"Dance can bring hope and imagination in our lives"
Tom Weksler is an amazing dancer who has been working with "Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak Dance Company", "Rootlessroot", "Guy Nader and Maria Campos Dance Company". He is also an amazing choreographer and teacher.
-You have an amazing career so far, working with “Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak Dance Company”, “Rootlessroot”, "Guy Nader and Maria Campos Dance Company"...you are also a great choreographer and teacher. What do you think is the key of all your successes?
“The key to success? I want it! Where can I get one? Trust me, I can't even remember where I put my house keys so how can I remember where I put my key for success?
I am joking of course, I am always thankful to be perceived as successful. The success in the dance and the art world is very problematic in my opinion. Sometimes people will see an artist or a dancer as successful just because somebody with money or influence likes them. Think about it, you can pass an audition to an important company because some choreographer 'likes' you but it is just another human being and their reason to like your dance is totally personal. Same goes to if I make a successful performance and some big theater owner 'likes' my work and buys it. But again this is all external and not so much in my control or connected to my personal life process. Even if I upload art on the internet and many people like it, it is still something outside of me and sometimes connected much more to trends and fashions and not to my 'self'. But I believe dance and art can also bring internal success. If I put my head softly on the pillow at night and go to sleep happy and peaceful I feel very successful. And this changes a lot and can not happen every day of course, but I feel that dance and art help me to be more at peace with myself and sleep better at night more often. I think that finishing the day proud and peaceful is a huge internal success.”
-Where does your passion for movement come from?
“Movement is real and I have a passion for clarity in life. Aliveness is strongly connected to the ability of experiencing reality clearly. Even if I paint or sculpture or write I focus on the movement of my body and this is very interesting. We have so many possibilities of experiencing the world around us and movement is the one that is the most inclusive and clear for me. I can imagine when I move, I can think, I can hold on with force I can let go with grace. I can also do those things without moving but then it is not clear because I can not physically FEEL them.
I always find more experiences that connect to moving my body in a clear way, so I think that learning all those possibilities is like learning how to experience reality. So my passion for moving is my passion for life.”
-How were you able to develop your artistry during your career?
“I had a lot of learning experiences and a lot of interactions with inspiring people. I was fortunate to be exposed to many great teachers, students and collaborators. Each one of them unfolded another piece about what is possible in making creatively. "I have seen far standing on the shoulders of giants". Every new learning experience is usually a new interaction. But creativity is also like climbing a ladder - you can't do it with your hands in your pockets. After every new interaction I had to try and make something out of it myself, sometimes it worked out and sometimes it didn't but the only option to develop artistry and creativity is to keep making and keep creating. And I still hope to create for many more years. “
-What is the importance of research as a personal and intimate practice?
“I think that research is very important for authenticity. The great poet Rilke wrote 'The only journey is the one within' and 'go into yourself, find the reason that commands you to write'. Without intimate practice and personal research we are always reacting and never creating. I think in dance there is sometimes too much emphasis on doing a class with other dancers and a ballet master and then performing in front of an audience. If you always dance only in front of people, is your dance even yours? Or is it the dance of the crowd? Of course, as a performance art it is important, but I think that my greatest ideas came when I was spending hours practicing alone and returning to ideas that were exciting and interesting only for me. After all those hours; alone in the studio or outside in the park or on the beach I would find something and show it to a friend or a collaborator or an audience. And then the idea will change a bit, but it will have this intimate core that is based on something very personal. And making something with a very personal human heart that can communicate and be understood by others is what is so special about beautiful art. “
-How were you always able to maintain your interest and curiosity up to go deeper and deeper in your research?
“Meditation. I meditate daily and I feel this is a very grounding activity but also a strong force that moves my curiosity forwards.”
-What is technique for you?
“When I teach I usually say that technique is the chosen actions that a person takes to make them move from where they are today to where they want to be tomorrow. So it is also connected to meditation in a way. When I meditate I can understand where I am in my journey and also what is my objective or goal or desired expression. This is subjective of course, and different for different times (and for different people). So technique is a dynamic thing and every time a goal is achieved there will be new techniques that can take us further into the next goal.”
-You are a teacher also, for several workshops. What do you want to transmit to your student?
“That learning is a way to live life. And that every learning is essentially self-learning. I also try to connect different topics like movement practice, dance, acrobatics and partnering to meditation and creativity.
Our recent pedagogical research (Mine and my partner Roser Tutusaus) also deals a lot with the difference and interconnectivity between Art and Craft.”
-You are also a choreographer. What fascinates you about the process of creating a piece?
“Creating a piece is like observing a huge ocean and writing a story about it. Waves appear and disappear and then you need to observe them carefully and write about it. Sometimes the wave can remind me of a love story and sometimes it can lead to philosophical thoughts about the change of the seasons. You know what I mean right? The ocean is my perception of the world which is also my internal world. It is endless and every creation is an attempt to capture something within it and write about it. Writing is the choreography, the design, the lights, the timings of the happenings, the text - everything that ends up on the stage. Of course that then more collaborators need to understand my perception and internal world and it is also very exciting to explain it. It is fascinating because all humans have these huge and vast oceans inside of them and no matter how much you return to the ocean you will always find different things and different stories.
It is Important to say that In recent years I have created pieces together with my partner Roser so recently it is like two people observing two oceans and writing a story together.”
-What catches your attention in another dancer?
“Imagination. Some dancers take normal situations or movements and with imagination they turn it into something totally unexpected and personal. I love looking at dancers who can do that.”
-Why do we need dance in today’s society?
“I don't think we need dance but I think that dance makes the world better and more colorful.
We need food, shelter, and running water. Dance is more of a choice than a necessity. But imagine how grey and hopeless would be the world without art in general and dance in particular.
Imagine what would happen if the world of text wouldn't have literature and poetry? All the written words will be tax papers and manuals on how to fix things.
Dance is the only place where movement has no functional purpose and this is why it is the only place where movement can become all the things it was never before. We need hope and imagination to make a reason to live our lives, and dance can physically bring us both. “
-Do you think there is a connection between your israelian culture and your dance?
“Sure. Cultures are one of the strongest influences we have on our character and our personality. It is not absolute but there are always connections. I must say I haven't lived in Israel for many years now. I lived in Japan for a couple of years and then in Catalunya (Spain). I think both of those cultures also influenced and are connected to my dance. “
-What interests you about multidisciplinary?
“Every discipline creates specific narratives and specific cultures. When you spend too much time living inside one narrative and one culture you end up believing that it is the absolute reality. When I paint I can learn about lines and perspectives, when I sculpt I learn about gestures and textures, when I fight I learn about timings and tranquillity. All those things exist in dance but they have such a different definition in those other disciplines. So moving between them keeps me humble and keeps me aware that even when I go really deep into something I still know very little about it. There is always room for curiosity in the multidisciplinary approach, always a beginner's mind.”
-Can you give some advice to young dancers?
“Enjoy as much as you can and be thankful for every experience.”
Thank you so much Tom! It was such an honor for us!
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