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Interview with Raimund Hoghe: Inner landscapes marked through simplicity

Posted by body pixel on July 16, 2009 at 3:30pm
Raimund Hoghe is certainly one of the most intriguing dancer and choreographer in contemporary dance these days. I had an opportunity to interview him in May, during Queer Zagreb Festival, where his company performed ‘Boléro Variations’.Raimund Hoghe always pushes the boundaries of dance perception through profound and minimalist way of analyzing thingz. The public and dance experts from Ballettanz Magazine obviously recognized this by giving him The Dancer of the Year Award in male competition for the season 2008.

Raimund Hoghe, photos by Rosa Frank (c)

I really have to mark here that in female competition the same award was given to ex-ballerina Sylvie Guillem. They are both completely different in bodily physics and kinetics, but the result is actually the same. The result is strong and authentic.I already blogged about ‘Boléro Variations’ I saw back at Queer Festival, so I’m letting you to Mr. Raimund Hoghe and his ways of seeing thingz on the stage and in life…

Raimund Hoghe, photo by Rosa Frank (c)

While I was watching your performance ‘Bolero Variations’, I constantly thought about the line: tinny little thingz… You like to ‘dig’ through those hidden moments in our lives… exploring society and its reflection on your own inner landscape… What was the initial trigger that has brought you to this?RH: It’s different from each piece, but I don’t make pieces with big effects, for example. I’m not interested in virtuosity or how people can jump or do incredible things. I’m interested in simplicity, so very simple and the personality of dance. To share with audience the quality of dancers, and there are these very little things; and sometimes maybe you are wondering why it’s interesting?For some people, of course, it’s not interesting, but for many it’s interesting. Like for me, last time when I was here in Zagreb, three years ago in 2006 with ‘Swan Lake, 4 Acts ‘, there was a 3-year old child in the performance. And this child didn’t want to leave the performance in the break, because it was so interested. The child wanted to see the whole story. The mother wrote to me a letter and this child had very interesting comments. It was also a long piece. So, for some adults it’s very boring, for a 3-year child is different. It’s different for each person.

Lorenzo De Brabandere and Raimund Hoghe

Photo from Tanzgeschichten by Rosa Frank (c)

You have spent many years working with Pina Bausch … her pieces have a specific dramaturgy… and the set of dancers in your piece reminded me on some performances you did with Pina… having a strong female character on the stage… Ornella Balestra’s character reminded me on Mechtild Grossman…RH: Yeah, but it’s very different from Pina’s work now, because it’s much more entertain and light, not too long; all dancers are more or less young. So, I’m interested just in strong personality. And now, my works could be compared with early works by Pina, not with her works from today. Because she is working a lot with video now, and older pieces were used in films, too. I don’t use this kind of technology.And, the roads are different, like in Pina’s dance pieces women are women, and man are man. So, women have long hairs, very beautiful colourful dresses moving like women. Man wear white shirts with trousers, like this classical image of man and woman. I’m not really interested in this.

Ornella Balestra, photo by Rosa Frank (c)

People tend to stuck when they try to use canons of classical dramaturgy in contemporary dance… As dramaturge how do you make this distinction, because your field is dance dramaturgy? You are directly connected with the scene that coined the term Tanz theater…RH: For me, in dramaturgy you have to come from one point to the other and you have to know why. That’s something everybody has to find out. There is no recipe or so. For me it has to be clear how you come from one point to the other, and that you can repeat it easily… this outthinking. The dramaturgy has to be so clear, that you can just jump into the piece.We don’t have long rehearsals before performances. It’s just one day, but people do different things… Maybe one piece is for one night play and then you have one rehearsal. And it is possible, because for me, and also for dancers, the dramaturgy is very clear. You don’t have to think about it. In many dance pieces you see today, they have to sing or think a lot what is coming next. In my work you have to know why you are here.

Photo by Patrick Mounoud (c) taken from fipa

How would you describe your work with Pina Baush?RH: It was very interesting to work with her. People talk about her and her work in terms of personality and strong person. This is very personal related, but it could be said also for her art form. It was not that sort of work where you present only the feelings.Could you be so kind to describe a little bit your working process… from the beginning till the end…RH: I’m very inspired by music. So, this is the point, when I’m listening the music! I made a piece on Maria Callas, and she sang about all that: If you really listen to the music, the music tells you how to move. And this is what I’m also trying. Then this dramaturgy is coming together, I feel it. I just have to do ‘this next – this next – this next’…In this piece about Callas ‘36, Avenue Georges Mandel’, she wasn’t visible in the first performance. But I had a feeling I missed something and had to think why is this happening and then I put this motif in it as a scene or an aria or something.

Emmanuel Eggermont and Raimund Hoghe, photo by R. Frank (c)

How do your dancers react to these processes because they are all very physical, but seems like there is always a layer of trust?RH: Yeah, the trust. So, that everyone can be exactly what they are. For me, it’s also important that there is no competition between dancers. Everyone is so different, you can’t compare them, each has its own quality. For example Lorenzo (De Brabandere), who was also in ‘Swan Lake, 4 Acts’; and Emmanuel (Eggermont) have really big part in this piece. They cannot be compared. They have very different backgrounds, from education and so. This is important, that there is no competition.It’s interesting how they are bringing different experiences…RH: Yeah, different experiences … like Lorenzo, who wanted to become a football player, and he was underway to football player; and Emmanuel not at all. And Yutaka (Takei), the Japanese dancer – he did also martial arts and he have this background. Nabil (Yahia-Aissa) is a medical doctor and dancer. They all have this different backgrounds.

Charlotte Engelkes and Raimund Hoghe, photo by R. Frank (c)

Yeah, they enriched the performance…RH: Yeah! This is something you might feel when you’re in the audience – different personalities. And it’s important that they respect one another. This is also not so often on the stage.I got the impression that their bodies are not talking differently, not in a sense of different languages, but it’s something in their way of presentation, some thin line that makes them different…RH: Yes. I’m interested in which way they are different, and also to keep this diversity. This is one main point, you have this diversity – not one body, the ideal body.

Raimund Hoghe, photo by Rosa Frank (c)

One of your main drive is music, too. When did you discover this, or was it the sound itself that attracted you, or rhythm, or classic music…RH: …also popular music. It’s very simple. I grew up surrounded mostly by popular music.Which artists inspired you?RH: Oh, there are so many of them. So many movies… For example, Maria Callas inspires me, because she was so aware of the movement. She talked a lot about it. And also Japanese dance, Butoh dancers like Kazuo Ohno, Sankai Juku… I know them well, and this is something I’m very interesting in… I was also very interested in this concept of Bauhaus. This combination of fine arts, dance, theatre…

Raimund Hoghe, photo by Luca Giacomo Schulte (c)

I can relate your work with Butoh, because seems like you have similar aesthetic ground and this ‘less is more’ approach….RH: Yeah, less is more. I’m really into this, thinking about this very often. I’m into artists like Joseph Beuys, Christian Boltanski, Wolfgang Laib and his installations…I know you like Pasolini…RH: …and Pasolini, of course. So, there are many, many artists… from music and literature… I like German and Russian authors. I like a lot Anton Chekhov. But there are also some pieces by Maxim Gorki. In German literature I like Johann Gottfried von Herder, Heinrich von Kleist… Many, many artists…Mr. Hoghe, Thank You Very Much!(Originally published on blog Personal Cyber Botanica: www.lomodeedee.com)
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Interview with Hiroaki Umeda: dance-tech romantic searching for a reaction

