstanding.

 

AUTUMN 2006

 

Page's Refurbished Behaviour
. The Herald 5*, September 20 2006 - Loosmore and Lehmus were in wonderful, slow-burn mode – stretching into the sinuous clashes and gamesmanship that make Page’s Refurbished Behaviour erotic and amusing.

 

.The Scotsman 4*, September 20 2006 - The onstage chemistry of dancers such as Loosmore and Jarkko Lehmus was crackling.

 

SPRING 2006
Petronio’s MiddleSexGorge
. The Times, 27 March 2006 - … but the cast – especially Liburd and Jarkko Lehmus, with their powerful (and bare-bottomed) physiques – dance with rigour and vivacity.

 

. Londondance.com, 11 April 2006 – Here, the dancing simmered with erotic energy and I was particularly impressed by the controlled power and physicality of Jarkko Lehmus and Paul Liburd.

 

. Ballet-dance.com – 20 April 2006 – And without a doubt it is well-suited to displaying the company’s collection of fine contemporary talents, especially Paul Liburd, Patricia Hines, Martina Forioso and Jarkko Lehmus.

 

Forsythe’s Suite from Artifact
. The Herald, 31 March 2006 – Hines, who lasered through the whole programme with fierce finesse – and Lehmus, Mutso, Claire Robertson and Erik Cavallari collected burnished honours in Forsythe’s Suite from Artifact, a tour de force that deserved the cheering ovation.

 

CINDERELLA 2005-2006
Page’s Cinderella
. Leopard Magazine, December 2005/January 2006 - Individual dancers like Claire Robertson, Patricia Hines, Diana Loosmore, Oliver Rydout and Jarkko Lehmus shone…

 

AUTUMN 2005
Page’s The Pump Room
. The Herald, 12 September 2005 – Pump Room – danced by its original quartet of Diana Loosmore, Jarkko Lehmus, Sophie Martin and Paul Liburd – now feels like a thrumming pressure cooker where each heat exchange bodies threatens to blow the roof off. Utterly brilliant…

 

EIF 2005
Page's Refurbished Behaviour and Acrid Avid Jam
. The List, August 2005 – Jarkko Lehmus and Diana Loosmore, two of Scottish Ballet’s most sensual dancers…

 

. The Herald, 16 August 2005 – Diana Loosmore and Jarkko Lehmus do the honours in Refurbished Behaviour and Acrid Avid Jam, their on-stage rapport a source of piquantly nuanced tensions, flirtations, stand-offs and molten coalitions. How gorgeous is it to be this close to two such exceptional dancers…. Lehmus responds with similar meticulous timing, his wit and lightness underpinned by a muscularity that is increasingly graceful.

 

. The List, 18-25 Aug – When Diana Loosmore and Jarkko Lehmus dance, sparks fly.

 

SPRING 2005
Page’s The Pump Room
. Criticaldance.com, 13 April 2005 – … Page highlights two of the company’s fascinating male talents, Paul Liburd and Jarkko Lehmus.

 

. The Herald, 14 April 2005 – His new piece, The Pump Room – to pistoning rhythms by Aphex Twin – celebrates the physicality and technical prowess of four dancers: Diana Loosmore (off pointe), with Jarkko Lehmus and Sophie Martin (on pointe) with Paul Liburd.

 

. The Observer, 1 May 2005 - The Pump Room is for two powerful men – Jarkko Lehmus and Paul Liburd (both with contemporary dance background) – interacting with rogue particle women, Diana Loosmore and Sophie Martin.

 

THE NUTCRACKER 2003-2004
Page’s The Nutcracker
. Lochaber News, 24 January 2004 – Jarkko Lehmus’ muscular interpretation of the role – and his passionate encounter with governess/Dame Mouserink (Diana Loosmore), soon cleared it up. Their early encounter, the Dame with full mousetail, was one of the most energetic and exciting pieces of dance…

 

. Nairnshire Telegraph, 3 February 2004 – But it is in the Divertissement in Act II that the uninitiated get a real sense of seamlessness between the old and the new when Estonian dancer Eve Mutso (Marie’s mother in the story but sheer seductress in the dance) performs with Lehmus, Nicholas Cleverton and Mark Kimmett in an Arabian style arrangement which was just packed full of fluidity and power.

 

. The Sunday Times, 11 April 2004 - … and they are worn with corsets- especially impressive on the powerfully built Finnish dancer Jarrko Lehmus.

 

. Observer (Review), 18 April 2004 – … Jarkko Lehmus unmissable in his tenacity…

 

. The Herald, 15 December 2004 – Loosmore has a smouldering quality that is nicely complemented by Jarrko Lehmus’s broodingly powerful performance – they too hint at the magnetic attraction of opposites.

 

. Rosshire Journal, 28 January 2005 – Jarkko Lehmus from Finland, as Herr Drosselmeyer, was superb. It was he who left us with no doubts about his considerable talents in Nightswimming Into Day whan Scottish Ballet came to Inverness last year. There was no nearly so much required of him in Nutcracker, but his portrayal of Drosselmeyer had all the mystery, dignity, and charm one could ever want from his part.