TEMPO | Kalle Nio & Fernando Melo

TEMPO is a captivating exploration of time: its acceleration, deceleration, and moments when it seems to stand still. At its core is a mundane event, turned extraordinary, highlighting life’s fragility through moments of falling, stumbling, and near-accidents.

Directed by visual artist and magician Kalle Nio, with choreography by Fernando Melo and music by Samuli Kosminen, TEMPO blends text, movement, and mesmerizing stage illusions where time reverses, gravity vanishes, and the laws of nature dissolve. Dreamlike, wordless scenes alternate with rhythmic compositions for prepared metronomes and Harry Salmenniemi’s poignant text about time’s strange elasticity.

Through magic, contemporary dance, elements of object theatre, music, and text used as a sonic layer rather than a semantic element of the performance, TEMPO invites audiences to pause, reflect, and truly feel the present moment.

Concept: Nio, Melo & Salmenniemi
Direction: Kalle Nio
Choreography: Fernando Melo
Text: Harry Salmenniemi
Performers: Barbara Kanc, Winston Reynolds, Luigi Sardone in alternance with Iiro Näkki
Music & Sound Design: Samuli Kosminen
Costume Design: Georgina Spencer
Lighting Design: Johannes Hallikas
Stage manager / rigger: Hedda Liukkala
Head of lighting: June Horton-White
Tour technician: Emilie Largier
Tour Booking & Management: Yellow Everything
Photography & Trailer: Kalle Nio

Duration: 60 min
Age: 8+

The HELIUM festival is supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and the Vilnius City Municipality, refreshed by “Vytautas” mineral water, with LRT as the media partner.