"Always trust your inner voice"
Pascal Marty is an amazing dancer and choreographer who in working in GoteborgOperans Danskompani since 2013 (working with choreographers such as Ohad Naharin, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet...) and Winter Guests of Alan Oyen Lucien.
-Why did you choose to train at “Le Ballet Junior de Genève”?
“Before I was studying in France and after three years I felt that something was missing, that is why I was searching for young companies. I felt I needed to do more rep, that touches more different materials.”
-You have been working at the Göteborg Opera since 2013. What do you like the most about this company?
“It is very diverse, we get to touch really different things. We try to erase a hierarchy in the studio in the way we work with the choreographers and rehearsal director: so, there is a kind of equal ground that we try to build and you always feel involved in the communication, and you feel engaged and you participate in an idea. It is the level of conversation and how we interact with all my amazing colleagues that makes this place special. It is not just someone telling you what to do.”
-How did your perspective of dance change after joining Goteborg?
“It changed drastically. At the beginning, looking at the amazing persons around me, I felt I needed to step up, but not to become better then the others, but I wanted to really get to know who I was. It was very challenging suddenly to be with people that were so affirmed in their personalities and dance, so I really wanted to find my feed. I started to make choices for myself: how I wanted to work, what I wanted to do… and all my dance developed around this new found passion and interest.”
-You also worked for “winter guests” of Alan Lucien Oyen. How can you define his work? What fascinates you about his creations?
“We worked with him already twice. Alan is someone that enters the room and lets you feel safe in being vulnerable, but not to take advantage of it, but this is the reason he can be creative. He can write for an entire day, just working on scripts, poems, songs. He creates a very playful and rich environment. He is very direct and working together is fascinating. And the creation never stops with him: every conversation that you have outside is embraced for as material. And for some creation we were never together with all the dancers, because we were performing other pieces, so we worked via videos with long podcasts, with thoughts on the pieces and scripts, texts. His work is quite theatre based. You should be very truthful with him, changing the piece at the last minute, and he trusts us a lot, and this is an amazing feeling.”
-I still remember you from the performance “Skid” by Damien Jalet, in particular in the last scene.How did you work to reach that level of vulnerability and fragility with your body?
“That was one of the first things we worked one once we started the creation. It is related to a very personal story for me, which I guess is part of the piece now, at least when I perform it. In the piece you are literally falling for 10 minutes, you are sliding on your own sweat, it is very hard to do it with no protection and you are very exposed, all of your colleagues are on your back. This being watched while in a state of falling: and it is all about accepting that, and you just focus on going on, despite all the difficulties, whatever sadness/pain you have. And I guess the fragility comes from there: just accepting being there.”
-How did you develop your artistry as a choreographer and dancer? What is the connection between the two?
“Especially nowadays you are always creating materials. Once you taste being involved in the process you don’t go back to being told what to do. It gives you the freedom to believe that your idea is not the best idea but then it is valuable, and it is just as valuable as the choreographer’s idea. This is the magic of this work: when you go on stage it is just you, your body, your feelings.”
-How are you able to keep your mind and interest always opened to new experiences?
“I think curiosity is always there, it is part of my personality, I have always been a very curious child. My family are very crafty, so I learn at a very young age to actually do things and I love projects and getting myself involved. This participated to keep my curiosity fulfilled. I have learnt that if you want to continue being curious in your dance, you need to surround yourself with people that are going to trigger you in your thoughts and stimulate you because the different ways of thinking are able to create interesting conversations.”
-What is the importance of improvisation and researching?
“It is one of the most important things. Improvising and getting lost. And eventually always finding a way. It is the best training, it is just yourself, but you learn too much, just listening to yourself, the room, connecting to the time, textures. And also it teaches you focus in a very beautiful way, because it teaches you to be engaged in what you are doing.”
-And what about technique? What is its importance?
“Improvisation is technique. What is technique? Technique is the tool box that you have with you that you can draw from at any point. And it is not limited, you can have a technique in everything, with time, movements, texture, with people, interacting with them. Technique can be very broad. Technique is investigating certain practices, ideas, concepts and either mastering them or having a good draft, but it is an ever ending process.”
-Why, according to you, do we need dance in society? What is our role?
“In the live performances we get touched on something that no other art media is able to portrait or relate. It is an art that can be highly specific and create so much room for the audience that is watching, to be shocked in a certain way, to be questioned in a certain way, to be surprised. The place of the dancer is so much important, we share our bodies to the audience and they also have their own sensations, emotions and they can relate to what we go through in front of them, and that is something that doesn't go through the brain, but it goes to the skin. And that is why I feel we are so important, because quite often in modern society we try to over intellectualize what we go through and the attempt of contemporary dance is to go back to something pure, with no effects.”
-You are also a choreographer. How do you work for the creation of a piece?
“As a choreographer I feel it is always a two-steps process: first of all you have to get things out of your body and transmit them to the dancers, then they are going to be able to pass it on. It is not you are putting something on them they are going to display, at least is not the way I work. Realism on stage, the truthfulness (if you fall you fall) and as an audience you are going to react to that: I want the dancers to literally have to deal with what they need to do and just be there in the moment, and that is how the audience is going to be engaged. I don't want my audience to be comfortable, I want them to be restless. I feel that when you watch or read something amazing you are just restless, and I would like to reach that level. The audience is physically responding, and you want to keep their attention.”
-If you were the audience, what would you like to watch in a performance?
“It depends. I enjoy seeing where people want to go, and I find it interesting to take the product for what it is. I like to see reality and honesty, to see who you really are.”
-What would you like to see in another dancer?
“I like to see them as independent thinkers, who are able to make decisions on their own and to surprise me and themselves: I think that this is very important. I like fearless people because that is the way I am: I’m going to go first and then I’m going to think afterwards. When I propose an idea, I see dancers go for that, for what they understood, and you can go everywhere with these people. These are the dancers I love to work with.”
-Can you give some advice to young dancers?
“The way you think that you need to take is not going to be your way. There is always going to be another way: it is going to be very messing. And if you will get in the place you thought was perfect for you, you actually realized you might have changed, and you should trust that inner voice. Understand what works for you, trust yourself. And never stop asking questions, especially to yourself.”
Thank you so much Pascal, it was such an honor for us!
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