Posted by body pixel on May 4, 2009 at 8:30pm
Hiroaki Umeda was certainly one of the most interesting performers I saw this year at Dance Week Festival. Being completely aware of all possibilities and consequences of our modern society, Umeda strikes you directly in your mind if you are enough opened to recognize or perceive the voices, soundz and flashing of today’s digitized generation.You know that I was writing about him almost two months ago and I promised then to publish soon all the interviews I did with some dancers. So, the first interview from that series is here…Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Hiroaki Umeda…

Photo: Fred Villemin (c)

Since you’ve studied photography and then started to work intensively with your body, what I’m interested in is how you managed to connect those two disciplines? They certainly interact on many levels…U: I actually drop out photography (laughs). To me it is the same thing to express something because when I was studying photography I’ve tried to find what I can’t express with photography. Actually, I think that after ten years of studying dance I find it very difficult to work only with photography and I wanted to express changes in some circumstances. Since photography doesn’t have a time and dance have a time… This is for me the main difference between dance and photography. I can’t express the same thing I want in both of them.What do you think is right NOW more essential for your work… kinetic or visual aspect? … and why?U: My pieces don’t have a meaning in a way to say something. So, for me the important thing is to feel the experience of my piece. I mean, I want to stimulate the sense for the audience to feel my dance with eyes, heart, ears, so… I think… Also, I want to stimulate a reaction in their bodies.

Could you please describe me a little bit your working process from the very beginning?U: I make a drawing… Well, actually I am starting making music first, because music has a time. So this is very easy, to define the time. Then drawings; and dance comes the last.So, dance is then the latest accent in you artwork…U: Yeah, that’s right.

Photo: Dominique Laulanne (c)

You have a strong background in ballet, hip hop and butoh which are all different in social, physical and even, psychological meanings… Can you tell me what particularly fascinates you in street culture on one hand and the subtle powerful inner silence of butoh on the other hand? How do you connect them, as different techniques or as a source of inspiration?U: Basically, I’m very selfish, ok? I ’steal’ everything and put it in my pieces (laughs). Actually, I use butoh because I’m only influenced by Japanese culture, something like that…

Today’s use of technology and modern urban cyber punk society seems to be something that is occupying you? Staying a human being in modern ‘skyscrapers’ oriented landscapes looks like a hard quest… it reveals many questions…U: Yes, yes… Because I am a human being and I am nature.

Photo: Getty Images (c)

How do you use then technology in your artwork, as an equal performer, an extended part of you or only as a tool?U: I use computer only as a tool. But it is possible that it can become a part of me. The most important thing for using technology in my work is to use it to expand my possibilities as dancer. But I don’t want to be used by technology. No, no.

You have started recently with blogging on your site, having a kind of your personal diary with working processes. Obviously you are supporting this kind of expression…U: Yeah, it’s a great tool. I want to communicate with people. Because I don’t speak about my pieces in public, so sometimes is important to put something to a web site about your work and share it with the public.

Photo: Shin Yamaga (c)

Which artists had the most influential impact on you? Do your influences include manga and anime?U: Yeah, I like manga and anime. I was very influenced by the Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama when I was starting studying photography. And also painting… music… For example, in painting I like the work by Gerhardt Richter.Mr. Umeda, tnx 4 ur time!This interview was originally posted on Personal Cyber Botanica
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Interview with Marlon Barrios Solano: On Dance-Tech and dance embodiment, part ll

Posted by body pixel on June 20, 2009 at 5:00pm
This is a second part of interview with M.B. Solano. Read the first part: Interview with Marlon Barrios Solano: Dancers moved by Technology

Photo: Amelia by LaLaLa Human Steps (c)

Where does your interest in technology come from in your life? You teach contact dance, yoga, zazen, but you are hooked up to computing, too… People usually have wrong perception that those two can not get along…MBS: I have a background in psychology and dance. I came from Venezuela to study psychology. And psychology was really drown to cognitive science. People told me: OK technology, but you should be a dance therapist! bla bla bla… and I said: NO. I kind of liked this interesting study of perceptions, minds, you know. I’m very drown by materialist paradox of understanding humans. And then I was at the same interested in understanding the complexity of cultures. As being a dancer for a long time, I was reflecting myself officially as a dancer, but what I wanted to do was psychology and at the same time dance.So, I met David Zambrano, who’s Venezuelan and he lives now in Amsterdam. He is improviser and he also developed his own techniques, etc. I’ve met him in Venezuela at the Festival de Danza Postmoderna – he founded that festival. He brought there dancers like Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson, you name it… Incredible people! Suddenly, I was then in my apartment, and these people were dancing in my country. And I had a facility to see some kind of kernel about this very interesting motions of embodiment. It was not just about how to dance; it was really a philosophical shift that was implying the new way of improvising, trying to compose the real meaning of improvising. They had to reformulate the common parallels of understanding their bodies. So, I kind of saw that and I was interested in this kind of informal research, trying to see what is a cognitive model.

Cyber Girl by Fausto de Martini (c)

Then you moved to USA to study?MBS: So, for that reason I moved to New York in 1994. Then I started to really study improvisation, and I started to explore it from the same basis as people from virtual reality. I was interested in how people from virtual reality see the embodiment parallels. Then I start perceiving the same common theoretical lineage was practically between Lisa Nelson and people who developed the theoretical practice of contact improvisation; and people who were working with virtual reality.I started writing about this, and I was invited on psychology conference on consciousness in Tulsa. And there I met people from CaiA+STAR – Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts and Roy Ascott. He was this amazing person to me and he said to me: you know, there is actually a way of putting these things together as a research for people who want to work with dance and technology. It was in 1999, and then from this world of improvisation I started to study notions of real time, composition. And then computers and computation became very important part of the investigation. After that I applied and entered to The Advanced Computing Center for Arts and Design at the Ohio University.

Photo: from Moebius Strip by Gilles Jobin (c)

And this is how a dancer and psychologist became tainted with virus called technology…MBS: Technology has always been the umbrella to understanding practically our minds in practices. Then I learned programming – BASIC, Actionscript, etc. After that it was a progression for me when I moved back to New York and started Dance-Tech. I’m normally teaching a lot abroad and I’m doing a lot seminars.You know, when I realized that websites are not static, that was for me the coolest thing in the world (laughs). They were beautiful and animated. I mean, you put something and then it started suddenly to move. That was for me: Wow! What we have been waiting?! It’s almost connected and self organized intelligence that is about an interaction itself, that creates a kind of social improvisation. And then, I practically switched and created this interest in social software. That is a little bit of a technological story, but I’m not an original native of the Internet (laughs)…Oh, I see… (laughs)

Keyboard Bag by Joao Sabino (c)

I like the idea that we are all becoming rather multi-functional these days, we all have to be skilled in many disciplines…MBS: …or at least to have a literacy, because the notions of literacy are different now. For instance, if you have an internet native, that’s somebody younger then eighteen. I taught a workshop with teenagers in New York; and I was literally taught by some of the students. This literacy became a part of their set of social life. That is amazing, that move from text to real interaction. They can speak and they can take from these sets of knowledge. When we talk about gaming, that is a totally different involvement, then there are big changes in cognitive apparatus. Different understanding of different realities; faces that have previous faces, you know. It’s very interesting how artist use this Tech world.Then my interest evolved into this topical fields of dance and new media art. Now, I find very powerful researching how these technologies are allowing these generations of knowledge distribution in the world, in a way that is totally different from publishing generation.

