Marina Mascarell

Feminst direction

The spanish coreographer Marina Mascarell has been recently appointed new artistic director of the Danish Dance Theatre in Copenhagen, continuing a career dedicated to movement as a tool to explore new horizons. Feminist by birth, as she mentions herself, she has been traveling Europe and the world, creating for Korzo Theater, Mercat de les Flors, Nederlands Dans Theater, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, Skånes Dansteater, Dance Forum Taipei among others and receiving BNG Excellent Dance Award in 2015. She is one the most acclaimed artists in the international dance field, discussing the perception and positionality of bodies in the philo-political debate of our time through her works.

ph: Matevž Čebašek

There’s a new experience coming for you. How are you feeling?

I am very excited and of course also a bit nervous. It is a big responsibility not only towards the institution I will be working for but also towards our artistic community. I think there is a lot of hope and I don’t want to disappoint it. I am definitely excited to start making and understanding. It will be a learning process for me because I have never been in this position.

What kind of hope do you feel from the artistic community?

I think dancers feel that they can’t fulfil their needs in their profession. I work very much with the dancers, towards the dancers, I think for a lot of dancers has felt the refreshment of me being appointed artistic director. I try always to take care a lot of the dancers and their developments.

ph: Mila Ercoli

What is the relation of your role as creative with the dancers?

They are the engine of our profession e many times working with other institutions it doesn’t feel like this. I try always to establish a dialogue to have an horizontal relation. It is the first task of a group leader to make people feeling comfortable in the room. It’s important what they need personally because each one has different ways to approach the profession. I am aware I am working with a group of artists that is not homogeneous. I try always to listen and understand how to generate that place where we can build bridges and negotiate an approach to create together. I create in full collaboration, I guide but without dancers it is impossible.

The Danish Dance Theatre announced your appointment as new artistic director with great appreciation regarding your focus on collective co-creation and 360 degree sustainability. How do you intend to develop this two key points?

With 360 degree sustainability it refers to the quantity of productions each season, we will not produce a piece after the other without breaks. We will try to set the best ground so that every artist can develop fully their work. We will have longer creative processes and we will develop other activities related to that specific creation. For example we will give workshops for local communities, classes for the dancing community and artists in general. In this way the production will not only appear on stage but it will leave a mark on the territory and among communities. The collective co-creation is part of my method, I always realize collaborations with different artists, including dancers, and I would like to keep it going, it is a bit the brand of the working method we have been developing through the years.

ph: Mila Ercoli

What is it for you a sustainable approach to create art in a safe artistic space?

A safe artistic space is a place where everyone feels comfortable to create without judgements, where everyone can test themselves, fail and welcome new challenges. I believe as dancers we are a very vulnerable community, we work with our bodies every day and our job is very personal. People like to separate what is personal from what is professional but for us it is not the case. We can’t be totally professional when our bodies part of the work, we are touched and exposed continuously. It is important that people feel comfortable in their environment, accepting ups and downs of each one through active listening.

How do you see the phenomenon of workplace culture change in the dance field?

Comparing how things were going few years ago when I was a dancer and now there is a big difference in the profession and I hope that we will keep going in this direction to improve our practices so they become more humans. There is this false myth that ‘’the show must go on, that we always need to keep on going. I question a lot this approach of fighting no-stop and at any cost, we also need time to reflect and assimilate.

ph: Robert Benschop

What is the role of art in society, how do you envision the work that you do?

It is essential to understand where we are going, what are we doing and it helps reflect on how we do certain things to build a healthier society. In our case I am busy with the contemporary body and how bodies adapt to new ways of behaving and being. I want the body to have a role in the future, and I want the people to feel that they can experience with their body in different ways. I believe that such relation will improve the empathy towards other human beings.

What are one or two key features that you find in your work?

I am always busy with questioning normativity and the way in which I treat space. I always have objects on stage and the body adapt to those objects and transforms because of that space that is created. I get deeply emotional with spaces and with the idea of transformation of the body.

ph: Mila Ercoli

What are specific aspects of normativity that you are interested in breaking down and exploring in your coming works?

There is always room to discuss how we behave and create, not only the result but also throughout the process, the How we do things. In my practice I break physical habits for instance. I am a feminist for many years and this changed my perception of the world, how I see myself, people around me, gender identity and so on.

What does it mean being a feminist?

It means to deconstruct yourself from what has been taught since you were little. I question who I am and which choices I take, why I take them.

ph: Robert Benschop

Chairperson of the Board, Uffe Savery, and Deputy Chairperson, Karen Toftegaard, state ‘’The joy of dancing is so present in every conversation with her’’ and I must say in one of your recent works, Orthopedica Corporatio, I perceived a great sensation of a child-like and playful approach to movement. What is it for you the relation of motion and amusement/play?

for me they are the same thing, I can’t create without playing with my body, there is no fear or limitation. Creation goes hand in hand with learning and playing. That’s why we create. Orthopedica is the piece through which I freed myself the most.

Being asked what was your wish goal few years ago you mentioned that there was something difficult and complex that you wished to create while also expressing a desire to have longer creative process that include artists from different perspectives and fields, a sort of development centre for creativity. How did you work towards this goal in the past years?

After few years of working on this idea I started MEI(s) foundation last September. It took some time and a lot of work to find resources and necessary support, the process has been very complex and it will take a bit more in order for it to begin. At the moment I decided not to close the foundation, I will just put it in stand-by because I can’t do both things together. In a certain way this dream will still happen in Denmark thanks to the nature of Danish Dance Theatre, a structure that has already the support and means to realize a lot of what I wanted to do with my foundation. It is a flexible, dynamic and small institution, with capability of change and desire to transform.

ph: Mila Ercoli

You mentioned a dream, what is your goal that you hope to reach with this foundation?

The idea of the foundation is to have three artists for each production creating not necessarily in a choreographic form while having the Body as fundamental axis. Collaboration among artists really fascinates me.

And now how does your wish/to do list of your life look like?

Slowing down a bit, in this moment I feel relieved. Working as freelancer choreographer I always had been taking care also of the managerial and economic aspects of each production and this generated a great accumulation of stress in me. With the support of the theatre I will be able to focus completely on the artistic aspects of my work.

ph: Mila Ercoli

this article has been published in the number of May 2023 on the italian magazine DanzaSì.