Playlist with interviews focused on the [8:Tension] Young Choreographers' Series @ ImPulstanz 2014
With the [8:tension] Young Choreographers’ Series the festival audience gets an insight into the most challenging artistic approaches of a new generation of choreographers.
Interviews produced by participants of the meta_media lab@ ImPulsTanz 2014
led by Marlon Barrios Solano
Lab members: Franzi Kreis, Rocio Marano, Charlotta Ruth.
http://www.impulstanz.com/en/meta-media-lab/
Watch video Interviews from American Realness 2013.
http://dance-tech.tv/tag/american-realness-2013/
Research on critical discourses on the contemporary performing arts scene in Madrid || by Ana Vujanovic, Marta Popivoda – TkH: Walking Theory platform, Belgrade || Matadero – El Ranchito, April 2011
Go to interviews aggregated in dance-tech.net
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dance-tech@ is a series of video interviews with a very dynamic documentary format focused on interdisciplinary explorations on the performance of motion and innovation.
With more than 200 video podcasts, they are considered the "knowledge backbone" of the network and have been produced by Marlon Barrios Solano and collaborators since October 2007 covering events and artistic works in more than 15 countries.
In February 2011 is formally established an international network of correspondents as an experiment on the use of the new internet for a distributed collaborative sustainable system of media production.
The interviews are produced with internet native approaches and portable technologies becoming a model of sustainable collaborative journalism.
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Hello dance-techers;
Watch dance-tech interviews from MUSE 010!
Stay tuned for more:
MUSE 010: Interview with Tamas Moricz, Palucca Schule, Dresden
http://www.dance-tech.net/video/muse-010-interview-with-tamas
MUSE 010: Interview with Anton Lachky, Dresden
http://www.dance-tech.net/video/muse-010-interview-with-anton
MUSE 010:Class with Anton Lachky @ Muse 010, Dresden
http://www.dance-tech.net/video/class-with-anton-lachky-muse-1
MUSE 010: Interview with Jason Beechey, Palucca Schule, Dresden
http://www.dance-tech.net/video/muse-010-interview-with-jason
Electron-positron interaction from Continum by Brice Leroux
Electron-positron interaction from Continum by Brice Leroux
LED cube, photo taken from Instructables
So, you are doing everything by yourself?Continum by Brice Leroux (c)
Continum by Brice Leroux (c)
Led Fiber Optics
Continum by Brice Leroux (c)
Photo of Brice Leroux by Sandra Piretti (c)
Brice Leroux: Continum, photo by Wolfgang Kirchner (c)
Photo: Gravitations by Brice Leroux (c)
Gravitations-quatuor
Solo#2-Fréquences by Brice Leroux (c)
Photo: Olivier Matterlart (c) from Quantum-Quintet by Brice Leroux
Photo: Olivier Matterlart (c) from Quantum-Quintet by Brice Leroux
Thomas Dumke with the background by Monolake Live Surround Taken from ds-x.org
Jacob Korn and his Harmony Universe (c) Taken from ds-x.org
Photo: mb21 backup taken from t-m-a
Mortal Engine by Chunky Move (c)
Jacob Korn Live AV with hypecycle (c), taken from ds-x.org
Chunky Move (c)
Photo: tma (c) taken from bodynavigation
Photo: Zeitgeist by Hjørdis Kurås
Do androgyns dream of electric sheep by An Kaler, dancer: Gregory Holt
Photo by: Matthias Härtig/TMA Hellerau taken from flickr
Synchronous Objects by William Forsyth
Cynetart 2009, Automatic Clubbing taken from flickr
Johannes Birringer (c)
Cynetart 2009, Automatic Clubbing taken from flickr
Language Game by Kobakant (c)
Aurélien Bory in Zagreb, photo taken from SEEbiz (c)
CIE 111 performed the 'Seven Boards of Skill' which was really great chance to talk with Bory on his aesthetics, directing methods, usage of new technologies in art and the trilogy itself...Aurélien Bory studied film, then acoustic architecture before turning to theatre. He has been heavily inspired by circus and juggling since he was a teenager.The Company says about the trilogy: 'Since its creation, CIE 111 has been aiming to the development of a poetic writing, using juggling, acrobatics and music and exploring scenic language as a whole.With this point of view, the matter of space appeared obvious, on one hand because juggling and acrobatics are tightly linked to it and obey perfectly to its regulating laws and on the other hand because theatre is considered here like the art of space as defined by Oskar Schlemmer himself.Therefore, the concept of a trilogy about space is imagined declining its dimensions. Three-dimensional space (the volume), two-dimension space (the plane), one-dimension space (the line) become the themes of the three respective episodes IJK, Plan B and More or less infinity.That way, the fact is to question the relationship between man and space, from its more daily form until its conquest. Imagined as a poem in which the addition of simple forms produces, by layers, a complex structure, the trilogy suggests to the spectator’s imagination to proceed with ideas associations, recognition or projections of their own references and experience of today’s world. This flow of sensations becomes movement of thought. The elsewhere is in the core of our relation to space whose quest is endless, in loop, vain. Trilogy seems to be this: three dimensions, three elsewhere and three impossibilities.’Photo by Mihail Novakov taken from flickr (c)