Photo: Ken Stelarc (c)

Several months ago Ray Baughman presented ‘a new type of muscle that dramatically outperforms biological ones in nearly every way’ as he says. What is your opinion on nanotechnology and its soon use in every day practice?MBS: I would say there would be degrees of experimentation, degrees of assimilation of the technology. You will see a stage of development. Now, you see it more practically: wires, connections, light. You need different people to connect all this. There are technologies that are progressive now in the medical establishment. It’s not a big deal if people are using Prosac, but to understand why Prosac works is literally the same principle to understand why caffeine works. When people are coming to Starbucks, there are these huge mechanism of drug distribution – caffeine. The principle is the same. Caffeine can be monitored as a certain trigger for certain mood changes, you know. Why I’m saying this?! We are evolving a really, really important ‘Know-How’ of who we are; and how we generate technologies and we have agencies in unthinkable areas of our existence, you know. From Botox and plastic surgeries to genetic engineering and laproscopic surgery. Everybody can use it. Even if dancers would injecting grow hormone in their muscles in order to pump them up, we are ready to increase hipper design, because we have increased agencies.I mean, when you see bodies from dancers in 1973 and dancers now. I mean the difference is incredible. Just because they use different knowledge to train their bodies. At the other hand, many different techniques for dancers are now practically regular in every gym.People are using even different chemical substances, and that’s a fact. I’m not moralistic about it. That’s a fact and it actually happens. Today we have even different metabolism, that’s also a medical fact. That’s dance and technology. In the level of research, I hope (laughs).

Photo: Chunky Move (c)

This research aspect is a crucial part of your approaches to work…MBS: That is something very important to me, that dance and technology is not going to be just researching about what artist dressed or something. This field is actually about unstable embody humaness. Not only about actions and how we have these really intense performative scope that I hope we can actually research this field sometimes in a very, very ethnographic, anthropological way. That we can actually see important things, for instance in urban dances. Sometimes different from digital, we can see relation to popular culture, too. There are many performances now inspired by Manga comics. It doesn’t have to be obviously a dance with the video, you know. These differences, that’s what I would like to see.

Sciam Special Robotics (c)

How the mind is changing in relation to digital? You connected in your work digital spheres with essential human body… All movements and motions are coming from our brain… We can ignore now the fact that digital world is making a sort of a aggression, but also it is the most ‘imaginative thing’ that happened till now in human history…MBS: Yeah! Digitality has allowed to render realities that have a real of plasticity. Our minds are the most plastic, and when we say our minds, we say our body minds. It’s interesting to see how our plasticity increased because we can imagine things. Literally, we need to investigate how humans imagine, how humans create reality. It doesn’t belong only to the realm of the digital. The digital is only one deployment of technological feedback. You know, some people say: Yeah, computers are damaging this and that… .But reading has a very specific embodiment and writing has very specific embodiment, too. You have to develop certain cognitive skills. I think we should observe human embodiment even in the church. Because people are in a very intensive environment that create very immerse experience with sound. At the same time we can go in the cage with all these virtual feedbacks. Those things are possible also because of the design of technology and because we have bodies that we have. Sometimes is good to see this side of digitality and experiences. Because we live in this world of creations facilitated by different kinds of textuality, renderings. It’s a hyper designed world. It’s not about purity of experience.

William Forsythe: Synchronous Objects (c)

Now, let’s get back to Dance-Tech! What was the initial trigger for starting Dance-tech?MBS: I was a part of dance and technology community for eight years, and at the same time I was doing these development of interactive platforms for other organizations. I kind of said: Well, this is what we need! The interesting thing is that people, so many network based artists are distributing their art in the world. I thought that it would be great to have an internet based platform that will allow you to do a synchronize collaboration. You know, to post and publish. So, I proposed this to the network of dance and technology related community; and we started a discussion. We talked about that are we ready, and so. And then I thought: OK, let’s just do it!In 2007 we launched a community and social network. It has a quite specific interest, you know, dance and technology. But it is far from this ‘dance&tech’ only community. It’s an independent project, self funded and I have to say that this development was wonderful to look at, increasing members and activities. That was really needed. But then I started to include also visual artists and VJ’s. I have an idea of interviewing people, because I live in the most useful place, in New York. Now it’s a great platform and our members are increasing every day. It’s great to see so many people gathered around dance and technology.Marlon, thanks a lot!(Originally published on Personal Cyber Botanica: www.lomodeedee.com)
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Interview with Robert Hylton: I think, I’m a dance junkie!

Posted by body pixel on May 19, 2009 at 11:30am
Robert Hylton is an ‘urban classicist’… being continuously tainted with the virus called street art in its most refined sense…As a youngster he was involved in the UK’s underground Hip Hop scene (break dance and popping techniques included), then jazz dance&stylez, and after a while he realized that contemporary dance might work for him too in a very coolish way…

Photo: Robert Hylton Urban Classicism (c)

As a very young artist he was a member of many street art crews, for instance Bamboozle; then he decided to blast himself to the next level by studying contemporary dance at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance.In 1999 he founded Robert Hylton Urban Classicism which could be considered as a dance company, production crew and a training platform within whose Robert ‘transmits’ his knowledge and artistic vision.As a real ‘gimme some tunes’ artist he often collaborates with respectable DJs, among them also with Billy Biznizz - UK’s well known DJ, producer and remix-maestro who did some stuff for the House of Pain, Jade, N.W.A, 4Hero and Mark Morrison.

Robert Hylton performed at many international festivals either as a solo dancer either with his own crew. He was a member / guest performer of several dance companies, such as: Jonzi D, JazzXchange and Phoenix Dance. Hylton is also well known for his hip hop/art/educational movies: Urban Classicism South Side, Two Sugars with My Hip Hop please…, The Real Thing, Frames, Urban Classicism, Urban Voodoo, Jaffaman, Simmetry, etc.This spring he spent some time in Zagreb (Croatia) with b-girls and b-boys from the School for Contemporary Dance ‘Ana Maletic’ and the local company What Evaa in order to work with them… they successfully presented their skills almost two months ago where else but on the street…

Photo: Robert Hylton Urban Classicism (c)

I took few minutes of his time to chat a little bit with him at Dance Week Festival, and here is some stuff on street art from Jaffaman, ops… Robert Hylton’s perspective…Yo, Robert! The blood in your veins is the blood of a street artist, somebody artistically raised on asphalt with urban background… those are your foundations… what sort of ‘switch’ has happened when you decided to accept other forms of expressiveness?R: I think I’m a dance junkie, you know. The challenge of learning to dance was good. Culturally, hip hop is in my heart and my brain. Contemporary as well, it’s just a part of dance and I found that I was able to learn it, so I kept it, but I always returned. I mean, I never left hip hop and it was always there. But I enjoy both paths and that’s why I bring to the next generations of contemporary dancers discipline and how to work in the studio. So, fortunate I’m able to kind of help other people. If they just wanna stay hip hop - often come straight hip hop dancers to work with me; but when you are in a rehearsal studio and you make them work, there has to be some rules.

