Interview: 'I WOULD LOVE TO LEARN BHARATNATYAM IN INDIA' - Artist Irene From Netherlands

A dance workshop titled "Kicking off diversity celebration,' saw a great response in Delhi where it was held this past weekend.

The event by Moving Souls saw dance workshop on, 'Cunningham' and 'House Dance' by internationally renowned artists. Irene an artist from Netherlands who also conducted the workshop was thrilled with her experience.

Irene, has studied dance professionally since, she was 15 years old (and non-professionally since she was 7 years old). She has studied in well renowned schools in the Netherlands (Codarts Rotterdam and Theater School Amsterdam) and in the International Training Program of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. She has been teaching ballet and contemporary for 10 years all around the world (Netherlands, France, USA, Nepal, India) to people from different backgrounds and at different levels. Also, she will teach a Cunningham based contemporary dance class open to all who are interested in expanding their horizon.

BWW catches up with Irene on the similarities that she may have seen between Indian dance classical dance forms and western dance programs.

You have been teaching dance around the world. Talk to us about your experiences in India?

I have mostly been teaching contemporary dance. I started teaching in India in 2016 in Bangalore and I have been enjoying it a lot. Getting to know different dancers with very different backgrounds has been very inspiring. I have had the privilege to teach in different schools across the country and have been welcomed so warmly by all the students.

Tell us more about the Cunningham based contemporary dance, that you will be teaching?

The workshop that I taught was a Cunningham inspired contemporary dance class. Merce Cunningham is a famous choreographer from New York City who developed a training technique for contemporary dancers. This technique is very complex and hard to learn, that's why I chose to teach a Cunningham inspired class at Moving Souls Studio in New Delhi. Students from all backgrounds were welcome to join and try this technique out. We worked on some of the basic elements of the technique and tried to combine them into small movement phrases.

What would you say about a variety of indigenous dance forms of India?

I think it is beautiful that India has such a rich background of classical dance and theater forms. Where I'm from (the Netherlands) we don't really have a culture of dancing so I can appreciate that dance is such an integral part of life here.

I also see a lot of opportunities for the contemporary dance scene to be inspired by these classical forms. I think India has the chance to create a beautiful style of contemporary dance inspired by tradition. I have seen some beautiful fusion happening between these fields and I really feel it has a lot of potential for the future.

If you could learn one dance from India what would it be?

For me, that would be Bharatanatyam. I fell in love with it during my time in Bangalore, the similarities to ballet in the way the dancers get trained, the amount of detail, the musical structures, the strength and grace of the dancers... it is all so beautiful. Unfortunately, I haven't had enough time to really start learning it, but I hope I will be back in India many more times and will get a chance to learn at least some of the basics.

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