"kindness, honesty and integrity to create something richer"
James Finnemore is an amazing dancer and choreographer who has been working with Hofesh Shechter Company, Carte Blanche and Olivier Dubois.
-You have an amazing career as a dancer (working with Hofesh Shechter, Oliver Dubois, Punchdunk, Carte Blanche…) and as a choreographer. What do you think is the key to all your successes?
“Pure luck, male privilege and many examples of being in the right place at the right time are my first thoughts! I think it is important to acknowledge that sometimes factors we cannot control have a part to play in our successes. Despite all of that however I will say I have worked incredibly hard at understanding what sort of dancer and choreographer I am, and what I’m not good at. Hard work is almost always the answer for me, and probably the most obvious one. I’ll stand by it though.”
-How were you able to develop your artistry in dance?
“Working with choreographers for sure contributed, although because the experience of
rehearsal/creation can feel quite everyday, it’s a less tangible thing to grab on to, less obviously formative (or dramatic.) Mostly seeing how other artists do things? That feels like it’s had more of an impact. How other choreographers, film directors, musicians and so on create their work. What processes other artists go through - especially the ones I’ve worked with directly - and what I feel has or hasn’t worked for me has helped me to form my own way of doing things.”
-You worked with really different choreographers, each of them with a really specific quality or ideas, how could you adjust yourself every time in different types of work?
“I think we all do our best in terms of trying to be versatile and being open to new information, yet l my answer is I’m not sure I did really adjust myself! When working in a rep company I ‘present’ myself to a new choreographer, and they decide if they can utilise my skills. When working with an individual choreographer on their project, I assume they have already worked out where my strengths lie, which makes me feel more comfortable when expressing ideas.”
-What is the connection between dance and theatre? When does this connection become interesting according to your personal taste?
“My perception of that connection is that they are more or less one and the same. I think that regardless of the style of work most audiences won’t just see a body, but a full human being. How that performer stands, walks, what they see and how they see it can all conjure up some sense of story. What interests me is how we approach theatricality or portraying emotion when required to do so in performance, especially if the performer doesn’t have any formal training as an actor. Do we access personal experience? Is that even good for us? Or can it be approached as a purely physical exercise?”
-What did you learn in your experience as a dancer from various choreographers? Is there something that really changed you?
“Despite working with various choreographers, working with Hofesh Shechter Company has, for better or worse, defined me as a dancer and/or choreographer. The specificity of the unique movement style, the attention to every aspect of the work - music, lighting design, black outs! - as much as the day to day processes impacted me greatly, and is something that I have had to deconstruct or unpick in the years since. I rebelled against it at first – it does effect how other artists see you – but at some point accepted and embraced the fact that I was influenced by my time in this company. Working with choreographers when you are interested in choreographing yourself is such a useful way to construct your own creative process. You can take what you think works, or throw away anything that doesn’t. I am in awe of the makers I know whose pathway into choreography has come directly after they graduated.”
-What does “personality” means in dance? And how important is it?
“My thoughts on this question are very similar to another one later in this interview. Personality is incredibly relevant because we don’t work with dancers so much as we work with human beings.
Surrounding oneself with kindness, honesty and integrity is for me of much more importance than finding the most technically skilled dancers. Ultimately choreographers deal in making a good product –a piece that will sell and receive good reviews – but if you focus on assembling personalities that can work cohesively and harmoniously during a creation period (choreographers do have some responsibility for their dancers’ happiness after all) I believe whatever comes out of that will be richer.”
-What is the role of improvisation and research in personal growth as a dancer?
“Increasingly for me improvisation has served as a tool for building both movement language and material. It’s easy to become frustrated by repetitive movement patterns, by not finding a sense of spontaneity or the new; however actually indulging in those repetitions – or the things that simply feel good – could unlock a greater clarity within the movement language someone is trying to build, especially as part of a creation.”
-How important is technique instead? And how can you define “technique”?
“I’ve been staring at this question for much longer than any others. Classical and contemporary techniques all have their place; they give us ways in to finding out what is possible for the body to achieve aesthetically or stylistically. Before I start diving down a black hole I’ll never come out of I will just list the things my brain decided were more important than a ballet class: an awareness of where the body is in space, of how different textures or sensations can be created; awareness of one’s own habitual movement patterns, our own sense of rhythm, and what we always use and what we always neglect. I associate technique with intelligence.”
-You are also a choreographer. How can you define your work?
“I’d describe my work as an attempt to create something cinematic on stage, with an extreme focus on physical detail that is subtle and can pull audiences inwards rather than projecting everything at them. I love movies for their ability to make you switch off from the outside world for a couple of hours, so if my work did something similar I wouldn’t be unhappy.”
-What are the difficulties and beautiful aspects of being a choreographer?
“The vulnerability. No matter what the work is stylistically it has someone’s vision, endeavour and soul all wrapped up in it. Audiences and/or critics can then decide to reject or embrace it. That for me is so far both the most wonderful and terrifying aspect to being a choreographer.”
-What catches your attention in another dancer?
“Humility, as it will show itself in the integrity of their work; how they interact with colleagues and choreographers; and definitely how they move. If they’re a beautiful dancer then great! An added bonus.”
-What makes a dance piece valuable?
“Every aspect of every dance piece surely has value? It’s easy, for example, to argue that works that tackle a societal issue, that contribute to the conversations about how we as human beings can improve things, are valuable. As an individual however, the smaller, perhaps more mundane parts of the process can have a big say in how we might approach things in the future. As a choreographer the failures are invaluable. As a performer I might never wish to work with that choreographer again. Every perceived negative and positive aspect contributes towards future artistic or life decisions.”
-Why is dance important in society?
“Dance provides escapism, joy, the simple pleasures of moving, of sweating! For the audience, it can be humorous, difficult, transformative, frustrating, horrendous (insert a million other adjectives here.) Any reaction to it means it has made us feel something, and that for me is the absolute best thing and cements its value. Never underestimate the power of just feeling.”
-Can you give some advice to young dancers?
“Stay humble.”
Thank you so much for this great opportunity, James!
Comments