"Fight for what you love"
Lucia Toker is a dancer, acrobat, and movement teacher from Argentina. She has been working all around Argentina giving workshops and professional training and started to expand her work in Germany, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Israel, among other places.
-Where does your passion for movement come from?
"Since I was a very little girl, the movement has always been something natural for me, I never wondered where it came from, I know it was simply always there. My parents are artists, so I guess their stimulation has helped me discover that world. I remember when I was a little girl I went crazy from seeing Circo du Soleil, I was jumping down the street trying to imitate the acrobats of the joy I felt. I experienced different artistic expressions over the years, but nothing makes me feel what happens when I move."
-How were you able to develop your artistry during your career?
"I always had the support to follow the path I wanted, I consider this facilitates the development of an artist, to feel free to choose, to be able to risk without fear. I had excellent teachers and found very important partners with whom I developed most of my stage works.
I could never live from creation, in Argentina, this is practically impossible. So artistic development is possible because our passion is so high that we found a way to carry it out."
-How did your studies in rehabilitation, therapy, training, anatomy, biology, and physics help you grow as an artist?
"I have always been interested in scientific knowledge. Trying to understand a possible functioning of what reality is. From the most microscopic to the most macro and evident things. I believe that this quest to understand how things happen is the basis and inspiration for my research in movement and I tried to take it to its maximum expression, both in the stage and in my teaching proposal. In addition, everything I learned and continues to research in physical therapy allowed me to move forward with my career. I suffered many injuries and it is very difficult to find good treatments in the most orthodox medicine."
-How do you think it is important to study, even if as a dancer we work with the body? How can theory help the dance?
"What I consider important is always to question, not to take things for granted, even if they come from a teacher. No one has the truth about anything, all expressions are interpretations, and education, at least in my country, is far from enabling this form of study. So it is important that the practice of the discipline you do is always with an attitude of questioning and that research is part of the training.
The multiplicity of theoretical knowledge will always collaborate with what is done and will enhance the possibilities of the practice."
-How much is important improvising and researching as a practice?
"It's almost everything."
-What is the technique for you? How can we use it?
"For me, the technique is the development of the capacity to understand the functioning of something and to be able to use it in favor of what you want to do. It can be something that has no end, one can go on and on perfecting the way of doing things. I am a fan of technical research, I am obsessed with it and it’s what I finally dedicated myself to. I find deeper and deeper layers of its use, which are not so evident. The technique is behind everything and is used for everything. It's the mother tool."
-What passionates you about dance?
"I am passionate about the movement of all things, I see little dances everywhere, from the slip of a cloud to the walk of a spider. But I am particularly passionate about the possibility of developing a visual language, with which one can express something that perhaps could never be revealed in any other way."
-You are also a teacher. What do you want to pass down to your students?
"The most important thing for me is that they value the process, that they understand that things take time and that it is important to respect the conditions of the present with love. We are all capable of investigating and generating knowledge, the truth is not in a teacher, it's just a personal experience. Receive, but always question and observe one's own body with respect. Know yourself and build a personal path."
-Why do we need to dance in today’s society?
"I believe that cultivating a sensitive connection with the body can help the human being to know himself better. Being better with himself can contribute to the well-being of society. On the other hand, dance as a performing language can be used politically and generate social awareness.
Having power over one's own body is a way of revolution, and dance can contribute to this."
-How important is training and discipline for a dancer?
"I think it is very important to break the canons on how to train. Everyone's needs are not the same and neither are the learning times. I injured myself a lot trying to follow the traditional ways of training and the "must be" or what a dancer or acrobat should achieve. So I think it is very important that each person finds the healthiest way to carry out their discipline. Anyway, training is the way to acquire abilities, only that it should be more personalized, and not a rigid model to follow. The level of discipline and training depends on what you want to do. Not all dancers aspire to the same. And today, fortunately, there are many ways to dance."
-Can you give some advice to young dancers?
"Have patience, don't give up, fight for what you love to do, and for the appreciation of your professional dance as a work. Explore different disciplines, don't marry any teacher, be critical, trust your intuition, and above all, respect yourself."
Thank you so much for the opportunity, Lucia, it was such an honor for us!
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