6 Questions: Shlomi Tuizer - La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival

Shlomi Tuizer (left) and Edmond Russo / photo by Agathe Poupeny

Shlomi Tuizer, of Compagnie Affari-Esteri, was kind enough to answer 6 Questions for our blog in advance of his show EMBRACE in the La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, co-presented as part of DANSE: A French American Festival of Performance and Ideas. 

1. What were your inspirations while creating Embrace?

One of our main preoccupations has always been the idea of relation. How do we relate to one another as social human beings and how does the individual situate himself as part of a group? We developed these notions in different ways through group pieces, and through our collaboration. We had not created a duet until embrace. We began by simply facing each other and from there finding variations in the way we embrace the other became essential. It’s not easy to summarize because we were inspired by many things on an every day basis, it could be something we saw on the street or an exhibition, a movie, a song…

2. Is your work influenced by a particular school, genre or teacher of dance?

We carry our personal history with us whether we create raptures or affiliations.

We both have a rather academic education and we both began our careers in big repertoire companies. After that we made particular choices that led us to focus on what kind of performers we wanted to be. We are always curious about new ways to explore and consider the body and movement so the influences are numerous. They pass through us and become a part of who we are.

3. What was it like collaborating with musician Oren Bloedow and poet Christina Clark?

Absolutely wonderful! Extremely rich and inspiring. They were the main sources of inspiration for the whole creative process. Oren is a very talented and sensitive musician with a great capacity to listen, to watch and to understand the profound sense of movement. Christina’s writing is personal and intelligent and she’s a sensitive performer as well. She recites her poetry throughout the piece. They collaborated beautifully with us and with each other and are in many ways the real voices of embrace.

4. Do international audiences receive your work differently than audiences in France?

The question or idea of sense is very much present in our work. A spectator’s point of view is very personal. There might be slight differences between audiences here or there because of the poems present in the piece are in English. This brings up variations on the great question of language and of what forms a full image of something in our perception – in our case. Is it the movement, the sense of the words, the lights, the sounds… or a combination of parts or all of these elements?

5. Which artist(s) in the DANSE festival are you most excited to see?

Even though they are all French, there are actually some that we never got to see in the past. There are many different propositions, different identities to explore- The intensity in D. Wampach’s work, the exciting and hip work of Chaignaud-Bengolea, the sheer beauty and sensitivity in the work of C. Rizzo to name but a few.

6. What does performing at La MaMa mean to you? 
It means a great deal for us. On the one hand, it is a wonderful opportunity for us to present our work in NYC in a place such as La MaMa with so much heritage and history - a place in constant movement through time. On the other hand, we are very excited because the very first steps of the creative process of embrace took place here in NYC, so in a way we have a feeling of bringing it back home. 

La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival presents

Embrace 

By Compagnie Affari-Esteri
May 2 – May 4, 2014

Fri & Sat: 10pm / Sun: 5:30pm

Tickets: $25 Adults; $20 Students/Seniors; ten tickets prices at $10 are available for each performance, in advance only via phone, web or box office. 10 @ $10 not available day of show.

The Club at La MaMa
74 East 4th Street
(between Bowery and 2nd Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets and Info: Click Here