"Dance is what the universe does"
Humanhood company was founded in 2016 by Rudi Cole and Júlia Robert Parés. Together, they have developed a unique symbiotic fluid movement language that lies at the core of their work, creating intricate choreographic patterns that merge into multilayered energetic shapes with flow and dynamism.
The research behind the work is rooted in physics and astrophysics as well as in their personal insight into Eastern mysticism, fascinated by the connections that lie between these seemingly different fields and how these shape our human experience of ourselves and reality.
-You are both really young and with Humanhood you have been creating something larger that is just incredible and it is growing day by day. But why did you decide to start this project?
Rudi: “The reason for Humanhood was to find an umbrella. The name was about finding something about ourselves in which our work, our practice, not just on stage or in the studio, but in our lives could encapsulate. Also, it was finding humility working for something larger. We also wanted to find a name that when people say it they become a part of it. “Rudi and Julia” sounds great, it is our name. But how can we create something bigger to let people be part of it. If you think about “Humanhood”, just for the fact of being human you are already part of it so that is why we wanted to be something that is inclusive, that just embraces human forms and human expressions.”
-Sadler’s Wells’ Artistic Programmer Eva Martinez says that in your work there is a strong legacy with your predecessors Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkahoui and Hofesh Shechter. How were you able to develop your vision about art and dance that is already so clear and defined?
Julia: “When we started working together we were questioning about what is a style that we are just replicating or what is something that comes naturally in our bodies and can be an expression of our own natural movement or even a development of everything we learn. Of course there is a legacy to these big names but how do you take that further? How do you own it and bring something that is unique to you? So for us, it was actually diving a lot into Tai-Chi, Qi-gong, a lot of mysticism, meditation, so even practices that are not physical, but energetic. So, we started to go there, and it wasn't about a dance style, but about lifestyle. And that was the difference that made our movement so powerful, because for us it is not a dance style, it is a lifestyle and it brings bdy, mind and spirit together.”
-Humanhood is Julia and Rudi together. You seem to be the strength for the other, an inseparable duo. How did you find each other? And how do you relate to each other artistically in your everyday work?
Rudi: “I think we were always intertwined paths. We never actually met but we worked with a lot of choreographers in the same city or at the same time, we took particular workshops at the same time. Our first interaction was play and curiosity. It was a curiosity to find something more. There is a personal relationship as well as an artistic relationship. And from the artistic point of view we really like to refer to the Yin Yang symbols. There is no dominant, but they are just complementar. The Yin is actually black but the man is Yang. And the Yang is white but the Yin is female. So, there is an interplay of these elements. Of course we are not black and white, we are just different shades of the same color, but if we look at it from this dark/light aspect, also embracing both sides in ourselves, we all have a bright side and a dark side. We all have a feminine aspect as well as a musculine one. This is what we try to bring in our artistic relationship and artistic expression”.
Julia: “And it becomes natural. We just complement one another. Rudi will be super physical and I will be more mental or the other way around: it is just finding that balance in our lives to coexist, because we are co-creators, but not only between us two, but between our entities and the universe.”
-In your work spirituality and in particular Eastern mysticism have a central role. How did this practice influence your way of living and dancing?
Julia: “Spirituality is very important for us. Many people take spirituality as something that is on top of your life, but actually spirituality is the base, it is the energy that creates everything. For us spirituality is just this foundational energy from which everything arises and so we take this in our movements as well. It is about energetic mots, which improve your way of listening, with your focus, your awareness, your open-mind, open-heart, but also with the senses, and you become more sensitive. It is not so much about doing but about listening.”
-Your interests in cosmos and nature, brought you in working with physicist William Chaplin, leader of the NASA Kepler Mission on asteroseismology (the study of stars) and professor at Birmingham University. What is the importance of developing artistic research, deepening your inspirations? How did this change your approach to movement and choreography?
Julia: “I started a physics degree so I brought all the physics into our company. But this physics and dance was a start of this lifestyle and bringing everything together. We said that we bring modern physics and Eastern mysticism into the body and when we say Eastern mysticism it is not so much about a geographical place on earth but more about a perspective, a way of seeing the world. There is this ancient knowledge and this modern physics, and one studies the outside and looks outside to understand the world, and the other one looks within to understand the world. The body is in the middle, it is a border of what is out and what is in. So we bring this outside perspective and this inner perspective and fuse them into the body, which is this presence or this harmonious space in the middle.”
-What are you interested in while creating a piece? What would you like to transmit?