Your stage work is always designed as a sort of puzzle, there is always some kind of construction we have to build in our imagination… you’ve studied cinema and physics and there are so many elements included in your performances… we have to solve something at the end of the performance…AB: Yeah, you’re right (laughs). I like very much this idea. I didn’t put it that way before, but I like it now, doing this puzzle. Like in this show. It’s right what you just said. I’ve always done puzzles (laughs).You were also inspired by Bauhaus, Oscar Schlemmer and all these geometrical constructions. … but it’s not only about the geometry…AB: Yeah. You know, I wanted to make theatre with everything. I think everything could be theatre. Everything that fits on the stage could be theatre. In the past, I worked a lot with different elements: slides to scenery, new technologies like video for example, which is not really NEW, but for theatre it’s new, you know (laughs). For example, I have done more then four performances with video. And for the show ‘Seven Boards of Skill’ I wanted to do a show without video, because it’s not a necessary tool. I wanted to come back to something more basic as blocs or architecture. Not to go in all directions, but to focus on one direction. But, it’s still, of course, a mix of things.I’m trying to find for each projects specificity. Not to be very specific, not to be too general or to do as I already did. I’m trying to do something new. As for my last performance, I’ve tried to do something with the architecture and the geometry. I wanted the show to be dead and it’s a change, because people on the stage are only doing architecture. They are trying to explore where could be their body in that architecture. So, the performance is questioning the place that we can build for ourselves in the world.Seven Boards of Skills, Cie 111 (c)
It’s very obvious that you tend to create a small microcosm, this time you have picked up a huge civilization. Chinese philosophy, art, theatre are massive and complex systems…AB: Yeah, I found very interesting the fact that China is the world itself. Basically, they had put the whole during years and years, being separated from the rest of the world. So, I didn’t want to say that in my performance, but I used this fact that it’s a world by itself. I wanted to put this on the stage: A WORLD. And the place of human beings in that world. Of course, I was very inspired by Chinese philosophy because it was very important to make some connection with that. It’s very important to respect the context of the performance. Chinese audience makes its connections, while Western audience makes other connections. It is not about China, I think it’s universal. It’s not about THE World, but A World. A construction of that, with some absurdity, with serious things, with humour, with poetry. Of course, poetry is something what I’m doing.It’s a stage poetry…AB: Yes, it’s stage poetry. As for poetry and myself, you know, I don’t have a message. Let the audience enters into this poetry and make its own message.Your are relaying on the audience… it’s a very opened structure… it’s about that what they see and how they perceive shapes and spaces…AB: Yeah, it’s an opened structure and if it works, the imagination is very active. If it works! If it doesn’t work, well, then you can get bored (laughs). In this kind of connection, I call it art. Art is not the object itself; art is relationship between you and whatever you are watching. That’s art. If it’s working that’s something incredible. You think that this painting, or film or performance have been made for you only. If it’s working really… It’s for me, it’s talking to me! (laughs). If it doesn’t work you don’t feel connection with that what you’re watching and it’s just boring.Can we go back to the human body, and the thing you’ve said previously that you are interested in these balances on the stage… Do you allow the actors to reveal themselves within your guidelines or you are directing them in which was they should be going? I don’t think in a sense of choreographing…AB: I’m trying to find all strategies to discover something that will surprise me. All strategies are good. Sometimes you don’t know what the exact strategy to find something is. I’m very interested to discover what I didn’t know before and it’s very difficult, because you don’t know how to get that. For example, I wanted to experiment with some kind of movement on these blocks. What I’m doing is that I’m trying all combinations. I’m interested to explore