"Being a choreographer is a privilege"
Thomas Noone is an amazing choreographer, creating pieces in his own company, the Thomas Noone Dance and as a freelance guest choreographer internationally.
-You made a lot of different creations and you have had a company since 2001. What is the key of your constant growing in the process of creation?
“For me it started as a necessity: I needed to create stuff. As I get older, it is more about the show in itself, always trying to understand what to communicate with movement and music to the audience and engage them, creating emotions. Abstract movements can create story, emotions. I have always wanted to see if I can make differences for myself, because it is linear and dangerous to go in the same pathway and direction every time. So I try to go in different situations, parameters: different kinds of dances, stories, or also different mediums such as puppets. I think if I make the same things all the time it would be boring for the audience, but first of all for myself.”
-How are you able to keep your interest and your curiosity?
“There is a silly answer and a better one. The silly one is that I don’t think I have ever been satisfied with my work. So I’m still struggling, I still want to improve, and want to make different things until I retire. The serious answer is that dance has become my job, that I love, and because it is a privilege I need to push myself to stretch my mind and I have to impose a sort of discipline on it, to make sure that it always stimulates me. And sometimes it is not easy or pleasant, but that it is also good, because if it was easy you will lose interest much quicker. You have to engage your mind, yourself, that is important and you need to exercise, with discipline, as you take every day a ballet class.”
-Why do you think choreography is so important?
“All contemporary arts are important to connect humanity and make us reflect on what we see and who we are and bring us all together. I think we don’t reflect enough on who we are. And dance, theatre are one way to do that: they stimulate imagination. They refer to abstract and abstract bring us back to our everyday life.”
-What is the importance of gestures in your work?
“Gestures are very important for me because I personally love abstract gestures.”
-Why did you decide to utilize puppets on stage? What do they represent?
“I was fascinated by puppetry. Puppets are very primitive, magical tools, they are so quiet, innocent and inanimate. Looking at the puppet is incredible, it seems like a person is there and is moving. And giving life to the inanimate is something that I love. The children who watched the show were so engaged in it. And I created a puppet that reproduces myself. It gives me more virtuosity that I have, it is incredibly beautiful when it moves. The inganno of using me and the puppet, who look the same on stage and talk, facilitates a bigger show that I could just do by myself.”
-How do you work during the creation of a piece?
“I do make sure that when I come to the studio I have a sort of skeleton idea of what I’m going to do, what sections, what music, references and concrete proposes to the dancers. Normally I would suggest a movement phrase and then develop it with the dancers and adjust and modify it with them.”
-What catches your attention in another dancer?
“I have certain movement qualities that I love: more animal, smooth and organic. I like dancers that I would like to be. But it depends also on the open mindedness of the dancers, their consciousness of their body, their ability to adapt. It is a lot in the mind.”
-How were you able to develop your artistry as a choreographer?
“After graduating from school, I danced for 3-4 years and then I moved to Spain to follow my partner. I started choreographing for competitions in Barcelona and it went quite well and then I created my company in 2001. But how did I develop? I think it is a sort of clichè, but when I did worse things and the lack of success was more instructive than success. Of course success is good, when someone is coming to watch Thoms Noone, you get some help and support to make work. But in the artistry point of you is when you ask yourself “Why did that piece not work?” and that is much more instructive than pieces that were going well. But was it actually great? What can be made better? I’m better now for sure than I was 20 years ago, because I have been into a process, and I am still into it, improving every time. And you need to be self-critic in understanding what is wrong and can be better.”
-What fascinates you about choreography?
“Now I’m really more ambitious: before it was more a movement thing, while now it is more about theatrical composition and I would love to create another piece with puppets for children.”
-Do you have some advice for young dancers?
“It is a hard profession and you need to persevere with intelligence and discipline. It is not always about what you like and you might be surprised by what your body can do. And even if we are so passionate sometimes it is not going to be so enjoyable to dance and this is a paradox. But, our role is to solve this paradox.