„Dance is something other than technique”

We have talked to choreographer Andreea Belu about our upcoming performance Barbarians, in which she is responsible for the choreography of the mourning scene.

“Csaba has offered me this scene. Besides this, I have worked on minor details. It was a teamwork, and as it is only normal, ideas came from both sides, including the dancers. When you put your body in service of a performance, you contribute to that performance right from the beginning. When you work with live material, the unpredictable will find its way in, and the show practically becomes a negotiation between choreographers and dancers. It is always like this. They came up with small ideas, other dancers have also worked on small details, besides Imola and Dalma who have also been our assistants, and have helped me and Csaba all the time to create movement where it was needed” – she told us.

When asked if she could relate to the short story's subject matter, the choreographer said that this was true from many points of view. “The way that woman doesn't give up trying to find out what happened... she feels that something had happened, and something unnatural, and she never gives up. The way people remain faithful to their instincts and hunches is ever closer and closer to me. And when you are looking for something, and can't come out of it, then everything around you seems to hint at just that. I'm talking about natural elements here, not people. A sentence comes to mind that the queen said to Christopher Colombus when he started on his journey, that “if the land you are looking for doesn't exist, be sure that God will create it to requite you for your boldness”. It's just that. She didn't just leave, she leapt into an abyss of incertitude. And she didn't know what she will find, so she chose to risk everything she had to find out what she didn't know. This, for me, is the most important aspect of Barbarians.”

This is not the first time Andreea Belu has worked with the ensemble. “I like to see how things evolve, this is what makes me come back here every time” – she said, when asked about her work in Oradea. “And every time I come, although there aren't very long periods between my comings, I find something more. I find some little change of mentality in each one of the company's members. And this is what makes me come back each time, the second, the third, the fifth time. There is a huge work potential here. As far as I know, this is the only dance ensemble in the country that is heading towards contemporary dance from somewhere else, in this case, folklore. This is the only place in the country where there is a dance group within a theatre. This is what keeps me coming back.”

Asked to characterize this collaboration in three sentences, Andreea Belu answered as follows. “I would say some words that others have said before me, and I think they fit here perfectly. The first sentence is by Twyla Tharp, a very smart choreographer, in my opinion, who said that »Before you can think out of the box, you have to start with the box«. Then I will say what I said earlier about Columbus, namely that “Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace«. And the third... I think I will quote Pina Bausch, I think this has been quoted many times before, »To understand what I am saying, you have to believe that dance is something other than technique«”.