Photo: Robert Hylton Urban Classicism (c)

It’s obviously that you take care a lot about soundz in your artwork… not just ‘gimme some beatz and tunez’ attitude… but a lot of classics, down tempo, trip hop, ambient… you mix it all… seems like they are all equal in your choreographic language? Basically, how do you treat sounds in your work?R: If I like it, I’m drawn to it. I think, even with hip-hop music… when hip-hop first came through, it was an amalgamation of many many different sounds. There was no formula, it was whatever the DJ thought could work for the crowd and listen to. Now, it’s a formula. It’s a straight-forward beat, and it loses its reliance it has back then. So, specifically for this project, before I came, because I didn’t know anyone, I just put a lot of different types of music in my computer and then when I met everyone I just thought: Well, this music makes a language to particular people to keep them in the comfort zone. And I think the music ballet is an important part of dance. If I like it doesn’t matter what it sounds like as long we dance to the music, whether it’s classical or ambient, as long it helps to those textures more then anything else.

Photo: Robert Hylton Urban Classicism (c)

How did you manage to get the street vibe in your choreographies to fit in your style to theatre stage? Do you even think about that? Does it concern you at all?R: I think it’s a part of a natural evolution. Hip hop is young, about 35 years in its growth from the first wave in the seventies, and then in the eighties it was like the big media hustle, now it’s defined like: who the body- architect is; what the vocabulary is; what the history is and I think that’s a rich culture. Self-expression, inventiveness and all this things. So, I think that now there are more tools and it’s a combat to any kind of cultural birocracy in a way of policy. So, like ballet was a peasant dance, was a folk dance when it started. Hip hop is now a folk dance that is changing. You know, it’s a stage of a natural evolution at the moment. Now teachers require knowing the name of every single move in hip hop like in ballet. When you know the name of every move, then you know what the vocabulary is. Therefore, you are building something. It becomes a dance that grows with a form and structure, now excuse to the old ways of thinking.

Photo: Robert Hylton Urban Classicism (c)

You run workshops and dance classes all around the planet. What do you want to accomplish with your dance classes?R: It’s an experience of teaching and developing. Again, wherever I was: New Zealand, Croatia, Indonesia, etc. going with the basic knowledge and vocabulary with the intention to get everyone to dance, to challenge everyone. It’s inside of me and it’s the challenge that I like and it’s always very successful. Then, this education challenge is here… And this is what it takes for me to get on stage, basically. When you come with the honesty, all the things you use are the fundamentals of dance and the experimentation. When people don’t know the fundamentals of dance I would teach them fundamentals of dance. I would challenge them with experimentation. My intention is, wherever they are, to try to push them further.You get the satisfaction from it…R: Yeah, I think I get the satisfaction from it because the more they push themselves forward the more environment in the culture grows, the more it looks to be growing up, the more looks to be organized and I think it just helps the general development of dance, whether it’s fusion, contemporary, hip hop or whatever is hip hop in it’s purest form.

Photo: Robert Hylton Urban Classicism (c)

What do you think about Banksy, the graffiti artist… you probably know that some people are buying his artworks for a lot of bucks, an artwork that essentially belongs to the street and to all people?R: Yeah, I mean Banksy is a graffiti artist in a graffiti sense; he is not necessarily from hip hop background and all that stories. He is very clever, great political references and he does a great job. Banksy is definitely an outlaw, like the older graffiti artists were, when nobody knows who he is - in that sense is hip hop; and he takes big risks and gets away with it. But he is also a businessman. I know his manager; he is a good friend of mine.It’s a good marketing…R: Yeah, it’s a good marketing as long he keep that outlaw that it’s all business and that street artist can be on that level. I think, back again to dancers, that hip hop performers even when they know they wanna be b-boys, they have to learn some business; which is a part of organization when you are professional: contacts, business negotiating and all this. It takes them away from not just dancing on the street. Banksy was not just painting on the walls, he has books out, and his work is in art galleries. If his work is not in the gallery he will sneak by himself and put it there (laughs).Robert, TNX a lot!This interview was originally published on Personal Cyber Botanica: www.lomodeedee.com)
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Interview with Marlon Barrios Solano: Dancers moved by Technology, part l

Posted by body pixel on June 20, 2009 at 4:30pm
In the history of dance only few dancers and choreographers were considered as sort of tech related investigators…With the expansion of new media art, the wider use of Internet, user friendly applications, multi-functionality of modern age, and the whole DIY scene that has grown up so fast; dancers and choreographers realized that technology could be a new challenging platform for them.

Therefore, they decided to invite programmers in the process of creation, and then theoreticians also came into the field, followed by curators, too. Now, we can seriously talk about an emerging community of new media oriented performers.Free online tools enabled the possibility, literary, for every user to become the master of its own channel. You don’t need expensive equipment to become, for example, a podcaster…Something along this line recognized Marlon Barrios Solano, the founder of very, very vibrant social network, Dance-Tech. Marlon is former dancer and an inter-media artist, instructor of interactive technology for performance and an interaction designer.Dance-Tech was created on the social networking service Ning, in my opinion, still one of the best tools offered on the web market. The potential of this service was recognized by the wider public and professionals, who created several art communities which became relevant places for specialized and targeted users.Officially the network presents itself as ‘an international community of artists, scientists and theorists working in the confluence of embodied performance and new media.’

William Forsythe: Synchronous Objects (c)

Marlon Barrios Solano’s biography is fulfilled with collaborative artists, such as: Susan Marshal, Lynn Shapiro, Bill Young, Merian Soto, Dean Moos, Philip Glass, Eric Friedlander, John Zorn…At the moment he works as an instructor of interactive technology for performance, consultant on cognitive and new media architectures. Marlon holds MA in Dance and Technology (Ohio University), and regularly gives lectures and workshops internationally.He was also the main suspect for an amazing thing that happened recently in dance spheres, and that was promotion of William Forsythe’s data visualization project Synchronous Objects (I will blog about it soon, promise!). Marlon is now at residency programme in Gilles Jobin’s dance nest in Switzerland.The network is a great example what you can do with personal engagement, vibrant ideas and you can see how important is to understand the rules of social networking on the web these days. Since very recent I’ve became an associate blogger for this amazing community of artists and researchers…

Photo: Chunky Move (c)

