I created the figure of mother - an old woman in Estonian Ballads - relying on the following principles: Man's life and existence contains the figure of a selfless mother, or perhaps a god. This is the same in Japan and in Estonia. Through giving birth and raising children a young woman becomes a mother. Winding back the tragic story (this is, after all, what many Estonian ballads are like), mother again becomes a woman, then a young girl, an innocent child, a pure soul, a baby, who, accompanied by a lullaby, moves back to the world beyond as a ray of light.

aki suzuki

To perform the role of an old Estonian woman, a specific training was required. During my stay in Estonia I decided to act thus: in the countryside, at the market and elsewhere I examined the appearance, gait and other such things of local old women. Also the eyes and mouth that were visible under the kerchief, and the wrinkles on their face, designed in a relief like ground. And their fingers that have dug up potatoes from hardened soil for years.

Working together with others involved with the Estonian Ballads I realised the positive attitude to life of the female members of the troupe and the joy emanating from Estonia itself - this is what constitutes the essence of an Estonian mother.

Aki Suzuki is the choreographer and dance teacher of the Estonian Ballads