Julia: “For us it is a process. We don’t start a research or a piece saying that it is going to be about this or that, it is more about asking ourselves what is going on in our lives or what our focus is going towards, what are we curious to know more about. Meditation guides us towards. We see it as a process, everything that we experience and we have experienced, evolve and get shaped in a dance production. We take big concepts like “Zero”, “Torus”, “Infinit”, which is our next piece. So we really dive both in the physical aspect, so this external way of seeing the world around us, but also this more mysticism of looking inside. It is a full process”
Rudi: “And I think for the audience perspective, we are inviting the audience to have an experience. We want to provide a visual and touching experience for the senses. And the senses are not just physical but also spiritual because it goes somewhere deeper, it goes into places where there are questions. We want to leave the audience with questions, open for an internal reflection about yourself, your own being. There is something larger that we wanted to happen to: this element of entertainment which feels much like taking yourself out of your body in the experience, but how do you guide people into themselves, how do we create a production where the can find something deeper or they experience something they have never experienced before, which is something more profound than just the experience with the 5 senses.”
-In your artistic vision, what are you looking for in another dancer?
Julia: “I think it comes back to this thing of the lifestyle, dancestyle. I always say that the quality of your movements is the quality of your stillness or the quality of the stillness is the quality of the movements. So, anytime we teach our sessions we start with stillness and already at the point I can see who is going really to be present in their movements, how present they are in their stillness and how they are able to own and expande that stillness. What I’m looking for in a dancer is the power in the stillness. And when you are present in the stillness you start expressing things that are not covered by physical styles or way of movements, but it is more deeper in the way that you are as a human being”.
Rudi: “For me I look for dancers that are curious. I’m really attracted to dancers that are looking to continue to study. I feel I’m always a student, I want to discover something new, I feel I want to develop and grow my quality, and it is a never ending process and I think that humility, that sense of wanting and understanding that there is more to know and there is more to discover in the body.”
-What is the role of improvisation in your company and vision?
Julia: “It is really important. When we create a piece, we improvise, we record everything, we look back. Improvisation is great because it is spontaneous, it is free-flow, not judgemental, not rational, it is a channel for something bigger to express from you. For us, even in our pieces we feel there is always space for improvisation of the dancers, so they will keep the mindset that world, and there is a lot of choreography there is set, but then there is also spaces where the choreography given to the dancers and the world itself can breathe with improvisation”.
-You have also developed the “WeFlowExperience”. What is it about? What is its aim?
Julia: “It started in 2020, when all the world was going into lockdown and we were questioning how to bring movement to people, but not only movement but, since they cannot go out, how can they go in through the movement? So we went to natural Parks and we recorded some sessions of WeFlow practice which is a lot inspired and goes to Tai-Chi and Qi-gong. We went to the natural parks and we recorded these sessions with amazing backdrops. We put music over it and our voice guides the process and it is for everyone, all ages, all levels, just people who want to dig into their bodies and open the door to a deeper dimension of themselves.”
-You are also starting a new journey with “ROSEAwakening”. How did you have the idea of this beautiful initiative?
Rudi: “We found there was a moment where there were other parts of our artistic expression we weren’t sharing, that we were developing, we were growing, we were internally growing and giving energy towards. But ultimately, what comes into realization is that we want to share information and not just gather, for any field that is out there. That is how we are able to grow, or able to express ourselves, or lives the life we live right now, with all the commodities we have but all that continuing flowing imagination and curiosity in the expression, but how do we share all these information and it was about being courageous and generous enough to share those parts that we have been working on for years and now we are on a point we do want to share.”
-Why do you think art is important in society?
Julia: “Art is human expression, and this is at the basis of any life giving power. If there is no art there is no co-creation, self-expression and there is nothing to share. We are on this planet to grow our souls before we have a fuller expression of who they are. We want to expand and the universe is expanding, everything is expanding, because we are here to expand our awareness, though expressing ourselves and enjoying sharing it with each other. Everyone is unique with his/her personal expression, so each one is an artist because everyone is creating in this world and everyone is co-creating with the universe. If there is no art there is not human life.”
Rudi: “Dance is what the universe does. We are all part of this universe, so everyone dances. I don’t think dance can be categorized, I don’t think it can be close inside of a box, I believe dance is movement.” Julia: “If you are not moving you are disintegrating, you are dying. Even when the body dyes is moving because it is decomposing.”
-Can you give some advice to young dancers?
Julia: “Just find your uniqueness, believe in yourself because that is that only think that matters, you believing in yourself, it none of your business what other people think of you, the only thing that is important is what you think of yourself, so when you ding into your art you discover the miracle each of us are. We all have this power inside. When you chu into that you are unstoppable and the world needs everyone of us to be unstoppable.”