everything of this triangle, everything. OK, could you walk on it?! Could you climb on it?! Could you slide, jump or run?! What could you do?! What is the connection between you and this object? What is the connection between the bodies? What can you do with your body?It’s always a dialogue between the body and the space. This dialogue is infinite. I’m always trying to find little discoveries, you know. For this performance I needed that. Not discoveries that I already made in my paper book, while I was working prior going to rehearsals. I’m not looking for discoveries in that moment. I just make repetitions with the actors on the stage, then I’m searching to discover some new things. Something that I haven’t had thought about before. Sometimes nothing happen… Some days can happen something incredible by chance or something else…Seven Boards of Skills, Cie 111 (c)
Let’s switch now a little bit to this element of sound, and the perception of sound in your work… after all these elements we had mentioned before, sound could be the last layer in your work…AB: Yeah, yeah… you know, light and sound… I’m trying to make them acting to provoke things. So, the sound goes parallel in real time with actions. I’ve asked a friend of mine who lives in Paris to make some sound with Chinese elements like gongs. I said to him: I need the sound of the Earth and the sound of the Sky! GO! (laughs). After that, I’m cutting it with the sound engineer and technicians in order to make it adaptable for the stage. Exactly the same is with the light… I really want the light to follow the action and to be part of the action. So, at the beginning I only thing about the action, what’s the action and what is part of the action? Is light a part of the action?! Yes / No?! Do we need sound?! Yes / No?! I like silence, too.Silence is also a sound…AB: Yeah, exactly. I don’t like when music is an obligation. I don’t like when people are using music in theatre to be decorative or to make it beautiful. I like the action on the stage, so if the music could be also a part of this dialogue on the stage, that’s good. We don’t need necessarily music. Sometimes silence is more powerful. When I’m saying that everything could be theatre that means action. Everything could be part of the action, not decorative. Not to make it beautiful. I’m not interesting in making things beautiful. What is action and what could be part of the action?Could you describe me a bit your working processes…AB: I’m trying to make the concept of the product. It takes about one year of work. During this year I’m trying to answer questions: What is it about and what for? On first question you have to answer very clearly, if you can’t that means that you don’t know. If you don’t know, it means that there is no project. What for means why? What’s interesting in that you want to do? Why do you want to do it now? Why do you want to try that now? You have to answer to these two questions. So, my concept is to have an idea, to have those two answers. For example, I decided to make a trilogy about the space, because theatre is space. Theatre is the art of space. You have three, two and one dimension in theatre. Zero dimension is not a space, not space that we now in our physical world.So, I wanted to work with the space because theatre is space and what is space actually? It is volume – plain, line. You know, theatre is not only about space, but also about life. Space is maybe the most important thing is our life. We follow space, we live in space. We are very sensitive to space. If we feel good in the room or not we know that immediately. Human beings are very space animal. And we are always looking for new spaces. Now, we have to go to the moon. So, this was very interesting subject and I wanted to make three performances about that. So, then when I realized and had answers to my questions, I decided to put space, plain and line on the stage.From Erection, photo by Pierre Grosbois (c)
Taken from Sofia Dance Week
Then I’m trying to find the good scenery. I always work with the moving scenery. Now, it’s a part of my aesthetic. Scenery that you can move, not fixed scenery. Scenery that could be transformed. For example, if you remember Plab B performance, there were scenery and worlds designed completely vertical, not horizontal. But, it’s the same object. I work with object. Scenery is not a scenery that you are looking at, because scenery is part of the action and object. At the same time, the scenery itself is an object of the show. If it is a plain, I’m putting there a plain. Basically, if it is an tangram, I’m putting at the stage an tangram. It means, my work is very very basic. You know, the word tangram has been given to the game by Westerners, but the original translation from Chinese qi qiao ban would be the ‘Seven Boards of Skill’. I like working with that, which means that I believe in simplicity. But, I hope that after the whole process I would find not expected things. I