What are the benefits that you discovered at the intersection of art and therapy?
As I started working, there were different installations, performances. As I kept doing different things, my attention was also in this area of understanding it, the psychology behind it.
I sought collaborations with psychologists and therapists, in a way that I could be sure that everything I say, what I express, is correct. More like, that the way I present things should be real, should also have a more grounded undercoat, beyond the things I’ve done.
And while doing that, I started holding workshops and having a different relationship with movement, I started to see the therapeutic effects. Okay, I knew them for myself, I knew what the effects of dance are. But I wanted to have this parallel, to have both the therapy part and the performance part. Even if there are no traditional classes to be taught, there was something about performance, theater and therapy.
And I found dance therapy. I found that this specialization exists and I started it in 2022. But somehow it seems to me that all the practice from these years is somewhere in this area. I mean, I already had an inclination, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
And for those who aren’t familiar with this model, how would you describe or argue for, let’s say, these effects?
Well, dance and movement therapy is a psychotherapeutic process that uses dance and movement and it depends on the type of process and the form in which it is done. But it aims to help you process different emotions, to help with the connection between mind and body.
It doesn’t just address cognitive processes, it uses embodiment to make the connection between cognitive and emotional processes as well. And it can combine several types of movement and it’s not so much a dance process, it’s not an ecstatic dance.
Turning slightly to the Bucharest Dance Hack residency, what excites you, what do you think is the opportunity for participants here?
I think Bucharest has a lot to offer regarding the art world. And I’m kind of glad that it’s a natural course, it makes sense to take place here too.
In 2019, we met Taika Box, we were also new at this, at that time, but we were interested in this process, what happens when you bring dance and technology together. And me and Ștefan Damian, who is a sound designer, worked on a show that used technology, and my colleague from the association, Alina Ușurelu, and Ștefan went to the residency in Oulu in the same year. And for all three of us it was a very direct contact and we experienced different things.
But now we are in different positions, we have different approaches, and we can look at this from a different perspective. Even though there is still not enough experimentation in this area. It’s happening, but it’s still timid.
And I think that an event like this residency, further and through the project that we’re doing, in the second part, in a mentoring model with students, leads to another beginning of experimenting with dance. And otherwise, I think that the general perception of technology is a little bit changed now.
People are very interested, they’ve also getting excited about what AI engines can do. And I think it’s going to trigger another shift or experiments or interest in this area.
At the Budapest residency, what changes did you see or what feedback was received from the participants?
They were very involved and very eager and generous in everything that was happening.
And what’s cool is that in this process, I mean, a lot of times, this part of technical technology is seen as something that serves the one who moves, like the dancer. It doesn’t get to be a direct collaboration process, where you also understand what the person who programs different things does or who, likewise, has the creative ideas and has an artistic vision engaged in a way that’s less accessible to someone whose primary technology is the body, like we all do.
I think, for many of them it was this revelation and this pleasure to collaborate directly. And again for those who are in the technology area, to have the opportunity to work with a person and go beyond the screen or the immediate digital applications.
It’s another dimension, a dimension where the two approaches meet and this is where very interesting and beautiful things are born.
Is there any moment that stuck with you from Budapest?
It was a sensor that picked up movement, took in bodies and transposed them onto the screen in a kind of gelatin, a flubber. And the dancers, as they moved, it became very funny that they started doing much more flagellated movements. It became very funny, that what could have been a sexy movement, actually became something very funny in relation to that projection.
How this transition was found, how the performance is structured, how many people enter, from which direction, what movements remain and the relationship with this whole panel, with the people who were at the technical table, who were part of the same process and were visible.
And it was nice that someone came up with the idea of chewing gum, because that slime was similar to chewed gum. And the gum was also integrated into the performance. It was nice, this triple transformation towards the body, the digital and the interaction between all those who were doing this process. And, then, also another type of physicality, another type of materialization.
Given all this, what do you think are the biggest challenges for artists?
It’s not a stable working environment. When you experiment with different things, when you try them, when you start over, you program them in a way, and if it doesn’t turn out the way you intended, it takes quite a while. I think this balance between the mix of technology and performativity can be sensitive.
Further to what technical problems can arise, how to solve them at a performance level, how to deal with it without it impacting your work process.
In Budapest, there was a projection of a metal hoop that Dori, who is a circus artist, used and that we all played with for a little bit.
And it was mapped with some sensors, then it became a projection on the screen, which transformed, blossomed, different visual things happened depending on the movements of the circle, and the movements of the circle were impacted by the dancers.
It was the attention, the balance between how dancers move, that it was quite physically demanding for people to be suspended and to do this multiple times, it’s hard to do this long periods of time when you work very hard physically, to maintain both the quality of the movement, and the quality of what you want to convey.
It was this delicate balance between how to combine our experience of the tact in which you move and the attention to the transformation that might not take place in the digital environment. And here, basically, I think it helps as a participant, you get a different type of experience where you learn how to position yourself towards all this aspect.
And likewise, as a person who works with creative technology, you learn how to take into account the body and what it brings, what the performer does in real time with you.
Regarding the experimental nature of the residency processes, from your point of view, what would success look like for the Bucharest edition?
For the people to be open and curious. It was hard to choose the participants because the conclusions they came to through the residency they had over time at Taika Box, is to be open to what was happening in those moments.
And not be dedicated to one idea. Like, I’m coming up with an idea that I want to focus on and create the environment to test it, and then to put on a show and have all these ways to make my idea come to life.
It’s more like having ideas that you want to explore and wanting to understand what’s happening just within this process, to see what it is, what I can learn from here and beyond, of course, that turns it into work.
And I think that’s somewhere between openness, the desire to experiment and having fun. Let’s not be too hard on ourselves that we’re doing this research now.
That’s also something that personally bothers me a bit in general in what can be artistic statements and all these descriptions that every time an artist walks into a room, they revolutionize and or do something revolutionary. It’s OK, we all try in different ways and some will do things that are really amazing, but I think it’s good to put our heads down a little bit and go far, but also stay anchored in the present and possibilities.