Therefore, he’s here today for a talk on dance… technology… new media art… scientific behavioral approaches to body and movements…Hi Marlon! What do you think how dance scene started to change in the context of technology. What are your thoughts on what was driving these changes?MBS: Well, I will tell you what my approach is. Someone asked me a week ago: Marlon, do you think you should change the name of Dance-tech as such, you know, dance and technology world is disappearing as such, right? I’m aware of a lot of changes that are happening in the field and in itself.I have a very grow understanding of the relationship of the embody practices with social technological environment meaning from science to technology. In that way, a part of the agenda of the project is trying to see, put forward or to figure these sometimes very obvious connections between dance approaches and practices with technologies of the time.And not only the technologies of the time; but also philosophical, epistemological and scientific world use that exist parallel in the spectrum in certain time.Where would you place new media in this relation with bodily aspects?MBS: With all this I said, I’ve tried to set and connect training practices, especially, how we understand the process, creative process. How we understand time and relationship with proposition and design. It has been always related with technological proportions…In that way, I think that dance and technology have always been related to digital technology. I believe that in most of the embody practices that we call dance, there is a substrata, there is normally this relation to technology of the time. I think it’s very important to be aware that dance and new media are, most recent, in interrelation that are trying to understand the relationship of bodies with technologies of the time. In this case we are using new media. But, perhaps the principles are the same; you know what I mean, because our body has been evolved with the practices. So, I think that it’s important to see what is a cognitive connection that we have – us, human creatures. And how it has allowed us to be, kind of, related with the tool making and technique making.So, Techne is for me the most important. Techne is a skill, you know, it translates the skills instead the tool. That is something really interesting for me. You know, I came from the tradition and I place myself in the tradition also: dance, influenced by productive movement, deconstruction on what movement is, what dance is.

I the context of dance history, how it started and who was first? I don’t think in a sense of pure understanding of data, the way we perceive information today?MBS: I can say that there is a very direct connection with the notions of information and understanding of rule system, practically is more procedural than the process that determines the steps and so. There is at the moment present very interesting relationship that I would say, contrary to what most people think, that dancers and mostly dancers in the last forty years are being very related with technological discourses. You know, first it came from Merce Cunningham, and then continued with Trisha Brown… ‘Creating accumulations’ – it’s practically a piece that is an algorithm. There is a relationship, because we use bodies that we have with technology.How these changes have affected our experience of dance on one side, and technology on the other side?MBS: I don’t thing there is something as pure dance, it doesn’t exist. Dance is a cognitive phenomenon that evolved within an environment that is designed for it to happen, doesn’t matter where: a church, dance studio or a parade. You know, spontaneous dancing, whatever… it’s always situated, it’s always contextualized. I think that the most important aspect is that we have understood that we live in the world of conflicts. And these conflicts can be sometimes with pretty direct feedbacks. And these feedbacks, you know, like you know that you live in a loop of constant conflict of feedback of images, feedback of sound.

It’s a sort of body mapping… movements mapping…MBS: Yes! For example, when you play a drum? You would have this person making music. When you take a drum out, you can see the movements, you can see that there is a dance, right? With a drum you really see this very direct impact of the body with the surface and this creates the sound. So, there is a very direct consequence of physical action. With digital technology we have been able to create different ways of mapping physical actions and that mapping is sometimes not liberated. But then, this mapping has liberated these direct ‘one to one’ consequences of certain kind of physical action. Meaning, if you have a computer that can simulate certain outputs like colour, bodies, or, let’s say, certain kind of practice, or even a sound of certain intensities.The opposite to the physical action and the intensity of the response is not ‘one to one’. It might be another possibility, if you leave a strength or a heat, it can have a very direct consequence, but that’s another issue of physical logic. The intensity of non movement not necessarily have to be hard in the intensity of the colour, you know, that relates to the data. That possibility of separating how we perceive action and reaction, or a consequence of an action, the relationship of a natural with another output is what has made technology really interesting. So, than you can have a lot of possibilities of plasticity of different kinds of mapping and visualizations, renderings combined with sound.

Photo: AP Photo Japan (c) taken from NG

How would you relate this to the development that is happening in robotics, Artificial Intelligence…MBS: I think that one of the most interesting thing that is happening now is in robotics. There is a certain kind of lineage of robotics science, and mostly certain lineage of the Artificial Intelligence that is not so ’social architecture oriented’, but is investigating intelligence of the biological systems. So, it creates totally different parallels of understanding the intelligence. I think that ‘digital’ is in a recursive loop to influence dance practices.I would say for so many instances, what we call new media or technology, that if we have to think about it – the actual manifestation of behavioural media, which is dance in a way, is there in robotics too. Or, I would say, like I called ‘Dance-Tech – interdisciplinary explorations on the performance in motion’, it would be really interesting to understand the phenomena of motion.In dance we can think, you know, that there is a motion; then a motion picture – there is motion in the media, there is motion in robotic device… At the same time we have to understand a lot ourselves, to understand how we perceive motion. We have agencies for a certain kinds of motion. I think that digital technology is allowing a lot of really interesting simulations, really interesting feedbacks.Dance scene is now using gadgets for playing in order to express themselves…MBS: The one that made practically big WOW in the nineties was the gestural console media. Let’s say, someone or a performer were able to perform a certain kind of movement and immediately were able to map certain consequences or certain repercussions, or reactions of the media. So, that is right now practically given, we have kids playing, there are a lot of video games with video tracking, etc. Yeah, I think that is very interesting what artists are doing itself or as result of interesting collaborations. But at the same time these extremely forces are emerging jobs because technologies are available to practically everybody.…and it’s free!MB: Yeah, that is also very important factor, affordability of technology right now. They are creating autonomies of landscape. Affordability and accessibility of modern tools and then open source.Something that you were able to do with maps in eight years ago now you have more approachable tools and software that can literally get to the community and accessing it, or make a processing simpler. Also development of Macintosh computers, I mean at the beginning they were expensive, they still are. But it created a completely new landscape for experimentators that were reserved only for certain formal institutions.That’s how dance technologies started, from the field of universities. Because universities were getting these big grants and they were the only one able to have these labs. ‘Motion capture’ is something that is still developing within this complex. You know, motion capture still belong to the ground of formalized researchers and organizations that have resources. Video tracking and the use of movement tracking or multi-tracking recognition are much more available and affordable technologies.

IMCT Projects, The Dance Technology Project (1999)

But the comprehension of new media art also helped a bit to this situation…MBS: So, there are all these factors, you know, I think that media art is now much more understood, it’s a well understanding form, I think. Now is practically a common place to have a video in many performances, so no one is thinking that it’s such odd thing to have a virtual character or so. You know, even interactivity as such has lost interest for some people. But, there are people who are doing interesting researches in the field.So, it’s a different landscape now, and there is a lot of choreographers not being specific on the dance floor which are doing technological experiments and they are calling themselves in terms of ‘dance and technology’. They are just inspired by these kind of technologies and tools. And that is very interesting thing, because it’s mostly self-reflective. For years technologies were divided, and now they are existing and co-relating parallel. Now, we can say easily: Yeah, we can do that!Read the second part: Interview with Marlon Barrios Solano: On Dance-Tech and dance embodiment, part ll(Originally published on Personal Cyber Botanica: www.lomodeedee.com)
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Interview with Matija Ferlin: Breaking the forms of movements, soundz, images… with attitude.

