All of it by Jasmine Ellis

Edited by Zeynep Gündüz

September 26th, 2014

Amsterdam

being non-violent is mastering violence instead of ignoring it

When I started the work, I was interested in exploring argument and aggression. In general, I like to learn methods and put my dancers and myself through an intensive crash course in Thai boxing. I am touched when people are overcome by emotion, or overcome emotion. The vehicles we use to express ourselves became my interest, rather than a specific angering theme. I think fury is universal, though it is sometimes merited and sometimes ridiculous.

elements 

music                                                              

The music plays an important role in the piece for me. The majority of the music is created by Tamara Lindeman (The Weather Station). She grew up down the country road from me (I grew up in Canada). Her music sounds like home to me; it brings in a sense of earth and homeliness. The way it often seems to sit in opposition to the dancers is very important in the way I wanted the audience to experience the piece. It offers other solutions to viewing, or understanding what you are seeing.

future work

I could warm a small house all winter by burning my different notebooks full of ideas. If I could explode into a million people maybe then, I could get half my ideas done. After a research week in Amsterdam, I am currently working towards creating a new stage production ‘LEROY’ with Berlin theatre maker Toni Jessen. It is an ode to contagious psychosomatic conditions, and how it can lead people in unrelenting cyclical movement.

  bio’s

A graduate of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and Codarts Rotterdam Conservatory, Jasmine Ellis has worked professionally in dance as a performer and choreographer since 2006. She has performed for many choreographers including Edan Gorlicki, Ido Batash, Anna Reiti, Audrey Bergeron, and Brodie Stevenson, and danced for companies like Dorky Park (Costanza Marcas), Random Collison, Zata Omm (William Younge) & Mumuki. Her own creations are often collaborative, sometimes for stage and often for camera. She was a resident choreographer for the Random Collision’s 2012 Trilogy Project, and created All of it.

Quite discontinuous by Jasper van Luijk

Edited by Zeynep Gündüz

September 22nd, 2014

Amsterdam

Jasper van Luijk

can you swallow death and physicalize it?

In my work, I usually start from a human aspect and explore that through a physical form. I am interested in showing the human being within a social context; for example, how people relate to each other or to themselves through behavior, memory and (e)motion. Topics I have explored in previous works are loss, social isolation, lifeless against life and recognition.

  A conversation about death with my dad in the summer of 2012 triggered the idea for Quite discontinuous. The topic seemed too large to explore in a dance; yet, something about it was intensely concrete: death as counterpoint of life. So I started looking for partners interested in this topic and I was granted the luxury of a long research phase in Arnhem at Generale Oost. We had about 8 weeks of research and creation time before the production of the site-specific version in Dordrecht and the theatre version, which premiered at the ITS festival Amsterdam 2013. During the research, we explored questions such as: if death were a character, how would he/she move? Can you swallow death and physicalize it? What would be the sensation of my body dying, and how would it look like in a physical form? Other sources of inspiration were the movie Melancholia by Lars von Trier and the poetry of Anneke Claus, who attended the rehearsals.

  The piece has been performed in various theatres in the Netherlands and abroad and an excerpt has been taken into the school repertory of ArtEZ School of Dance for the coming two seasons.

  elements

  body vs. the person

For me, the most important is to show the body in a communicative state, either materialized in a technical and slightly formal context or communicating an actual sensation in a shared moment in time.

  I constantly shift between showing the body as composed of formal elements like shape and dynamic and the actual person who is moving. For me, both can exist next to each other and are equally valuable and communicative but have their own specific value.

  For example, my own physical language explores tension and conflict in the body, which releases and, therefore, creates movement and direction. I approach the body in a sort of ‘lock-mode’, which needs to be forced open to allow the next physical task to happen. In addition, most often isolated body-parts trigger the body to move in its entirety and in space. The focus is usually introvert.

At the same time, the performer making choices through the way s/he stands on stage and transmits energy and actuality is something that always is clearly present. I enjoy witnessing performers being present and in control of what they are at that moment in time and knowing how they choose what to transmit to an audience.

  space/atmosphere The space that an audience perceives should be a place that is not theirs: a place that is new and surprising and a space where situations take place. A place that invites the audience to take part in a space that but can be grasped by the presence of the performers.

I usually try to create an atmosphere where people are invited be part of the moving body as the body goes through a sensational journey, which is very much in the moment. In its form, what is offered will exist only once. In each performance, the space, audience and performer will be or feel different, which will affect the performance as well as the perception of the work.

  students I’m very glad that students of ArtEZ will perform a section in Quite discontinuous. I find it important to offer students the experience to go on stage whilst touring with experienced professional dancers and choreographers.

  The exchange between the experienced and the young dancer is something I would like to continue exploring as a maker. I feel it’s fruitful, both for the student who is hungry and inexperienced and the professional who has maybe been waiting to rediscover a new, willing energy in a field that has become known and comfortable.

    future work

I feel very privileged to be able to create many different productions and go on tour this season. Previously Cited, which was created in 2012, will tour through Holland in October and November with the Dansclick platform. Goldmund, created together with the musicians and actors of Orkater will premiere on October 25th and tour through Holland in October, November and December. After this, I will put all of my energy in creating Savages, a co-production of Generale Oost and Korzo for the Cadance Festival. Savages is based on Orwell’s 1984, and is a piece in 2 acts with live-music.

      bio’s

Jasper van Luijk (1987) is a graduate of ArtEZ Dansacademie in Arnhem. Interpersonal relationships is a major theme in his work. Jasper also focuses on to perform ‘in the moment’ and to create situations where the performers can surprise themselves and the spectators through their choices onstage. At present, Jasper is supported by Korzo productions through the Nieuwe Makers arrangement of the Fonds Podiumkunsten. Examples of previous work are Too many new beginnings (2011) and About There & Here (2012).

Me, my Selfie and I by Katja Heitmann

Interview by Zeynep Gündüz

August 25th, 2014

Utrecht

Katja Heitmann

a trio for two dancers and an iPad, two plagiarisms, two imitations

Dutch Dance Festival and Fashion Clash invited me to partake in the project ‘Distinguished Dreams’, which entailed the collaboration of a choreographer with a fashion designer. I was asked to collaborate with the designer Annemarije van Harten in a piece in which pre-education students of the Opleiding Dans Maastricht would dance. Me, my Selfie and I premiered at the ECI Cultuurfabriek, performed at Fashion Clash Festival in June 2014 and will be shown at the Dutch Dance Festival in Maastricht.

The exposure of identity is a major theme in my work. Lately, I have grown an interest in how we ‘exist’ in physical and digital realities in current mediatized society. In particular, I am interested in the selfie or how we create copies of ourselves that move with us. At present, the selfie seems to be the symbol for the ideal self-image. And although the selfie is not new (selfie dates from 1839), the last years have witnessed a huge shift in the degree of its creation and distribution by means of digital technologies and social media platforms. This provides the ability to create and control one’s self-image, which results in mass narcissism and an overdose of self-projection and its dissemination.

collaboration

I approach fashion as a frame to which the body has to adapt and to fit in to. For me, fashion literally becomes a form of self-framing, an embrace, an auto-correction of the body, which shows similarities to my ideas on the selfie. I proposed the idea of the selfie and copy-paste culture as themes for the piece and Annemarije was immediately interested in transforming these ideas into the costume.

We did have clashes of thought during the process. Although our ideas concerning theatre and fashion were similar, we differed in our approach towards the staging of these ideas. I take on a more experimental and hilarious approach while Annemarie’s approach is more classical. But I think that these differences worked well for this piece, such as the combination of neat clothes with weird movement. So at the end we really found each other. And I have learned a lot from our collaboration with Annemarije.

We decided on a costume, which would literally be a copy of ourselves in the form of a one-dimensional (but neat!) outfit hanging in front of the dancer. One-dimensionality and flatness were also inspiration points for the movement material. 

elements

mask

I like masks because, like fashion, the mask creates a frame to hide what is behind it. In my work, I like to explore the tension that arises from creating a frame for our identity and the effort to keep this frame under control. I am interested in the moments where you lose control of this frame or when you feel its restrictions; for example, wearing high heels can restrict your walk or posture. The mask functions as a tool to frame identity and it also helps to create a certain stereotype image.   

iPad

The idea for the iPad is related to the selfie. I approach the iPad as a one-dimensional reflection of physical reality and as a symbol of our mediatized reality (amongst others). In addition, it was easy for the dancers, who are 15 and 16 years old, to relate to the selfie and iPad. Yet to question the selfie and the manipulation of identity through fashion was unconventional for them. Now they are thinking more critically about both issues!

My idea was to create a doubling of reality in theatre by means of the iPad or the multiplication of a certain stereotype via two identical dancers and their image projected on the iPad. I placed the iPad on stage; a recorded image of the mask is shown on its screen. I did not have the opportunity to create an interactive relationship between the iPad and the dancers. Nevertheless, I think that it is important that the iPad is present onstage. Also, I realized that the iPad receives more attention if it is positioned closer to the audience, which I find interesting.   

movement

In my work, I like to create a construction for the dancer in which the body can move in (which was fashion in this case) rather than provide dancers specific steps. Nevertheless, movements in ‘Me, my Selfie and I’ are not improvised. Since copy-paste society was the starting point of this performance, I decided to copy movements from YouTube. At that time, the ‘Gangnam Style’ was the most watched video, so we used ‘Gangnam Style’ movements. However, the ‘Gangnam Style’ is hardly recognizable because the body needs to adapt to the costume, which forces the dancer to remain frontal and move in a weird, ‘ugly’ posture in order to keep the costume in place. In this way, the costume determined the body’s posture and its range of movement.

music

Inspiration for the music in ‘Me, my Selfie and I’ is again YouTube. The music is based on a monologue of a woman who uploads daily posts on social media. This hilarious monologue is based on the question whether dogs have brains. We copy-pasted fragments from her text and made a compilation and added a techno beat behind it. The choice for the music is also inspired by “auto-tune remix”. Today almost every singer makes use of auto-tuning, which means automatic correction of their voice to achieve perfect performance. If everything is correctable and re-workable, is the copy of ourselves more perfect than the original?

future work

‘Me, my Selfie and I’ is a prelude for my future work. Mediatized versus live bodies onstage is a research-theme that will run through my work in the upcoming years. I will use this theme to express my main fascination: the human struggle of finding a reason of our existence and trying to gain control over something that is not controllable. For me, this struggle is the motivation why people are moving in the world.

  bio’s

Katja Heitmann (1987) graduated from Fontys Dance Academy as choreographer in 2012. She finds the everyday to be a fascinating source of inspiration. In her work, Katja focuses on rusted routines and idealized self-images that restrict us. Currently,the development of her work is supported by DansBrabant, Festival Cement en Theaterfestival Boulevard.

L.O.V.E by Cecilia Moisio

Interview by Zeynep Gündüz

September the 1st, 2014

Amsterdam

(Photo by Mark van Vugt)

Cecilia Moisio 

a performance on longing, the oral, visceral and euphoria

In creating a piece, I always start from myself basically! I start with a theme or topic that I question or one that bothers me. I reflect on this theme, read about it, analyze it and try to place it within a broader social context. When I started working for L.O.V.E., I was questioning love and happiness, mainly questioning the tension between love as a social construct and as a personal emotion. In the piece, I analyzed love and happiness by exploring their dark and bright sides. For me, L.O.V.E. is a celebration of love, but it also shows its dark or painful sides.

