You don't MAKE choreography, choreography HAPPENS.
Come together
Individual actions that don't come together in a way which renders them parts of a system, are a waste of choreographic time.
Context
Context is everything.
Making room
I'm not in the business of telling people what to do, I rather make room for people. Room for them to do their thing. Now making room, effective room, one that frees them while giving them a safe and coherent context, is a very subtle and complex endeavor. In a way, it's what I think choreography means, making room for dancers.
Virtuosity
The definition of virtuosity, depends on the context you're placing it in and the system it is serving.
Balance
Dancing is constantly looking for the right balance between reacting and acting. Listening and talking.
Gardening
My choreography is about the process of continuously nourishing fields of possibilities, and then waiting to see what happens.
So tell me, what is it about?
Making any work of art, a comment about one theme/subject/story/idea/concept, is the single worst strategy a maker can adopt. The more the work isn't bound to one thing, the more it can speak accurately about most things.
Adding
I dont think of choreography as an act of documentation, story telling, self expression etc. For me It's rather a process of observation, culminating with ADDING something to the world. So If I'm in the business of adding things to the world, I rather make them positive ones.
Delete
Falling in love with one’s material, doesn’t allow to judge it in the context of the entire piece. Deleting extremly good chunks of choreography, becouse they make no sense in relations to the larger context, should be a daily practice.
Reasons
Dance is about people in search of very good reasons to move.
Choreography is about finding good reasons to move from one situation to the next.
Answer to a journalist
Answer to a journalist,
To answer your question regarding actions/images used in the choreography and the possible intentions behind - I'm afraid there are non. I can understand how those actions/images can be read in different ways, and I'm perfectly ok with that (there is no "official" version to what the work is about). I create and organize movements/people in time and space - it’s as simple as that. I am interested in the work itself, its mechanism, its logic, the tools used in making it etc. The way I see it, what is actually taking place on stage, is the focal point, and not whatever that might represent - it is not trying to discuss themes outside the onstage action itself.
Of course it is a completely different story for any individual in the audience, which is free to understand and make sense of that as he/she wants.
Facilitating
Any choreographic work who's focal point is the choreographer, her/his ability, talent, craftsmanship, ideas, stories, opinions etc, rather than the dancers involved, the audience watching and the artistic process, is a form of autistic masturbation. It will always lack the authenticity of an event taking place in the real world, and will not allow the audience to become engaged partners of the work.
Choreographing, is facilitating.
Restart
My work is about developing sets of procedures. But I’m not after devising one single process or strategy for how I make the work. There's a need to constantly redefine these procedures. It’s a way to keep bringing myself back to the starting point.
Make your choice
Choreography can either be part of the problem, or part of the solution.
Strip it down
Striping things down to their basics, brings out their complexity. It’s not a matter of minimalism, but more a way to let the inherent comlexity of all things shine.
Freedom/responsibility
I think the only way to truely free dancers, is to put them in a position of owning the full responsability for whatever it is they are doing.
Movement material
Creating movement material is usually the first, yet not the most important step in the work. Studying it, selecting, and understanding how this material will be used in the context of choreographic constellations, is where I feel the work happens.
Effects
Visual effects of all sorts (including the choreographic ones), are a very boring strategy to cover up a poor and lacking choreographic structure.
Mechanics
Getting the full potential out of a movement, has to do with finding the right balance between cadence/rhythm/speed, and amplitude/breadth/range.