Jan Martens
Photograph ©PhileDeprez
“I felt the necessity and desire to establish a kind of atypical corps de ballet. I wanted to create a corps de ballet of which the members don’t have the same technical training nor possibilities, not the same ages, not the same backgrounds, but are treated equally. A corps de ballet which cherishes their differences rather than problematising them. ”
“Dance carries the potential to speak to many people, as there is no language barrier, or at least no linguistic barrier.”
“... every time a dancer succeeds in finding a new way of dancing or performing, or when they seem to be so much in the moment. That is pure magic to me.”
“It’s not the performers who are unconventional but rather the combinations formed between them. ”
Jan Martens – any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones
Showing at Sadler’s Wells 24-25 May 2022
AN INTERVIEW WITH JAN MARTENS BY DAEN PALMA HUSE
With an unconventional cast, an unconventional soundtrack, and an unconventional approach, director Jan Martens presents his piece any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones and creates an atypical corps de ballet at our “London stage of dance” that is Sadler’s Wells. The Protagonist talked to Jan Martens for an insight into his inspirations, language of dance, identity, and working with an exceptional team.
First of all, please tell us about the upcoming production in a nutshell - and the inspirations you draw on.
When you can claim your space or speak up on stage, it becomes easier to claim your space in society. At the same time, people were claiming their space or wanted their voice to be heard in society all over: protests were rising all over the world for different cases: climate, women’s rights, Pro-Trump, anti-Trump, Hong Kong independence, Black Lives Matter and many more. I wanted to dig deeper into this theme of activism. I also wanted to create a show with a big group of performers. I felt the need to create a work for the big stage that would roam new territories, new spaces. I wanted to bring together different types of performers, embracing the multitude in the dance field and in society nowadays.
I’ve made work before with and for what I have called underdog bodies: bodies underrepresented on dance stages. Some things have changed of course, dancers don’t need to be between 24 and 30 years old or between 1.72 and 1.76m anymore, but too often when performers not fitting the cliché standards are seen on a certain stage, they are often reduced to what is at first sight very visible.
So for this show I felt the necessity and desire to establish a kind of atypical corps de ballet. I wanted to create a corps de ballet of which the members don’t have the same technical training nor possibilities, not the same ages, not the same backgrounds, but are treated equally. A corps de ballet which cherishes their differences rather than problematising them.
For the music I established some personal parameters for what I would consider an interesting protest song, knowing that I wanted the music to reflect the different generations as well. A long list emerged which got cut down to four tracks. We started working with those in the studio in January 2020, three of them made it to the final show. These tracks were written in three different eras and areas: Triptych: Prayer/Protest/Peace by Maxwell Roach and Abbey Lincoln in the segregated USA of the 60s, Górecki’s Concerto for Harpsichord and String Orchestra Op. 40 in communist Poland under hegemony of the USSR in the 1980 and People’s Faces by Kae Tempest in post-Brexit Britain of 2019. The political and social events that occurred during the creation of these pieces were polarising issues, invoking protests of divided or repressed inhabitants.
What is most important to you as a creative? Where does your creative vision overall lie and how does “any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones” fit into this trajectory?
What is important to me is that content, form and process fall together. Any attempt… is a performance bringing together different languages (movement and other) that keep their own identity and become one. The process consisted of course of more technical work such as creating movement material together with the dancers but a big part of it was also making the dancers accept each other and surmount their ideas of what a dancer should be able to do or what dance is. They’re used to working together with people trained in the same idiom (classical, hip hop, …). It took them a while to see the value of languages they were not attached to. In this way content and process coincided. The rehearsals and how they were organised in that way also became value representation by accepting differences and seeing the beauty in them.
As a choreographer with Belgian roots, do you feel performance translates mostly through emotional connection across cultures?
Dance carries the potential to speak to many people, as there is no language barrier, or at least no linguistic barrier. However, dance vocabularies themselves are not necessarily globally recognised. A certain dance language can be considered inferior to another in some areas. This is also why it was necessary to me that separate idioms co-exist peacefully on stage in this production - which comes to the front clearly in solos the dancers crafted set to Górecki’s Op. 40, and at other times throughout the performance. I tried not to overvalue one language to the disadvantage of another, shying away from the idea that certain types of dancing are more in vogue.
Photograph ©PhileDeprez
Did pandemic affect how the piece has evolved - if it has evolved itself or its presentation?
The need to liberate oneself became much more on the surface and visible within the work. The pandemic offered me extra time to overthink what I had created and to make more changes than during a regular creation. When the show would have premiered 15 months earlier as was originally planned it would have looked and felt very different. What it eventually became is more artistically interesting, I find, than what it was in first place.
The first version followed a narrative, and felt like a layer imposed on the dancers onstage instead of the subject matter seeping into their brains and bodies, which it became. It now feels more like they are living and breathing the piece. For instance, Górecki’s Op. 40 which is repeated throughout the piece. In an earlier version, the dancing felt formal, now you can feel how they are breaking loose from formality. This also carries the main metaphor of the piece: constantly insisting, trying to achieve freedom. To say it with a quote from the Dutch writer Niña Weijers, which I also used in my production PASSING THE BECHDEL TEST: ‘Do we have to keep going on about this? Yes, you do, over and over. You have to keep on about it. And yes, you just have to be that pain in the ass. you should be the one to push.’*
The music function also changed with the extra time during the rehearsal process. At first, this orchestral piece by Górecki was used in an almost ironic way, but by working on and with this beautiful composition the metaphors of rebelling and the different languages it can take under its wings came to the forefront.