Posted by body pixel on May 1, 2009 at 1:00pm
…and what brought my curiosity to this young and ‘multi-tasking’ dancer?! It was the sound thing, see. This is how I first spotted Matija Ferlin. More precisely, his subtle taste for electronica, then the Montreal’s post-rock gang around Constellation Records and Public Recordings… and I was totally convinced that something pretty cool and creative lies in his mind…Matija Ferlin is an interdisciplinary artist from Pula (Croatia), finding his way at the intersections of dance, theatre, photography and video art… he is a graduate of The School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam… as a relatively young dancer he was accepted at the Sasha Waltz & Guest Company in 2005…

Photo: Paola Winkler (c)That fact gave him an extraordinary possibility to be a part of Waltz’s creative space in which the process of making and creating stands for totally mutual interactions between Creator 1 (choreographer) and Creator 2 (dancer / performer)…One may even ask himself, after working with a choreographer of such a calibre, what should I do now, after landing on the Moon?!Matija obviously doesn’t have such dilemmas because he is switching very often from choreography to photography (he was working with fashion photographer Heinz Peter Knes on the series ‘Lucky is the lion that the human will eat’)… from dancing to attentively listening the urban asphalt purr weaved by the beauty of post-rock (Ame Henderson’s /Dance/Songs/ with Public Recordings)… deconstructing the audience and himself (solo performance art piece SaD SaM)… exploring his obsessions with words and inner paths of every human being (video performance ‘Minor2 : Salut’ by writer, photographer and incredible illustrator Christophe Chemin)… showing us the importance of family roots within projects with his brother Maurizio ‘Unija’… or his own video art the very very Mediterranean stylish ‘Vuk-Vorbild Und Kampf’ (Part 1 and 2)

Video still from the performance SAD SAM, M. Ferlin (c)So, I’ve invited Matija Ferlin at my blog for a small chat about his art… influences… obsessions…Hello Matija, what’s up?! What are you doing at the moment?! Projectz… solo workz…M: Hey Deborah, I am in a hotel room #515 in a hotel Citadel in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The laundry mat is kind of not so close to the hotel and the drop in laundry is rather expensive here (at the hotel ) so I am washing some undies and shirts to have for my trip back to Europe tomorrow. (I think this is the longest sentence I wrote in a while)Public Recordings/Ame Henderson’s work brought me here. We have our little east coast tour. We had shows in St. John’s last week, this week Halifax. Actually tonight is the last show of Dance/Songs at the Bus Stop Theatre in Halifax and tomorrow I will be spending some hours in the air having the ocean under. (Halifax-Toronto-Frankfurt-Ljubljana). In Ljubljana I will be the latecomer to Maja’s Delak new creation process. Serata Artistica Giovanile. We open the show on the 7th of May in Cankarjev Dom, so if you happen to be around – come! At the same time I am busy with opening a concept store “ARTIKL” in my hometown together with my brother Mauricio and in the free time I try to do some writing/research for my new solo work. I believe I like to keep myself busy.(I answered that a month ago. I admit my laziness. I therefore apologize. Now I will keep on answering the rest. I am on my way to Sarajevo with my show, I am fighting a flu. I am dealing with heat in the capital - ZG)

Video still from the performance SAD SAM, M. Ferlin (c)Recently you’ve visited New York, as a part of residential programme, to work at Chez Buswick. How would you describe that experience… 2 videos you posted on MySpace are pretty much intriguing and conceptual…M: I have been invited through Jonah Boaker and John Jaspersee to perform on the opening of Centre for Performance Research in Brooklyn and together with that they offered me a residency at Chez Bushwick. They are incredible hosts, indeed they are. Brooklyn was an inspiring place to be for the first phase of my process. I started to work on my new performance some weeks before that so let’s say that the videos on Youtube are the result of the first phase of work. I am continuing the line of Sad Sam, and a concept of trilogy starts to appear the more I work on it. So the new solo work that I will continue to work on in Vienna during September; October will hopefully come out in January. Still negotiating the producers.

Photo: YouTube still by Matija Ferlin (c)What is the meaning of music and soundz in your art work?! Cause, seems like your essential / personal impulse comes not so from the basic rhythm but from a soundscape structure or the meaning of lyrics which are transformed into images in your mind… Classic or contemporary… Which are closer to your artistic habitué? … Or do you even find it important?!M:I don’t strictly have a need name things. (To declare the taste.) I treat music as space. I have a tendency to change the space. But since I am not a musician myself (yet) I invite other great music artists to help me. I have an emotional relationship to music. Reduced from any concept, therefore you will find lots of urban and classical music references in my work. Music is defiantly a very present body in my work. It’s a collaborator and a performer. I have been testing its role in my last work ‘Drugo za Jedno’. I found new results that triggered me to keep on testing it even more. Music its an amazing force and a good friend.

Photo: Liam Malooney, Dance/songs, Public recordings (c)How did you ‘stuck’ with post-rock in the first place? I mean, this is a perfect music for theatre>> enough abstract and enough narrative…M: To be honest, I do not know. I think these things come with growing up. I guess I grew up. My brother’s music taste was a big influence to me. As a youngest one I liked to copy them. Today I am glad I did. I believe I had a good music education. I was home thought.Post-rock (again whatever fits inside those two words) it’s a great channel to communicate. People threat or have already a relationship to that kind of music in their daily life. Bringing that to theatre, giving that another context only enriches the existing. Both in audience and myself.You do dance classes internationally… Do you find it challenging as a pedagogic experience only, or also as an art inspiration?M: Ame said once about my class “Joyfully exploring the relationship between core strength and a released body, Matija’s approach to dance pedagogy renews participant’s sense that dance training is also about performance, presence and self expression.” It is indeed a pedagogic experience, especially the last one. I have been teaching at the University in Pula, I had 128 students in two groups giving them an introduction to contemporary dance. They study to be teachers and it was great to see how they break up their prejudices about dance and what dance is. Especially today, when Luka Nizetic (Croatian pop star) is a symbol for dance in youth culture. I hedonistically enjoy to see them dropping Luka out of their heads and inhibiting something more complex, more honest and more instinctive for them.You probably know that I’m going to ask you about Sasha Waltz. Tell us… tell us… some little story that says almost everything… about the working process…M: It was a great experience. I met some extraordinary people. The reasons why I wanted to join Sasha Waltz Company had changed while I was there. Read the rest of the interview at Personal Cyber Botanica: www.lomodeedee.com
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Interview with Jan Fabre: insects are the oldest computers

Posted by body pixel on June 20, 2009 at 4:30pm
Jan Fabre is an example of a renaissance man… it’s hard to catch all fields of contemporary art he had influenced over the last three decades…His performers are ‘true blue’ oriented towards ideas and processes he’s creating with them. It’s a mutual interaction above all, an interaction which creates new physical, emotional and mental spaces. The idea of kinetics or techniques makes no sense in his world, because his dancers are creating new laws of movements and physical comprehension. Sometimes, it even looks like Fabre is creating a glossary for understanding how the world is essentially built up.

