Georg Reischl (choreographer) on his working process

“The main work starts in the studio, where I can get to know the dancers and where we can start working on movement-material together. Of course I have some pre-planned ideas concerning the piece in my head, but usually I try to keep things open at the beginning and focus on getting to know the dancers’ minds and bodies, especially when I am working with students. I will see these students the first time on the first day of work, so this will be a very exciting day for me.

I have started work with the composer already. It is always a great privilege to have the music composed for a project.

For me the relationship dancer/music will be the main theme and biggest challenge, especially because the music will also be performed live.

As a choreographer, I consciously create a situation that allows me to focus on the dancer and on the movement. For me the human body is a tool to create motion and emotion, which is never  abstract in my eyes. I want to experiment with the idea of dance and make the dancers’ personalities visible through their bodies. It is not in my interest to tell stories.

I start with pure movement research and by reflecting on the theme I will try to put the movement in perspective. I will try to find a playful physical approach to the theme and a light relationship or counterpoint to the music. I will keep my ears and eyes open to guide the dancers to make the right decisions to result in a collective state of mind.

 

The very process usually starts outside the studio. A dance piece is a collaborative project that relies on many different aspects, which often start before the studio time. Concerning the content of the piece, very simple ideas often turn into a concept. These ideas are in my head sometimes a very long time before they can be realized:

For instance: One idea was that I wanted  to work in absolute silence to create the movement language for a different piece. That meant that I was also not allowed to speak in the studio with anyone to create the movement. Everything was transported by imitation and later analyzed with video footage. The material resulted in a piece called: “september  virgin” and was accompanied by one cello played live by Nina Hitz.

The dancers are fully involved in my work from the moment that we start working in the studio, which is the most important  time for me as a choreographer. This is the time to create, realize, communicate, try, exchange, fail, try again and succeed to bring the piece alive.

Communication is very, very important to me. The better I can understand the dancers, the more I can challenge them  and create with them. It is always a form of exchange or dialogue with the dancers that I am looking for. Each dancer is an individual that needs feedback and personal  care  to grow, and I will always make room for that to happen.

If I don’ t get the results that I am looking for I open up to the situation and will try to approach the situation from another angle. This can also mean that I start to change the way I am communicating, I lighten up the situation or I intensify.

For me the best way to choose the dancers is in a workshop in which I guide the dancers through a  format which is called “Body Awareness Training”. It gives me the possibility to get in direct dialogue with the dancers and give them the opportunity to show their skill in different exercises and tasks.

A dance- scene works for me when it is perfectly embedded in the structure of the piece and when the performers’ brilliance to show skill and knowledge can result in this one single moment of freedom and honesty, which is performance. As a viewer I  want to be challenged and surprised, even when watching my own piece.

The timeline for the piece is built step by step and in this situation in direct relationship  with the composer,  to find its final form on stage. In my experience this can happen at different stages of the process and can also change at different moments.  I purely rely on my intuition and sense of timing.”