All this also made me realise once again that having more time to create and experiment is needed. The funding system which allows one (and not even everywhere) to have 8-10 weeks of creation is not enough, this is part of a capitalist system which does not do anybody a favour: not the audience nor the artists on and behind the stage.
Tell us about the moments that are most exciting to you in the show and why (if you could choose one)?
Some of the walking patterns we execute during Kae Tempest’s People Faces. It remains a very complex and difficult task to make it work and make it look like a fluent and peaceful moment. So I’m always on the edge of my seat during that part of the performance. Another moment I hold dear is the onstage costume change. Even though the performance is all about connection it is the only part in which the dancers actually touch each other. The care with which they do this moves my hidden romantic soul every single time. Another thing which I find beautiful, but which doesn’t relate so much to one specific moment in the production, is every time a dancer succeeds in finding a new way of dancing or performing, or when they seem to be so much in the moment. That is pure magic to me.
Is there a particular part in the show that is especially challenging technically for the performers?
Yes, the walking patterns I mentioned before are challenging because of the spacing and counting. In terms of endurance, the end scene can be quite hard for some of the performers. Most of my productions are physically and mentally challenging, but I feel less cruel and responsible with this performance, in a way they brought it upon themselves as each dancer created their own movement material.
Photograph ©PhileDeprez
What feedback have you had from the performers themselves on the show and your work together?
We had discussions and exchanges of thoughts throughout the creation process. In the first version everybody was on stage for the duration of the piece, which is the case in all my productions. So when we got to this final version, with all the different entrances and exits, it threw them off in the beginning. But in the end they like this version better. It is more strict but at the same time also offers them a lot of freedom for the moments they are on stage. It is a great production to perform multiple times, because of this sense of freedom they have.
I sensed that it was also a tad disorienting for many of them to be part of such a diverse group because you start to doubt why you are there, why you are part of this specific constellation. Most of the dancers are used to being on stage with peers of a similar age, with the same training. Here it is different, the diversity within the group also led to interesting conversations on the topic of rebellion and resistance.
Truus, with her 70 years the eldest performer, talked about the pro-choice marches she joined in Amsterdam in the 1960s. Ty and Tim on their turn lost many friends during the HIV/AIDS epidemic in 1980s New York crisis. We also talked about which voices to incorporate in the performance: those of Abbey Lincoln, Ali Smith, Kae Tempest, Henryk Górecki. We talked about Black Lives Matter (with the death of George Floyd happening during a period in which we were also rehearsing). Those discussions about current affairs seeped into the production and the way the dancers perform the material. That being said it wasn’t always easy or possible to process the feedback of seventeen different people on stage. But the focus lied on dealing in a respectful manner with each other, on and offstage, which is now continued during touring.
Your upcoming show is billed as being performed by 17 unique personalities that are unconventional. Could you tell us about how these are unconventional besides their age, and how this choice was made?
It’s not the performers who are unconventional but rather the combinations formed between them. Different people sharing the same stage and/or certain scenes. I’ve always tried to (also) give a stage to those bodies who are underrepresented on stage, especially in larger dance ensembles.
Do you think it is difficult for older performers in the industry? If so, does your production actively take a stance towards combatting this?
Yes, I do think this is unfortunately the case. We actively combat this by not making the fact of having older performers on stage look like something special. They blend in and become part of a bigger group, whilst keeping their own individuality and contributing to what the group looks like, and how it (re)acts. We too often follow the capitalist idea that time is money (sometimes because we’re forced to). For any attempt… we used our time to make this diverse group of people onstage talk to each other and get to know each other, to feel each other out. All dancers onstage do the same: they perform and create their own language, and one style isn’t valued over the other. The same goes for age difference: it sometimes momentarily becomes visible to fade away seconds later.
How do you define diversity in dancing as an art form and creative industry - are there any details you’d like to share about your personal experience with this?
There is not enough representation on stage. If you want to get a more diverse group of people in the auditorium, you need to see a more diverse representation of society on stage as well. Many bigger dance ensembles (and ballet ensembles) are not up to speed on this front. To give an example: one of the dancers onstage for any attempt… who was told that she wasn’t tall enough and didn’t tick the correct boxes needed to join certain ensembles, told me what a joy it is to share a stage with so many different people and personalities. But it’s an ongoing battle, we need to keep on hitting that same nail.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on a production in collaboration with Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, which investigates repertoire/music that seems to be forgotten or was never in the limelight. Away from the canon that we know. For me it’s also an interesting exercise in finding out where the diversity lies in a less atypical corps de ballet compared to the one I put together for any attempt…
Thank you very much, Jan.
any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones is showing at Sadler’s Wells 24-25 May 2022. For more information visit www.sadlerswells.com