Unusual insights into Unusual Symptoms provided by Marcus Roydes, a young dancer who accompanied Theater Bremens dance company

“The performer I choose to work with is the first and most important material of a dance piece. Everything that happens is bound by that choice.” (Jonathan Burrows)

This quote is probably one of the most important ones that I came across during my studies in Antwerp. It appealed to me greatly, I think because I myself was in the middle of creating a piece on some fellow students, when I read it. It stuck with me as a sort of mantra, as I am quite convinced that good work in the field of dance, is work in which the dancer is valued as a person with everything that that encompasses, rather than a mere body capable of executing phrases. These thoughts are very much linked to connection and relationship in my mind.

All of a sudden, I found myself at an FKK with some of my new colleagues.

I arrived in Bremen on the Sunday before the season started, to 30 odd degrees celsius and a very aggressive sun. I came with my bike, my backpack and a suitcase. On monday, the theatre had a season opening party at the Meierei in the Bürgerpark. Shortly after Alexandra Morales, who directs Theater Bremen's dance department with Gregor Runge, had done some speedy introductory yoga breathing exercises with everyone, people went off to take part in a variety of different activities. All of a sudden, I found myself at an FKK with some of my new colleagues, unable to imagine a better way to kick off the season! Going to the FKK became a thing we did a few times in our time off, before the sun disappeared.

Versatility, diversity and family

If I were to choose three keywords to describe Unusual Symptoms, the dance company of Theater Bremen, they would be versatility, diversity and family. I hadn’t heard of them before they posted an open call for an audition. I knew one of the choreographers who had made a piece on the company, but I wasn’t familiar with the company’s work or identity. Online, there was very little video footage, but there were texts describing the different pieces on Theater Bremen’s website. One thing that was very clear to me in reading these texts, was that the topics being dealt with in the work were both relevant to the times we live in and very human. I tried to dig deeper and at some point came across an interview that Samir Akika, the house choreographer at Theater Bremen, did with Deutsche Welle News six years ago. I watched the interview and had the experience of a giant church bell chiming over my head. This definitely sounds like a fanboy story - I’m well aware of that - but everything Samir was saying in the interview resonated so strongly with what I felt I was looking for. This was going to be my next stop. 

I wanted to find a place where dance wouldn’t merely be about executing form-based movement.

You see, having completed an extended residency alone, I was just coming out of a period of “comfortable security”, which had been paired with a certain degree of isolation and professional loneliness. I felt an urge to land myself in a situation in which I would be surrounded by peers I could care about and admire and who could care about me in return. Peers that would either be at a similar stage in life as myself or further. I wanted to find a place where dance wouldn’t merely be about executing form-based movement, but where I would also feel professionally valued for my person. A place where personal connection intertwines with the work.

Tanztheater was a tradition I was slightly familiar with.

Unusual Symptoms is a versatile company. Even though the pieces of Samir Akika in particular show a clear relation to the “Folkwang-esque” Tanztheater tradition, this is far from the only style that the company works in. Tanztheater was a tradition I was slightly familiar with, but my experiences were limited to seeing Tanztheater Wuppertal performing at DeSingel in Antwerp and watching the movie Pina. The relationship to costumes, props and theatricality is very different to what someone schooled in Belgium would typically be “raised” with.

Powerful in their own right and extremely different from each other.

When I say versatile, I think of the three pieces that have been playing in this season so far: Will Happiness Find Me?  by Samir Akika; Coexist by Adrienn Hód and Spektrum by Máté Mészáros. Each of them is powerful in their own right and extremely different from each other. In Happiness, we see a vivid scenography, a collection of beautiful and absurd scenes interlaced with complex movement material and diverse theatricalities all, with an underlying air of suburban melancholia. Coexist approaches theatricality through physical states, whilst expressing clear messages and opinions and pushing the dancers and audience members to extremes. Spektrum on the other hand is a piece that is almost void of theatricality. Here, we have a piece that is extremely abstract. It is more of an aesthetic experience, in which we as audience members are invited to enter a space and enjoy the images being produced in front of us, through video, sound and movement. 

It wasn’t so much about only the dance itself. 

In the two months of my internship, during the production of Spektrum, I spent a lot of time following the process from the sidelines. It is a piece that consists almost entirely of solos. Which is funny, as Máté did actually give many group and partnering tasks, in which I participated in trying to come up with ideas and material. We looked at ways of making use of the wall which would serve as the surface for the video projections, tried impressive lifts, messed around with shadowing each other, a tool which Máté told us he’d made use of in the past. We tried to make small partnering images, sequences even. The majority of that material, however, either got removed or shrunk down to a shadow of what it was in its original form. It wasn’t so much about only the dance itself. 

Almost mathematically precise creation.

Spektrum consists of three key players, three different types of movement, if you will. Physical movement, embodied by the dancers, sound, produced by hungarian jazz musician Áron Porteleki and light, in the form of video projections produced by Bremen-based video artists Urbanscreen. While the collaboration between dance and music isn’t a new one, creating video designs that could function in relation to the dance and the music was easier said than done. Not because the designs couldn’t be produced, but rather because of the time needed to create a video from start to finish is very different from the time needed to work on dance. Changing the movement took a fraction of the time it took to change a video, as with the video, the entire thing had to be re-rendered for the finished product. This left a disadvantage of sorts, when the intention was to have all parts emerge in a kind of symbiosis, rather than one just being based on the other. But in the end, the solutions were found. Spektrum became a piece that I think works well as long as everyone sticks to the agreements! It is not a piece that offers space for the performers to play around with – and thus I was impressed how the same company I saw in such a beautifully „messy“ piece like Happiness, who were raising their personal voices so strongly in Coexist, could now deal with such an almost mathematically precise creation like Spektrum! 

It’s about connection and relationship. I love that.

That brings me into what I love about this company. I love that it is a small yet very diverse group, from many different backgrounds. I love that many of the company members have shared their paths for a long time, and despite that, maintain the capacity to welcome new people right into the family with open arms and a lot of love. I love that there are children growing up within this company family, and that they make me feel welcome just as much as their parents do.
Of course, within most families there are different layers, different conflicts and differences of opinions. People have “off” days and down days too. This family is no exception. I think in some ways, the fact that the personal and professional life, being as intertwined as they are, may even increase certain aspects of this. But in my experience, that very same fact of blurred lines means that the company gives space for these moments and supports when needed, because people here care about each other. If I link back to my quote in the beginning, it is a choice and everything is bound by that choice. It’s about connection and relationship. I love that. It works, because it’s important and valued. And chosen!