The artistic process that emerges from the spiderweb concept mentioned, is used to conduct artistic research.
Both Robbe and Maya grew up between multiple cultures (Occidental, Indian, Oriental, African…). Their intercultural education formed them both as human beings and as artists.
With Spiderweb Maya treats her body as a source of dance and communication means in general and lets go of the specificity of traditions. Naturally, her body language will still reflect the traditions she grew up with. Yet, the result will be a personal embodiment of the concept of Spiderweb as a symbol for interconnection. This is a natural next step in her evolution as a dancer after her last production “Women Speak”.
Robbe combines his rich cultural heritage with the constant search of new sounds and rhythmic vocabulary in his playing. Moreover he has a long history working with dancers. In this project, armed with a loopstation and some effect pedals, the aim is to look how rhythms and sounds can interact with the dance language being created, playing with cultural references, reinforcing them or rather transforming them.
The artists go in search of how music can relate to dance, how music can reinforce dance and how dance can relate to music and reinforce it. How does the body sound? How can they visualize music? They are the two visible artists for the audience.
The third artist, Niko, is visible for the audience through his work: video-art, camerawork, projection, dramaturgy. Through him the artists are questioning how technique in general and video-art in specific can interact with dance and music as an equal force. We will search how Niko can choreograph along with the choreographer. This aspect of the project is particularly challenging and inspiring, and like all challenges, it encourages us to search beyond the limits that we normally allow ourselves. We live in a world where multimedia is part of our daily life.
Finally, a very important role is given to Katalin Trencsényi. She is a dramaturg, researcher, and theatre-maker. Her areas of specialization are: contemporary theatre and performance, new dramaturgy / dance dramaturgy, collaborative processes, multi-modal play development, and European director’s theatre. Through dramaturgy she will be ‘weaving together’ (Eugenio Barba) the various ingredients of the Spiderweb project.
How can we use multimedia to reinforce our creative possibilities? How can the artists reflect each other? How can the musician become a dancer and the dancer a musician? How can we create the atmosphere of a web, of interconnection? How can the dance be reflected in the percussion? How can the musician be her beating heart? How can we combine recorded images with live ones (and so combine past and present?)? How can we weave together all the above mentioned aspects into one Spiderweb? These questions are the questions we depart from to create. At the same time those questions will raise new questions, more refined ones maybe or more general ones. It’s a departure point for a creative travel.