want to create real surprises.Have there been other contemporary artists in particular that have had a strong influence on you, or whose work you admire?AB: I really believe in contemporary art today. Some artists are very inspiring. Of course, you have mentioned constructivism and Bauhaus… but I also like Op Art from the sixties, cinematic arts, then minimalism… But now, I’m also very interesting what is going on with photography, artists that cross the barriers of art. For example, I’m interested in contemporary artists which are doing now street art. I like artists which are combining architecture, street art and old monuments, statues, churches. Objects that have now different functions and meanings, and you feel like watching with new eyes. My question is: what is it about the art? Well, I think you have to give the eyes to the audience. For instance, there are a lots of photographers now, which are interested in bodies and dance…Seven Boards of Skills, Cie 111 (c)
Oh, sure… you mean Denis Darzaq…AB: Yeah! Darzaq is doing something I would like to do. This is definitely my style. (laughter) Darzaq and other photographers are now crossing the fields of dance, acrobatics and photography. It’s now a mix. Today, you can see a kind of mix of things. The artists of today are like that, mixing different things. I think I belong to them, too. I want to try new things that provoke something and refreshing a little bit. But, at the other hand, it’s not necessarily inspiring, because I don’t want to make all these arts. I want to enjoy in it as being a part of the audience. In cinematography my favourite film maker is James Gray. It has nothing in common with my work. For me, James Gray is like Dostoevsky, you know. He is an incredible film maker.There are lots of ideas in the moment that I really like in contemporary art. Very good ideas…What do you thing about technology usage in theatre? Affordable technology is developing faster and faster… lots of people are trying to play with it, some good… some less good…AB: You know, I think technology is not a subject, it’s a tool. If you get to make technology as art, that’s OK. But, if you make only technology that’s bullshit. There are also many rubbish things by many people who are ‘amazed by technology’. There are also people who are doing real art with technology. I like the work by Daito Manabe. He is making the sound with impulses from his face. I saw his work at Youtube.He does a kind of dance of the faces. He is using four different faces, and the result is the same dance because he uses electronic impulse. So, this is a little piece of art for me and it’s interesting because you see very passive dance. No will, just moving about our body. It’s talking about the fact that we are passive in a way. We just let technology enter our body. This is very interesting to me. But there are also many artists that are doing interactive arts with very sophisticated technology. When somebody is amazed because he moved his arm and made some sound from a machine I don’t find it an art.Do you think that this could be described as tech mannerism or baroque?AB: Yes. It’s only technological. Yeah, you moved your arm, and there is a sound behind. So, it’s a technological curiosity. It is only a gadget. It could be the first step, but of course it is not enough at all. For me, interactivity need this answers: what is it about and what for?Photo: Compaignie 111 – Sans Objet
Taken from Contemporary Performance Blog (c)
Do you desire to do something more with technology in theatre?AB: I’m in repetition now. I will have a new performance in October… It’s soon, yeah. It will be something with robots, old industrial robots. You know, robots that we use in car industry. I will stage this robot who has nothing to do and actors with their bodies. So, it’s a dialogue between them. It’s also based on sculptures. The subject is what is alive and what not? These barriers between alive and not alive. The relation between technology and body became so blur.Before, we knew robots were not alive, now it’s becoming a little bit blur. I’m talking about that. Also, it’s very inspired by Kleist’s philosophy. It’s inspired by Kleist’s thought’s on theatre and puppetry. So, it’s a kind of Kleist’s theatre of forms, because the robot is capable to take big objects, so I want him to take floor and build monoliths. This is a poem about inutility and useless activity, which is art and also a lot of things in human beings experience. Why do we need useless activities? And at the same time old robots are now useless. He built cars before, but now he’s is unusable. So, being useless is a little bit closer to human beings (laughs). So, I’m going to do that!Aurelien, Thank you very much!(This interview was originally published on Personal Cyber Botanica)Portrait of Maja Drobac by Srikanth Kolari (c)
She is a world traveller and culture explorer that really enjoys to dance between cultures…Maja Drobac is a graduated dancer from Amsterdamse Hoogelschoole voor de Kunsten (Theaterschool in Amsterdam) since 2005. She did her stage for one year with Magpie Music and Dance company, an improvisation company based in Amsterdam. She has presented ‘Satu’ (a dance video) as her first independent project as part of Magpie Company.Portrait of Maja Drobac by Srikanth Kolari (c)
Performance ‘Squirrels on the loose’ with contemporary dancers Darija Dozdor and Ognjen Vucinic was her first independent project made for theatre stage. She is studying Bharatanatyam (Classical Indian Dance) since 2005. This summer Maja presented two dance pieces: Spirit (prone to change) with Studio for Contemporary Dance and solo work Vipassana.I also had an opportunity to see her dancing Bharatanatyam… Hence, I find her artworkz, experiences and attitude to be very moving…Photo from Vipassana by Srikanth Kolari (c)
First you were trained in contemporary dance, and then in soft Chinese martial art Taiji Quan, afterwards you picked up Bharatanatyam dance, instead of Wu Dang martial art… obviously you’re dancing between two cultures…MD: They say if nothing goes right, you have no other choice but to turn left. I believe some of us are just wired by the polarities of the differences. Which makes me not an exception.I know that all styles interfere your imagination and creativity, but I’m curious… when you are choreographing do you make difference in a sense of, you know, doing a piece which is more based on Western or Eastern approach?MD: If I am asked to do a pure form of contemporary dance for example, of course I will have my focus on western techniques… yet I don’t believe one can ever deny or escape his relieved experience. Even with conscious switch in mind and body, and focus on pure technique, there is always that something that makes us who we are, self special and unique… and if some people recognize it in me as pieces of West and East… than maybe that’s what it is. I never really thought of it, nor am I thinking about it when I am choreographing.Photo from Bharatanatyam recital by Srikanth Kolari (c)
Usually I have an idea, and different ways of expressing it are just different paths I have crossed or am crossing at the moment. I mean, we all are East and West, North and South… and all the connections in between. I don’t feel green bamboos are more East than Christmas tree, though one can recognise it like that. Or if I jump around like a kangaroo, that action will make me Southern and being all dressed in white will make me Northern. Still… there are certain forms of dance, and/or movement that are characteristic for certain parts of the world. But to be honest, unless I am specifically asked to make a difference, I myself don’t make a difference in the choreography… I only use the movement if it means something to me. Or if the body can express something meaningful by it.Maja Drobac in ‘Squirrels on the loose’, photo by: D. Gavran (c)
How would you describe your working processes when you are dancing as solo performer and when you do choreographies for other dancers?MD: It is a totally different approach. There are different ways of choreographing, and I am not sure I am an expert in any. I just go with the flow, and where my personal drive takes me. Doing a solo is the hardest, yet easy to think the easiest task to accomplish. You can play with yourself, and there is nobody to control you or say they can’t do what you ask for.At the same time, I find it very hard to observe myself. To choose what is better or more interesting to use as a movement. In this sense, I think my true heart will always be an improviser. I can feel myself in body only if I improvise. For the rest, if the material is set, then it is very much textual. I choreograph it in sentences. So that I can be sure I know what I am saying. I make very clear choices about where my dots, or comas, or exclamation marks are.Working with other dancers, on the other hand, is like taking a trip to an unknown country. It is so much an observation directed method than just clear choreography. If there is a right click in between a dancer and me… then I just allow that dancer to do what ever he/she wants, and I just try to make photos of the moments I find most intriguing, and we put it together in a sentence. I find it very hard when I am asked to choreograph and transfer the material to the dancers. It’s just that my body is very different from other bodies and it is very hard to find two bodies with the same experience. It may work nicely in a very technically based company, but it would also require the choreographer to be trained in the same technique, or at least have the time to introduce dancers with his/her body quality.Photo from Vipassana by Srikanth Kolari (c)
Could you describe a little bit days you have spent in India while learning Bharatanatyam…MD: The first time I came to India it was entering not just another continent and different culture, it was like a discovering a complete new universe. I lived in Gurukulam, at the top of the hill, where most of the time we didn’t even have the basic facilities like water or electricity… some times there was not even food enough.At the same time, classes were very much intense and demanded abnormal discipline for someone who has never done Bharatanatyam in her life, and who all of a sudden had to dance shoulder to shoulder with dancers doing it all their lives. I had to wear only Indian clothes (saris or churidars), eat with my hands (rice three times a day), wash my saris hitting them on the stone at the back of our house and then just splashing them with little bit of water… We were not allowed to talk with boys alone, not allowed to leave the campus walls without special approval, our days were very determined by the schedule and the will of our gurus. Not to mention being locked on the first floor from 9pm till 4.30am.Photo from Bharatanatyam solo by Srikanth Kolari (c)
It is funny to notice, but nothing I experienced before in my life could help me go though this military training, except classical ballet. Movement was something that was so much part of their daily life, and so far away from anything I have ever experienced in my body, so after a while I started noticing some similarities with ballet. There is a clear structure, and if you don’t know your body well, you can get easily hurt or lost in your own movements.Later I have joined a school in Bangalore, which was something totally different. My guru lives in the city and although Bharatanatyam is a very traditional and disciplined art, and you can see it in the class or on the stage, life in the city was much easier than on the hill. Though, life in the hill after a while became closer to my inner self from the life I led in the city. But living both was maybe the cocktail of who I am today.Anyway… it was not easy the first time, there were times I was so ready to pack my bag and run back to Europe. It took me long to accept India.Photo from Bharatanatyam recital by Srikanth Kolari (c)
You needed about six months to accept this…MD: Yeah, about six months. And it’s a solid piece of time. I started my studies with three more girls who came from abroad, out of which two were of Indian origin so very well accustomed to Indian culture. But nobody lasted longer than few months. After they left, I really had no other choice but to come closer to India and Indians. I couldn’t talk to anyone, share anything with anyone… nobody understood anything of what I was saying or what I was trying to express. It was in fact, the moment I have started to live India. When She (India) became my only true companion.My ballet teacher who lives in India as well told me once that not everyone can survive India, since She is definitely finding the way how to confront you with the worse and the best in side of yourself on a daily base. After few years there I still haven’t stopped being smacked to my face from time to time with the new realizations of myself, and the world around me.Photo from Vipassana by Srikanth Kolari (c)
When did this happen… this complete cultural acceptance?MD: I went to my friend’s house for a month. We had two weeks free from school, but I stayed one month. They just didn’t let me go back. Even when I think about it now, it still stays so clear in my thought. They didn’t speak English, but they were so engaged to teach me Malayalam, the language spoken in Kerala. They spent weeks just talking to me, wanting to know more about my culture, at the same time making me feel part of their Malu culture.I was very much interested about the plants they had in their garden, so my friend’s father presented me with the books on traditional Indian medicine, Ayurveda and Swami Vivekananda’s books. Her mother helped me prepare different kind of herbal medicines for the members of the family; it was a life I never lived before. My day was involved about preparing tea or meals, or helping with the house work, or just being on my own on their roof and learning about Indian medicine, history and spiritualism. It was so simple that it occupied my whole being. They treated me as their own daughter, and I don’t think I have ever felt so much respect and love coming from so much simplicity.Even on the train back to Gurukulam my role was so clear with my friend. I was an older sister returning to school, we were really there to take care of each other. It was the moment when it hit me; the phase of surveillance stopped and living begun.From performance ‘Kanda’ by Veena Basavarajaiah and Mirra Photo by Maja Drobac (c)
The question of ‘normality’ (whatever it means) rises up…MD: Yes, because of what actually means to be normal in one particular culture?! Something that is perfectly normal in Zagreb could be completely odd for instance in China. I think we have to tend the oddity because it enables us to be more adaptable to different cultures. So many people were asking me to explain them how I felt while I was in India, but each time I would write or speak to them, they would always finished the sentence with the words: “Ok, now tell us how you really feel.” I don’t think we are able to speak out the changes that are happening to us if we are still in the process of changing. If I was really and truly changed, I don’t think I would be the first one to notice.This is how you got drowned into Bharatanatyam completely… not explaining but accepting…MD: Even up to now, I was never explained anything about India. There is a beautiful Japanese saying my first Sansei used to tell me: “Everything I ever learned, I owe to my teacher who never explained me anything.” Indians live their art. It is so much part of their beings. It is of course departing from them as well, especially in the big cities like Bangalore, Bombay, unfortunately even Chennai, though Tamilians are still the most involved with their culture and they are trying to nourish it even today. Young people are trying to approach Western models of life, and there is simply no time anymore for all the rituals and dedication that were done even by their parents on the regular base.My teacher was never explained why Lord Rama holds a bow in his left hand, and arrow in his right. And it can’t be the other way around. She has lived with the statues of Lord Rama all her life… ever since she knows about herself, she knows what Lord Rama is holding in his hands. As well, Bharatanatyam is danced on lyrics. There is a clear story behind which is sung by a singer.Photo from Bharatanatyam solo by Srikanth Kolari (c)
It became so clear to me that dance is the oldest art form existing. Older even from drawing and maybe even music. Though I believe movement and sound can’t be really separated one from another. People used to get in touch with divinity by moving their bodies. Getting into the trans.After living in a country where first few months I could communicate only by moving my body, I became perceptive to movement and I threw away the dance. Natural constellations exist without us being aware of them. They are ready made choreographies improvised on spot. What we call today instant compositions, are nothing more but becoming aware of the space we are part of. Choreographies exist in space without us making them. But when we do catch them, and transfer them onto the stage… than we are talking about theatre, or art.Photo: Jogulabhavi Satyava Temple by Maja Drobac (c)
Beside heavy work, what would you highlight in your experience with Indian tradition in the context of dance?MD: I had a privilege to visit quarters indented only for females in Indian tradition. Nobody else is allowed to enter. This is something I will always keep and bear with me. When I’m wearing Sari I’m wearing something that is deeply related to my experiences in India. Something that is part of me now.From performance ‘Kanda’ by Veena Basavarajaiah and Mirra Photo by Maja Drobac (c)
You have spent a month in the jungle in Ands, how did that experience change the way you perceive things?MD: I didn’t care about anything but elemental things like keeping the fire up, finding food for today, washing the pots and so. Most of my time was spent while sitting on the ground, underneath the tree, looking at the performance by facing the nature. There is no similar way of seeing things, no similar way of sitting or moving, even if you are picking the same spot over and over again, because every time something else will happen. Heraclites wrote: “You can’t enter the same river twice”. It is rather fascinating when you realise that is so true.From ‘Escalator Clause’ choreographed by Veena Basavarajaiah Photo by Maja Drobac (c)
You are very talented for photography and writing, do you plan to work more in these directions?MD: I wouldn’t say I am talented in any form, I just love what I do, and I do what I want. It happens very often that I get overstuffed with certain things if I do only them. I need space, and freedom to explore and change, and be different, and just look at life from different corners. So when I get tired of listening to myself, I start writing so I can read myself. If I dance too much I really need to have a break and grab a camera and go somewhere and just freeze the movements that I find moving so fast when I move against it.It might sound very hippy saying my directions are orientated by the wind… but that is honestly how I feel.From ‘Escalator Clause’ choreographed by Veena Basavarajaiah Photo by Maja Drobac (c)
As a world traveler give us some advices and several tips for trips, for instance in India or South America jungles…MD: Consult with someone more experienced than me before you go.Thanks a lot, Maja!p.s. Srikanth Kolari often travels with Maja… an amazing photographer who is a part of Asian Motion, Cambodia’s first photography agency… don’t miss this link… amazing photos…(This interview was originaly published on blog Personal Cyber Botanica)