Photo: originally uploaded by skipling (c)

Jan Fabre introduced his latest dance piece Another Sleepy Dusty Delta Day with remarkable Croatian performer Ivana Jozic at the World Theatre Festival in Zagreb. It’s created as a solo piece which was inspired by a classic and cult song from the sixties ‘Ode to Billy Joe’ by Bobby Gentry.As Theatre Troubleyn announces it with the following wordz: ‘Ode to Billy Joe tells the tale of a suicide. A teenage girl is having dinner with her family. Her mother announces that Billy Joe jumped off a bridge to his death. While the family members dish up memories of Billy Joe, discuss day-to-day worries and pass the food, the mother happens to notice that her daughter has lost her appetite. Gradually, and against this backdrop, curiosity about the untold part of the story gets the upper hand. What did the young teenage girl and Billy Joe throw off the bridge together? Were they secretly seeing one another?

Photo: Theatre Troubleyn (c)

A swelteringly hot, dusty kind of day. A story about loving and letting go, about jumping into the endless unknown.Jan Fabre opted to write “Another Sleepy Dusty Delta Day” in the form of a letter from a man to his beloved. The outcome is a truly personal text, which emphasizes the right to dispose of one’s own life, specifically the end of one’s life. A text that bears witness to empathy and respect for live, love and death.’

Mr. Fabre kindly gave me rather comprehensive interview on Sunday, fulfilled with his thoughts on arts… ideas… processes…Your two last dance pieces ‘Requiem für eine Metamorphose’ and ‘Another Sleepy Dusty Delta Day’ are dealing very directly with the issue of death? It is a kind of a brutal but poetic voyage based on your personal artistic and life journey? Death as real and surreal fact… What have you learned from the whole process?JF: As an artist: visual artist, writer and director being busy with this work that I’m doing, being busy with the beauty is always a preparation for saying goodbye; it’s always a preparation for dying. So, it’s an ongoing process I think…. You know, the reason I create is, because probably I do not understand well the outside world. Because I’m curios to understand the outside world, I’m researching and creating, asking questions and sometimes giving to myself answers.

Photo: JP Stoop (c)

You have an organic relation with artists you collaborate with… You have explained your technique in the book. There is no question that you always try to explore the edges of human physical endurance, but never only as a technique but as a specific theatre language? How did you achieve such devotion from your performers? They are vulnerable and strong at the same time…JF: It also came out over the thirty years that I’m busy. It’s worth to read ‘Corpus’, a book with my working methods and exercises. I’ve developed a kind of guiding line for actors and dancers through different exercises. So, let’s say it’s about the experience that I know what people have to go through, to reach something… what I call biological acting. It’s a combination of classical acting and the idea of what performers have to be; and this creates a kind of biological acting. It’s a research of knowing how your body works in different ways, particularly in a biological way: to know how the blood is pumping, how the heart is pumping, how the livers are reacting, how the kidneys are reacting. Because, sometimes we think it’s emotions, but it’s only about a chemical reactions. By being aware of these chemical reactions and by being an actor or dancer we can play with it.They interfere and it’s strange that people don’t except it as something logical…JF: Yes, it’s basically logical, but many people, maybe 99% of all people are not aware of this. They are not busy with it. (laughs)Unfortunately, yeah. (laughs)JF: They think that emotions are something from the outside world. No, emotions are happening inside of you, not outside of you.

Photo: andrefromont/fernardomort (cc)

Your fascination with insects was the initial drive for many of your sculptures and choreographies. I like your idea that insects are the oldest computers on the planet. Can you please tell me what lies behind the whole story?JF: I mean, look as for example a scarab beetle and look human beings: in the 40 thousand millions of years we have developed and changed a lot; and scarab beetles almost didn’t change. So, it means that they had a kind of intelligence long before us. They were, for example, first warriors; the first chemical warriors in the world were the scarab beetles. They contain an old knowledge that we have even lost in our development. So, that’s the reason why I call them the oldest computers, the oldest memory in the world. Don’t forget we are in that sense quite vulnerable; because we live in our inner skeleton and scarab beetles live in their outer skeleton. Scarab beetles survived a lot of catastrophes on the planet that we could not survive. I think animals are the best doctors and philosophers in the world. We still have to study them well to give ourselves again progress.The idea of the metamorphosis takes a significant place in your work… either your personal metamorphosis… performers’ metamorphosis … and the audience feels like being a part of an essentially changing process…JF: I hope so! Only what you can wish as an artist is that your work triggers ones mind, ones brain and by triggering the mind and brain a person or individual spectator changes. I mean, I hope that we artist, we can cure the wounds in the minds of the spectators. At the same time I hope I can do that. The spectator is sometimes like an animal, it is like an awaking its instincts, because through civilisation sometimes insects are very under control. Yes, as artist you hope that you can change people, you are looking their behaviour, their thinking, the way they feel their body. Yes, it’s a wish of me, yes! And I think it’s also an essentially strong wish of beauty.

Photo: Iguana Jo (cc)

The architecture of space plays an important role in your installations and theatre artworkz…JF: People usually miss use the terms theatrical and theatre today. Theatrical is the point where you look things from. Theatrical can be used in installation or the way you present your sculptures, because you make public to look from an uptill distance or uptill points. Of course, in my theatre, I’m very aware about the theatrical aspects on how the public looks at things, the lines of looking and the definition of space. And of course, I do the same as visual artist, in the same way I create an exhibition. There is always a kind of mizanscene that I’m making. This is the link, but they are at the same time two different things, two different mediums.They each have their own dramaturgy and narration…JF: Yes, of course.Your carrier started in the fields of visual arts and performance art. You had a successful collaboration with Marina Abramovic at Palais de Tokyo in Paris four years ago. Abramovic is a performer also known for pushing the social boundaries … what was the initial hint for your collaboration?JF: It was her wish to work with me for a long time, it was her dream to do with me a kind of a duo performance; and it took me a couple of years to say yes, because she is a very strong artist, very good artist and I respect her. It needed time; we had met regularly in different cities: Antwerp, Amsterdam, Rome… So, it took us several years to really develop it. And it was nice because when I was a young artist I was influenced by her work, what she did in her performances. Later she came to see my stage works and she said that I influenced her. So, it was beautiful in a sense because we belong to two different generations, two different backgrounds. Different cultural backgrounds. But at the same time we made something beautiful. Because, I think we are two virgin warriors who believe in beauty. We do not believe in destruction of art. We believe in the force of art and the vulnerability of art. I think we are two artists who like warriors are trying to defend art. So, that connects us, I think. That was a topic of the performance we did.

Photo: Gerard Rancinan (c)

You find drawings and dreams essential for the process of creating…JF: Yes! I’m working on different drawing projects for years. More then 25 years I’m putting my dreams on paper, but also for more then 25 years I’m making drawings from my blood. More then fifty years I’m making drawings of my own tears. I’m making drawings from my own sperm for more then ten years. So, it’s an ongoing research in drawing and research of human body.Read the rest of the interview on Personal Cyber Botanica: www.lomodeedee.com
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Interview with Jasmina Prolic: Dancer on Sound Wires

Posted by body pixel on May 24, 2009 at 11:30am
Jasmina Prolic’s latest project ‘Julie(t)- duet in absentia’ deals with technology versus body interrelations… elusive moments and impulses between sexes…The performance she choreographed and performed was collaboration with multimedia artist Hubert Pichot, known for his project ‘Try Me’ Rolling Chair Jockey - RCJ which he had introduced at the iMAL’s OpenLAB Projects in Belgium three years ago. About what Pichot said back then: ‘RCJ (music and vidéo compatible) is an electric rolling chair with sensors measuring its move and acceleration, and also some of the moves of its user. A computer processes the sensors data and generates images and sounds. The person using the chair becomes a sort of conductor controlling an audiovisual creation through his/her moves in and with the chair.’

