Arno Schuitemaker @hollandfestival: 'I want to find a new way, a new vocabulary, that has not yet been seen in my previous work.'

With 'The Way You Sound Tonight', which will have its world premiere at Holland Festival 2018, choreographer Arno Schuitemaker takes the next step in his creative development. He describes his performance as an 'acoustic ballroom'. I speak to the 1976-born dance maker, who once studied at Delft University of Technology, about his work and his motives.

"In the trilogy 'WHILE WE STRIVE', 'I will wait for you' and 'If You Could See Me Now', which I made over the past three years, I was looking with my dancers to integrate movement, light and sound. I don't just mean this technically. Movement, light and sound together formed one experience, in each of the three performances from its own perspective.'

'As we worked on this, I discovered how important it was to also include space in that integration. That's what I do in 'The Way You Sound Tonight' more explicitly than in the trilogy I made.'

Space experience

'To orient myself in this theme, I read a book by Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa. It is called 'The Eyes of the Skin' and has the subtitle: 'Architecture and the Senses'. It inspired me. That doesn't mean I was going to translate what I read in that book into a performance. One sentence or a small paragraph in a book can be enough to evoke an image in me where I want to go with a performance. In this book, it is mainly Pallasmaas idea that your experience of space is not only dependent on the visual form, i.e. how a space looks, but that on a subconscious level, the echo plays an important role in your experience of space.'

'For me, it was already clear that after the trilogy, I wanted to create work for a much larger space. The trilogy was mainly performed in small theatres. What I had read in 'The Eyes of the Skin' lent itself perfectly to working out in a large space. And I also already knew that I had a need to invite the audience into that space rather than conventionally sit in the stands.'

A total experience of movement, light, sound and space

'While these thoughts were sort of going around in my head, the term 'acoustic ballroom' came up quite automatically. That is not to say that I wanted to do something with 'ballroom dancing', because that is far from my movement language. For me, it was about the fact that there is a large space in which sound unfolds and in which there is continuous movement. The sound did not have to be brought out stereo, as is usually the case in theatre, but with a surround reproduction. This allows me to fill the space completely with sound, to let the sound move in the space. Thus, in my imagination, the space began to become an acoustic ballroom. But with a way of moving that I am attracted to.'

The audience as part of the performance

So the audience is in the middle of the room, absorbed, so to speak, in the whole of movement, light, sound and space.

'It has always been my goal that the audience should not look at my performances from the outside, as if they had a picture in front of them. My goal is that, as an audience, you feel part of the experience that the dancers generate with their movement, the light, the sound and the way the space interacts with all this.'

So they sit where the dancers move. Isn't it difficult to develop movements in that setting?

'It is a new challenge, exciting, but not necessarily difficult. For me and the people I work with, it's an adventure. How will it work? I'm curious about that.'

Flow of movement without beginning and end

The movement language that stands out in your work is reminiscent of a vortex, a collective flow of energy in which the dancers are kept in constant motion.

'For 'The Way You Sound Tonight', I came back to the idea of continuous movement. That's something that attracts me very much. For me, it's not so much about exactly what movement the dancers make, but that they are in motion. I don't give the dancers orders for certain steps, but let them explore how they express themselves in the continuous flow of movement.'

'Of course, I ultimately choose which movements it should be in the performance. But the main thing is that I look with them for an engaging way in which they can be in constant motion. That has to be done in such a way that it doesn't destroy them, but rather energises them.'

'That energy is important to maintain continuity over a long period of time. Indeed, that often produces a kind of vortex of movement. But I take that even further here than in my previous work. Acoustic ballroom has no beginning and no end. As a result, I hope to give the audience a sense of infinite continuity.'

So the performance has already started when the audience enters and continues when it leaves the room.

'At the Holland Festival, we do the performance twice a night. The dancers dance continuously, but there are two audience groups that join the continuum one after the other. One group starts at eight, the second at nine.'

Joint energy

The dancers are energised by their own dancing. Does the audience also get energised by being immersed in the performance as a whole?

