Composites

Photography by Ian Douglas @ Judson Church NYC

Composites is a multidisciplinary dance performance investigating what it means to be present. What constitutes presence in both a performer and the audience? How is a performer's presence intimately related to technique? And how can one utilize one’s physique and technique to connect more deeply to oneself and others?

Composites is the outcome of a research process that is heavily influenced by the Feldenkrais Method, a source of Sekulovic’s artistic practice. But Composites is also the product of a dance practice that is intertwined with the experience of dancing while aging. In her fifties, Sekulovic believes that dance as an art form is not only for the young, and in order to keep dancing it requires choreography and training that is based on the individual body so it can keep moving, improving, refining technique, and communicate an artistic idea.

Composites was created in close connection to Philip Glass’ Piano Etudes that he initially wrote as a means to improve his personal piano play. The compositions caught the interest of Sekulovic who decided to investigate her own body in a similar fashion, using the act of choreography to improve technique. Composites as a result is an attempt to improve the presence of the body as an instrument by focusing on the specific aesthetic it produces in movement while being simultaneously supported and dependent on its specific anatomy. Using Glass' music as a starting point, the research led to the creation of several dances that were produced in part by Movement Research @ Judson Church, Dixon Place, Mark Morris Dance Center and Gibney in New York and premiered in December 2024 at Uferstudios in Berlin.

Production Team

Choreography, Text, Performance: Ramona Sekulovic

Sound und Video Design: Dusan Sekulovic

Lighting Design: Joseph Devitt Tremblay

Outside Eye: Nele Riepl

Composites was created in part through access to subsidized rehearsal space at the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, NY. Untitled IV (UNI) was commissioned by Gibney as part of their Work Up series. Excerpts have been produced by Gibney, Judson Church, Greenspace, Dixon Place, Austin Dance Festival, Chop Shop Contemporary Dance Festival, WestFest, SoloDuo Festival, and Dumbo Dance Festival.

Further research funding - Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the framework of the initiative NEUSTART KULTUR, aid programm DIS-TANZEN by the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland.