My works are always choreographed by the dancers. What I do, is give them the guidance they each seek.
Symbolism
Working with symbolism as a choreographic strategy, deprives dance from its deepest potential.
Scale
Good choreography is somehow always larger than the stage it’s being performed on.
Amnesia
Tools, processes, strategies and all other elements related to the process, should always be slightly forgotten over time, in order to allow constant change, reevaluation and the regeneration of new ways and approaches. Amnesia is a necesery tool in making room for new ideas.
Teaching dancers
I don't teach dance students to dance, I try to teach them to think choreographically. I'm less interested in teaching them how to move, but rather get them to think why and how they're moving.
Statement/observation
Good work is not about making a statement - it’s an observation.
Expectations and drawers
I enjoy being where I'm not expected, taking roads I'm not supposed to, jumping above and below where people think I'm at. It keeps my artistic feet grounded.
The result though, is that almost no one has a full image and understanding of the work as a whole.
Politics
There's a certain point, which beyond it, an artist which engages in the political power games of his own artistic field, is actually revealing the irrelevance of his art.
Cynicism
A valuable piece of art - or better, a meaningful artistic action, cannot be cynical. The two don’t mix well. Also, cynicism, like kitch, can not really be bearer of meaning.. Both produce a sort of nothing.
Doing
Choreography is about DOING. It’s about the choreographic actions, and trying to make sense of them.
A choreographic vision for dancers
It’s the understanding of the choreographic context of a work, that gives dancers the ability to make sense of their actions. Dancers must be encouraged to have a choreographic vision of the work they are part of. The way to do that, is by carefully placing chunks of responsibility in their lap. To put them in situations where they must consider the choreographic whole and make it an integral part of their process. Most of them will resist (except for the ones with choreographic ambitions), but eventually most dancers will grow into that place, once they realise how good it feels to actually understand why you do something and how it is made.
Struggle/Effort
‘Struggle', and 'effort', are too radically different things. When one makes wrong decisions while devising his process and system, he will usually find himself struggling very fast, making the right decisions on the other hand, will not eliminate the need to make efforts, but at the same time, it will avoid producing a state of struggle.
Sets
My stage sets are made of sound and light.
Repertoire
Existing choreographic work (in the sense of 'repertoire') outside of the direct context and presence of it’s maker, Is an old concept. It doesn’t apply to the way contemporary dance is being made and thought of. Contemporary dance is everything the concept 'repertoire' isn't.
Movement
Choreography cannot exist without movement - movement not in the sense of dancers moving, but in the sense of a kinetic substance which is in constant movement. The fact it happens while time is moving forward, is not enough. The duration of a choreography is completely separate from its own movement through the 'theatrical time'. A constant sense of movement through that particular performative time, must be present. By the time it ends, a choreography should be at a completely different "place" than the one it started at. It has moved, on a totally different time plane than the passing of time.
Script/movie
The choreography itself (what the dancers are left with at the end of the creation period) is like a script, it is very far from being the movie.
Move
A choreography must always move faster than the capacety of the viewer’s eye to fully understand "how it works”. it should always be one step ahead of its audience, thus creating a strong sens of moving forward (in time, substances, ideas, naratives etc)
Pitfall
When the work one creates isn’t about himself, it opens the way to see how the dancers, as the immediate and most intimate manifestations of a dance piece, must be given the conditions and context that will allow their talent and individual qualities to come into being.
They in turn, will also have to understand that "its not about them". A full cycle of realizing the independence of the choreographic process and substance, from its makers. (Agnes Martin once wrote. "The enormous pitfall is devotion to oneself instead of to life. All works that are self-devoted are absolutely ineffective.”)
But even if this second aspect is harder to achieve, i'm constantly looking for ways of maximizing their ability for creativity and clarity. To a large extent, this is attained through creating a subtle balance between making them aware of the choreographic mechanism and the way it functions, and at times, putting them through processes in which they are unable to fully grasp the forces that determine the flow of events/actions/situations.
Awareness
Awareness is at the hart of the act of dancing - the wider it is, the more information and details a dancer accumulates in real time, the more the dance becomes clear and meaningful. When dancing within a group, most of one’s attention should be aimed at maximising one’s awareness at what is being done by the other dancers. This frees the dancer’s own body and mind to engage fully with the movement, and creates a clear relation to the other dancers, thus giving the dancer the best reasons to move (or stay still for that matter…). Acute perception of the wider context, is at the origin of good dancing.
Process
The first thing that happen in the studio at the start of the process, usualy looks good, then you start doubting it and begins to change certain elements, and before you know it, the whole thing stops making sense. Choreographic sections that were almost finished and felt quite good, fall apart. It's as if we haven’t experienced enough with them for it to hold. The whole thing doesn't have enough structural history. It’s not always the case, but sometimes the mere accumulation of attempts, layers and deleted versions, is needed. What I'm always after is some simplicity where the whole thing is just there, and sometimes getting there goes through throwing some great 'younger’ versions in order to arrive to ‘older’ ones.