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

Along with this line Hubert Pichot designed an experimental wearable sound device for dancer in order to give her a tool for generating soundz connected with her movements via bending wires and pick ups through accelerometers to computer and mixer at the end.Jasmina Prolic dances 'tuned on' with minimal, transcendental movements at the beginning, which grows up as the dramaturgical structures are growing too, into rhythmically more completed textures…

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

The piece is fragmented into smaller parts which are developed through wordz / dialogues with a man ‘behind’ the ‘technological wall’ emanating himself through video installation and complex DIY electronic sound device letting different sounds to come out depending on dancer’s moves. It’s a kind of a sound mapping of their virtual communication based on practical physics (more precisely micro-kinetics) - her dancing.

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

Although, the use of such devices could be constraining for the performer, seems like Hubert did a great job with his real-time sound device, Jasmina Prolic accepted it superbly as part of her body, mainly because it’s a communication tool between human being and entity of electronic nature, if you understand it banally.Prolic deploys a sort of micro-inquiring within her body narration and technique creating an artwork of emotional depth… She is questioning the issues of being emotional and physical attached via technology to another person, and the possibilities of having the same relation as if this person would be made of flash and blood…

Because of choreographer’s intention to go further the whole story is not finishing with a pair of lovers running through the meadow into each others arms… But seems like this whole ‘wired’ love is functioning with some boundaries… which leads you to the point where, as a viewer, you can realize that lots of thingz in our lives turned out in some direction because of our previous expectations… Can we accept relations with ‘entities’ and being emotionally involved with… well, actually we already live this life without even perceiving it, or maybe we all like to live in certain oblivion…

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

Jasmina Prolic is a Sarajevo ex-ballet girl on her ‘movable’ life journey, heavily ‘spiced’ with contemporary dance, in France… At the beginning of 90’s Jasmina was already an award winning ballet dancer and member of Sarajevo’s National Ballet Ensemble … but due to terrible thingz which started to happen in Bosnia at that time, she first found refuge in Zagreb, and then she entered at The National Superior Conservatoire of Dance and Music of Paris in order to study Contemporary Dance.Her graduation dance piece was her first solo work ‘Sarajevo, 25th of April 10 o’clock in the morning or Why?’. Jasmina Prolic has received Award for French Young Choreographers in 1999; she was a member of the Junior Ballet of the CNSMDP from 1996-97, which followed the residency - danceweber at DanceWeb Project within ImpulsTanz in Vienna in 1998. Artists she had collaborated with are: Jean Claude Gallota, Maguy Marin, Joachim Schlomer, Palle Granhoj, Gildas Zepffel, Gildas Bourdet, Balazs Gera, Maja Pavlovska, Szilard Mezei, Albert Markos, Henrik Jaspersen et Ko de Regt (Duo Resonante), Jérome Poret etc.

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

Lucid choreographer Joseph Nadj invited her in 2002 to base her very own dance company in Orléans (France), which was initially a new trigger in her carrier, not just for her solo artworkz but for promoting younf dancers and companies from South Eastern Region… Jasmina Prolic is spending a lot of time on givin’ dance workshops and classes in this region…From 2007 she is an art consultant for Nomad Dance Academy regional network presenting the Bosnian organisation for contemporary dance Tanzelarija; and she have an active participating role in the Balkan Dance Network and IETM. She’s the organizer of ‘Choreographic Meetings of the Balkans’ dance event with the National Choreographic Centre of Orléans and National Scene of Orléans in France. Jasmina is artistic director of the First Bosnian Contemporary Dance Festival ZVRK in Sarajevo.

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

After such a technical complex dance piece ‘Julie(t)- duet in absentia’ with a dancer immersed deeply in the theme, I couldn’t resist not inviting Jasmina for a small talk on her solo work… technology… about her challenges…about ZVRK … and all that stuff…Hi, Jasmina! Could you please tell me something about that how did you first get involved with technology? Something that actually can’t be controlled in a way you can control your own body and expressiveness…J: Hubert Pichot and I met while working together on the theatre production in February 2006. Then he introduced me with his technological stuff and expressed a wish to work with a dancer in order to create a live instrument!!! He said he would like to work on Romeo and Juliet by Prokofjev, but I replied that Romeo and Juliet that I think off are written by Shakespeare. In that sense I was ready to enter the adventure of exploration for a live instrument, not being interested in the love story, but in the conflict and all that destroyed love.

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

Are you planning to work or develop the same working process within ‘Julie(t)- duet in absentia’ or some other future performance?J: The work with Juliet isn’t finished yet; we’re still developing and rethinking this piece. Maybe, if I will feel the urge, I’ll provoke something similar in some other project.In your opinion, what is the perspective of a human moveable body through dance in the context of technology?J: Well, there are so many things in that context that need to be discovered. It also depends a lot on what you want to express, in what direction you want to develop and what kind of message to send.Do you think that you can expand your possibilities as a dancer by using experimental performing devices, DIY tools, data sensors and so?J: These devices push you in some very different ways to use your body and to develop conscience about some still undiscovered parts and possibilities. But, they influence your style also.

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

Josef Nadj has inspirited you with invitation to work and base your dance company in Orleans…J: I can only thank him for everything.What do you give to dancers on one side and learn from them on other side in your international classes?J: When I teach, first of all I give respect and get human quality. Sometimes, I learn everything from the beginning…What could you tell me about the development of dance scene at the moment in South Eastern Europe, in the European context?J: Although I am not completely familiar with the whole South-East European scene; dancers and choreographers that I do know can with confidence stand side by side in the European context.

Photo: Compagnie Jasmina (c)

The first Bosnian Festival for Contemporary Dance took place in September in Sarajevo… That’s great news for young people willing to expand their experiences in the field of contemporary dance, but also for society and the city of Sarajevo in general… How do you see the future of the scene that will certainly emerge from it in ten, twenty years from now?J: Who could know how the scene will look like tomorrow, not to say in ten or twenty years! (laughs).I only hope that something has finally been moved. This first edition convinced us of the great need for this kind of events in the contemporary societies; so we can’t give up. Dance makes you free and gives you a chance for interaction. There are no limits and that is what we really need.In any case, it won’t be easy, but it never is in Bosnia and Herzegovina! ‘Nice and easy’ approach. And maybe the standing tomb-stones will revive through our bodies; they’ll become off petrified and therefore even nicer and stronger.Jasmina, thanks!p.s. Bosnia and Herzegovina is well known for archaeological sites of medieval tomb-stones.(This blog post was originally posted on Personal Cyber Botanica at www.lomodeedee.com)
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