“You might say we’re very different, but we fit together just fine.”
Timur Magomedgadzhiev, Tamayo Okano, Lila Magnin and Marthe Koning may make very different work, but that doesn’t mean the water between the foursome is deep.
On the contrary, during their Shared Practices Residency, nothing short of fireworks ensued.
“Did you guys actually think it was crazy that I was the only man in the company?” It remains silent for a moment after Timur Magomedgadzhiev throws the question sincerely vulnerable into the group. Then a smile breaks through the faces of his three fellow residents. They hadn’t even considered it.
The moment is typical of the dynamics within the group. Last March, they spent three residency weeks together in collaboration with MESTIZO ARTS PLATFORM, Corso, Monty, Rataplan and detheatermaker. They worked there on their own artistic projects, but equally organized internal workshops and provided feedback on each other’s practice. That it was enriching, all four of them confirm wholeheartedly. “Our collaboration felt very logical. Although you might have wondered beforehand if we would be a good fit for each other,” smiles Lila Magnin.
Their individual trajectories alone are vastly different. Originally from Japan, Tamayo Okano studied first in France and then at the renowned dance school P.A.R.T.S. She danced and performed with Les Ballets C de la B and NTGent, among others. When she became a mother, she could not keep up the frequent touring and quit as a performer. However, she did continue to take artistic and physical training, for example as part of a project at artZ. She also worked for a time as an international liaison for a Japanese children’s and youth theater festival. After many years’ break, she now wants to develop her own practice as an artist.
Timur, in turn, is from Dagestan and studied drama at GITIS University in Moscow. In Belgium, he appeared in several national and international films by the Dardenne brothers, among others, and starred in productions by Alain Platel and Les Ballets C de la B. Today, he experiments on stage with different media in his search for a form that can lift his personal stories to a more universal level.
For her part, Belgian-born Lila is a musician, choreographer and dancer with a background in hip-hop. She studied at the Parisian dance school Juste Debout and traveled the world while dancing. During her residency, music is the starting point from which to develop a hybrid form of storytelling in which body and song play an important role.
Finally, performer Marthe Koning initially studied visual arts, but eventually ended up at the Maastricht Drama Academy. Meanwhile, she lives in Brussels where she is building projects that put voice and body at the center. “My course is pretty scholastic compared to the rest,” she laughs. “The decision to move to Belgium was very intuitive but this context suits me tremendously because there is so much room for research here. In the Netherlands, for example, it is much more unusual for people to come and watch an interim show moment. The performing arts there are rather shiny with very affe products and less freedom to experiment.”
The desire to explore and experiment together is something the four artists all share. “I found the residency quite confronting in terms of my own artistic quest,” Lila says. “But it was so nice to be able to support each other. You feel less alone and you really understand what the other person is going through.”
Part of that helped were the workshops they gave to each other. These were based on the material they are currently working with, or on their previous experiences as performers. “What was really nice is that the employees of the organizations that brought us together also participated,” Tamayo beams. “In that way, a special, equal relationship developed between us. From there, it was much safer to give and receive feedback.”
“I worked with the group around the simple gesture of bringing your hands together,” Timur says. “During my residency, I have been very much in search of both the subject matter of my piece and the form within which I want to work. In doing so, I discovered the same thing each time: less is more. Hence, I wanted to get started with such a seemingly small gesture. I sometimes have to overcome myself to dare to play and then you sometimes lapse into grand gestures. Being small and meaningful, in short, was one of my challenges. The group helped me tremendously with that.”
In turn, Lila came up with three exercises during her workshop. In addition to a guided meditation, she gave a workout encouraging everyone to dance freely. “Like being alone in your room,” she winks. “In my career, I sometimes had moments where I lost the joy of dancing. This kind of free movement allowed me to recharge.” Her third exercise also focuses on well-being. “It’s a technique I use to clear your head. Feel free to call it a workout for your brain. Before I start rehearsing, I write down everything that’s in my head that might get in the way of the creation process. That way you clear your head of the to do’s, worries and concerns you’re dealing with so you can focus on your artistic work.” The other residents all describe it as a very successful exercise.
“I thought it was a gift to be able to work with you guys,” Tamayo says. “I felt comfortable from day one and learned so much from you guys. By the way, did you know that I discovered here that I can sing? I owe that, among other things, to Marthe’s vocal exercises. Thanks to her, I now sing every day. I was able to surrender to the input I received from everyone and I learned from their ways of working. I often have to swallow when I get comments on my work, but because of the shared residency approach, that was not the case here.”
Marthe nods when she hears that. “During my studies in Maastricht, I was very often told that I’m not that vulnerable on stage, but I couldn’t really do much with that. I always thought: if I can do it perfectly, why should I do it less well? The crazy thing is that now I got the same reaction, but it suddenly came in very differently. For the first time, something clicked. It felt so safe and there was no pressure and exactly that helped me VOORUIT.”
Marthe continued to work on her performance What Pessoa Taught Me during her residency. In it, she interprets his poems with her voice and body. During the three weeks, she developed a new chapter in which she completely surrendered to the performance and took the audience into the loss of control. “That scene arose from a desire to be moved and sung, more than to move and sing in a controlled way myself. The audience can thus hopefully also let go of reason and experience from the now what is happening without always wanting to understand it intellectually. But that is only possible if I also dare to let go of myself. I will continue working on it in September, perhaps with a lighting designer and a sound engineer, and then I will be ready for a try-out,” she says.
It is very different for Tamayo who is at the very beginning of her journey. “I’m still exploring where I want to go,” she offers. “There is an autobiographical line, about my own mother, about how I experienced motherhood, and about my daughter who has been sick for a long time. We don’t like to talk about the negative side of our health, but when you start asking through, it turns out a lot of people struggle with physical pain. So that’s definitely a theme, as is my search for the right form. Things always work live differently than how you imagine them in your head beforehand. So it was really nice to be able to test out all kinds of things.”
Timur experimented with camera footage during the residency to add another layer to his story. He mixes personal with other stories in a performance about someone trying to make a movie. “I’m looking for a middle ground between theater and film, fiction and documentary,” he says. “After this I want to focus more on writing. I’m fascinated by the style and tone of French author Edouard Louis so I want to do something with that influence anyway.” Timur also communicates how much he appreciated his coaches during residency. “People like Greet Vissers and Steven Brys came up with new ideas or input every time I felt lost. It was wonderful to be able to lean on them.”
The residency also allows Lila to give more direction to her project. “I was sitting with a lot of ideas that I now have a better idea of which way to go with it,” she says. “I had already written five songs and I decided that I want to open them up to a completely different audience on an EP with music videos that will be available online. There’s also my solo with both music, dance and comedy. It feels right to continue that line so now it’s a matter of bringing even more harmony to the interplay of the different disciplines.”
In short, the foursome knows what to do. “We all have work ahead of us, but it was a privilege to influence each other. I would do it again in a heartbeat,” laughs Tamayo.
Shared Research, Shared Practices. A residency in collaboration with Corso, detheatermaker, MESTIZO ARTS PLATFORM, Monty and Rataplan. With support from the Flemish Government and Arenberg.
