Creation structures

I have had a vision.

I wonder if it is too nihilist, simply a wish to end all known things and build a supposed new ground. However, I do not intend to undermine the value of theatres, what they represent, and the marvellous ritual that surrounds their events.

The current performing arts production system and its structures are made to support presentation of creations on theatres mostly. There are other formats that come out of this norm, but they are not completely free because they are still related to theatre, its rules and its conceptions.

Conventional theatre productions are a historic format which it made sense at its time of origin, and it still does in that context, but it entails a form of dialogue that it might not always correspond to, satisfy the necessities of expression in today’s society nor to challenge it enough.

If we want to push boundaries in choreographic creation beyond/within the known ways of making a piece, it is certain we are looking for innovation in its process and form, therefore, we should go beyond the theatre as concept and institution.

How is a certain creative process? How do we connect it to the audience? How do I generate movement and compose it?... I feel like every time, anyhow, the question starting by the word what does not really matter, yet, the important question is how.

I have the sensation there are several boxes where we fit ourselves and our creations, several formats or styles which we repeat and reproduce (sometimes as wishes or expectations induced by the market), and we relate to them without really knowing why or not knowing how to do it otherwise. Then, in order to go beyond certain frames, we do not need to change the language itself, but the continent.

A body comes out of another body.

What if sometimes we do not feel free to create, because we focus in a context that does not allow us to express ourselves but in just one way?

What if creative processes are happening in a specific way because they are related to the form of theatre, even if they happen in other contexts? What if these other contexts are not considered as exceptions or alternatives to theatre?

And what if other ways of creating do not exist yet because the channel of expression does not exist yet?

I ask myself, if we are focused on creation itself, how could we make it sustainable? How to get it closer to the audience? How to establish a different dialogue or contact with the audience if it is not through the kind of performances we know (which it anyway stands far from many people)?

These thoughts question all the structures that have been created to support artwork.

These thoughts question all the roles that have been generated, surely the choreographer, but even the dancer.

If we take away performance as we know it, as the result of our creation, what do we have left?

If we change that, does the way we create change as well? Does the way we express ourselves change?

It might change the context of contact with our audience.

It might change the way we relate to dance.

These thoughts do not question dance, but the format where it is included, the structure, the way it is subsided and organized, sustained, even viewed.

But if you change all that, dance is still dance.

#dance #performance #theater #creation #contemporarydance #dancer #creationprocess #choreographer #production #diffusion #newways #culturemanagement