  I started working on L.O.V.E. in March 2014, and in May presented it as a work in progress. This was followed by a short version, which premiered at the ITs Festival in June in Amsterdam and de Parade in August in Utrecht and Amsterdam. Erin Harty, Christopher Tandy and four interns from different schools performed in the short version. The full version of L.O.V.E. will premiere at Moving Futures Festival in Amsterdam on October 9th with Jorijn Vriesendorp and Shay Partush as performers next to Erin and Chris.

  Self-image versus how you portray yourself to the world is a major interest of mine. How truthful can you be to the outside world versus how you feel inside, by which I mean your psychology and things you keep hidden. I like to show the tension between these two aspects and it is a theme that runs through all of my pieces. I use different ‘languages’ to portray the constant conflict between the outer and the inner world.

elements

text

In general, I combine movement with text and singing, which requires strong acting skills alongside technical skills. I guess my work tends towards dance theatre (although I find it difficult to label myself as this or that) but I do it pretty much in my own way.

This piece shows the conflict between the rational mind, which says one thing, and the body, which deals with emotions. For me, body language does not lie. With words you can rationalize a situation, but the body does not lie. The duality between words (or what is said) and feeling is something that I like to work with, which allows me to gather information and layer them on top of each other simultaneously. So there is another layer and meaning under what you are actually seeing. And I like these moments of struggle.

movement

In my pieces, the performers start as rational, controlled human beings. Then during the piece they loose this control. So dramaturgically, there is a breaking down of this outer frame. Besides loss of control, exhaustion is something that I work a lot with. I think that if you really go through exhaustion as a performer, you come out at a more ‘truthful’ place of being. The performers have to go full on, the piece is physically very tiring. For example, being 10 minutes in the state of euphoric happiness can be physically really exhausting. Do you still want to be happy then and can you keep it up? I like to search this state through the body of the dancers. In the piece the dancers shift from one emotional state to the other in a very fast pace. So mentally this is also quite challenging for the dancers but also a nice experience.

The movements are choreographed. An inspiration for the movements is romantic cliché Hollywood movies such as The Notebook. I was curious to see whether we could use the cliché and make it truthful. In the beginning we were copying the movements of the actors from the films with which we improvised. I like using human gesture in my choreographies a lot. We also used my movement material, which I usually create while improvising in the studio.

L.O.V.E.

L.,O.,V.,E. establish the four parts in the piece. For me, each letter has a meaning. L stands for longing, O is for oral, V refers to visceral and E is euphoria. The four letters provide a guideline for the development of the piece but not necessarily in this order. In the piece, I aim to embrace love in all its facets – its good parts, but also ugliness.  Still, for me the piece remains hopeful in the end. 

music

I usually work with a composer, Joni Vanhanen, in my pieces. He composed most of the music for L.O.V.E. The dancers also sing certain cover love- songs within the performance. I also use Nat King Cole’s “L-O-V-E”, which is used in different ways to deconstruct the action onstage. 

theory

I researched scientific approaches to love, conceptually but also historically. For example, I came across the ‘triangular theory of love’. This is a theory by psychologist Robert Sternberg who claims that perfect love has three components: passion, commitment, and intimacy. The perfect relation has all those components in equal amounts and other types of love have only one or two. I used the idea of triangular love in the piece. But I also read works of theorists who are against the concept of love and romanticism, stating that it is a form of escapism or a simple consumer trap. Also, I find it interesting that, historically, romantic love was considered as madness that was acceptable and that the idea of romantic marriage is quite a recent phenomenon.

future work

In my next project, I will focus on mothers and daughters and the complexity within their love- relationships. 

bio’s

Cecilia Moisio is a freelance performer and choreographer currently affiliated with Dansmakers Amsterdam as Artist In Residence. Her works, such as Hi! My Name Is… (2010), Juxtapose (2013) and the solo IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S ME (2013), have been performed in The Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Spain, Curacao and Slovenia. Cecilia is nominated for the Dutch Dance Award 2014 in October in Maastricht.