'That is absolutely part of what I have in mind. There are two ways in which the elements of movement, space, sound and light connect. The first is the rhythm they have in relation to each other. The second is the energy they each generate for themselves and interact with each other. So the energy is one of the main things you experience in the performance.'

Does the audience leave the room more energised than it entered?

'That has not rarely been the case with performances of mine. What I see before me is that at the moment of saying goodbye, the feeling is generated: actually, it would be nice if I could experience the performance again immediately. Energy linked to a sense of continuity. I did experience people expressing something like that. I think this is because the performance evokes something, something physical that the spectator easily adopts.'

Moving from the trunk

The earlier performances have a very striking movement language. Pointing gestures. Lines shooting from the dancing body into space. Is the dance in 'The Way You Sound Tonight' an extension of this? Is the movement idiom elaborated into new forms?

'Yes. There is a field of tension here, by the way. I have clearly found a way of moving that works inspiring for me, namely movements from the trunk, i.e. from within. The arms and legs are never leading in a movement. They are active, but always as a result of the movement created in the torso. I feel that by doing this, I make the movement material palpable. More so than if you work only with the limbs. But the longer you work this way, the more difficult it becomes to find a new approach to this premise again. Yet that has been the challenge: to find a new way, a new vocabulary, that has not yet been seen in my previous work. This is difficult because it is a limitation I impose on myself. Staying true to my principle starting point, but still finding a new approach within it.'

'Of the five dancers in 'The Way You Sound Tonight', three have danced in previous projects of mine and I have two new dancers. Just that mix of familiar and new is nice. It creates a new chemistry. That helps to find a new angle of my movement idiom.'

Human experience

You don't see your own work as abstract, even though it doesn't depict a story either.

'For me, my work is not abstract because I see the dancers in it as human beings. Their personality comes out fully in it. The means I use are not narrative and not necessarily based on any particular emotion. That I wouldn't call the performance abstract anyway is because the humanity the dancers exude can touch the audience in their own humanity.'

Collaboration is important in creating a performance in which so many elements are made into one.

'That Finnish architect's book was recommended to me by my dramaturge, Guy Cools. He does something like that more often. He listens to my ideas for a new performance, thinks along and sometimes contributes material. So did this book. But it is up to me to extract what I want from it. I am not so much interested in what the book says about space in architecture - after all, it is not my aim to design a building - but I am interested in a way of thinking in that book that opens new entrances for me.'

Equal relationship

'I discuss with the dancers what I have read. That helps them understand what we want to bring about. The dancers are doing more than just making movements. More than purely performing the dance technically. They really have to create a kind of ownership have about the movements. It has to come entirely from within them and they have to really feel that: 'This comes from me'. To achieve that, they have to open up to their own experiences. Daring to surrender to the movement. This is an exciting area where you have to remain in control of what you are doing, but at the same time be able to fully immerse yourself in it. The conversation with the dancers is very important for this, the exchange I have with them about the movement material. I sometimes clearly indicate what type of movements I am looking for, but they also offer possibilities that I can work with further.'

'I remain the creator, of course. All choices lie with me, but an important condition to achieve my goal is an equal relationship with the people I work with.'

Synergy

'Because in the performance the space experience is also generated by sound or music, my collaboration with composer Aart Strootman is important. We discussed the synergy of music and movement, but also how to make that synergy relate to the experience of space. Jørgen Verhaeren, specialist on surround sounds, helped us with this. Who is not only technically involved in the performance, but also thinks along from a creative perspective.'

'In addition to being a composer, Aart Strootman is also a musician, and on the guitar at that. Much of the music in the performance was therefore played on a guitar by him, where a continuous transformation in the music was the starting point. So, like the dancers, the music goes on forever, infinitely.'

'The lighting designer, Jean Kalman, also makes an artistic contribution. We talked about the question: how can we add an extra dimension to the experience of space also through light that goes beyond just illuminating the dancers?'

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Choreographer Arno Schuitemaker outdoes himself with gossamer The Way You Sound Tonight at @HollandFestival 2018