Creative process

The artistic team – Georg Reischl & Christiaan Richter and Iván Pérez & Benjamin Scheuer together with the conductor Wim Boerman who coached the two young composers –  started in September 2011.

In a one-year process, even before entering the studio, choreographers and composers exchanged ideas and concepts related to choreography and composition tackling issues of artistic authorship, and of collaboration between music and dance. For instance: How do you create a dialoque between music and composition both in its creation and on stage? What approaches or techniques do choreographers and composers refer to in their work and practices? How much individual freedom will be given to the musicians and the dancers in the interpretation of the compositions? And finally what impact does the meeting of dance and (live) music in the studio and on stage have on the students’ skills?

The choreographers continuously developed their concept while maintaining a dialogue with their partner composer. Ideas about the share of space between musicians and dancers were discussed and  the structure of the choreography determined.

Besides questions of artistic dialogue in such an interdisciplinary project one also needed to find a way of integrating the students. One very important choice was to allow the students to work in mixed groups from all three countries and to ensure that the rehearsals took place in all three institutions. In this way, students, artists and teachers gained an insight into the structures of the partner universities and were able to communicate intensively about their experiences.