Workshop: Updating the Vocabulary

Mathilde Monnier, Calixto Neto, Emmanuelle Huynh 

In the dance world, the workshop is a space for creative experimentation and exchange, and the focal point of the CN D’s annual international event Camping, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Three choreographers share their unique visions about how they build, facilitate, and participate in artistic workshops.

“Constant experimentation” – Mathilde Monnier

“Workshop” has become a word used for everything and anything. I prefer the term “atelier” to refer to these moments of experimentation that, unlike in a dance class, are not limited solely to the transmission of a specific technique. In a workshop, the pedagogical playing field is much more open: it’s about encounters, exchanges, experimentation, and creativity. Very strong connections can be formed. And these moments are always incredible barometers for measuring what’s at stake in the dance world.

For me, transmission and creation are on the same level. I’ve been carrying out these practices in parallel, in a kind of permanent workshop, ever since I started dancing. Pedagogy allows me to pursue my research over a continuous period of time, to be connected with different generations, to invite other choreographers and see them work, and sometimes even to meet performers. I haven’t needed to hold auditions for almost 20 years! 

I didn’t study dance at school – there wasn’t any. So I trained by taking part in workshops. I’ll always remember one of them, given by [American born choreographer] Mark Tompkins. What he proposed was drastically different from what I was doing... It traumatized me! (she laughs). The question of resistance is always fascinating. Most often, it’s one’s preconceived assumptions or their prejudice that holds them back and prevents them from really experiencing things, whereas the most interesting thing is to really immerse yourself, to let yourself be challenged. For people to let go of all these assumptions during a workshop, I think it’s essential that the framework be very clear: which question will be explored? What are the ingredients, the cues? Even if, of course, when you open the box, things evolve and take you elsewhere... Students have to attend so many internships all year round. This basic agreement allows them to make a choice, to not just attend this workshop like any other class. For some time now, the workshops I’ve been running have been free of charge, and there’s no required level for participants: for something to happen, the most important thing is that the participants have the desire to be here and are willing to be fully present.

“Organizing a context that fosters communication and sharing experiences” – Calixto Neto 

The workshop plays a very important role in my career. In Recife, the city of Brazil where I come from, there’s no academic training. I built my career as a performer by doing a lot of workshops, and I’ve always loved them. They are places where one discovers stuff, where doors open to different worlds, techniques and styles. 

For me, the workshop is above all a fluid way of organizing a context for communication and sharing. It’s really about two-way encounters. Of course, as an orchestrator, I come in with the experiences I’ve had: these times are an opportunity to present the materials present in artistic processes in a different way. But the participants also come with their own history, their own backgrounds and expectations. The last workshop I gave revolved around the transmission process of Luiz de Abreu’s solo O Samba Do Crioulo Doido, and the materials present in Il faux, my latest solo. During an exercise, the trainees found in their own bodies other centers of strength, other points of movement, other ways of moving. This wasn’t necessarily the initial goal, but it turned out to be amazing!

Because I’m aware of how significant these moments can be, I take my teaching responsibilities very seriously. Whether I’m working with children, non-professionals or professionals, I always ask myself a lot of questions. This allows me to better understand how I’m going to transmit something, how I’m going to learn from the participants, from myself, but also and above all, from the encounter itself. How can we establish a different idea of the relationships that can develop between a person who passes on knowledge, and those who receive it? How can we build a more egalitarian and horizontal work ethic, despite the hierarchical nature of transmission? These are fundamental questions: workshops enable us to ask ourselves what kind of professional we want to be in the collective contexts we encounter in our lives.

“It’s about teaching creation and creativity” – Emmanuelle Huynh 

The workshop is a moment to share resources around a particular question, vision, or theme we’ve already dealt with. Otherwise, it’s more like a laboratory where we all work together, passing on our working processes to each other. These resources can be exogenous to dance – readings, notes, podcasts, images – or endogenous: gestures, dances, translations between these resources and what this has produced in my body. It’s then up to the participants to take up the question that has inspired me, and to produce their own response in a day, three days, or a week. Workshops are small-scale creations – you can’t just churn them out! When the person who gives the workshop is well-prepared and the people in front of them really want to commit to the process, it’s really marvellous. I have a wonderful memory of the workshop Trisha Brown gave at the Opéra de Montpellier in 1995 on M.O. (Offrande musicale).

Workshops are a pedagogy of creativity. It’s about transmitting a mode of working, a way of searching, and technical skills – a way of warming up, a certain type of dance – and also, a way of articulating the two: how to search with and through the body around a question. This definition comes from my training: I studied dance and philosophy in parallel. At the time, there was no specific Master’s degree in dance studies, so I had to orchestrate the links between these two disciplines myself.

Today, I’d love to have the time to participate in the workshops of my Camping colleagues at the CN D, or elsewhere. I just don’t have the time. Fortunately, the workshop I run at the Beaux-Arts de Paris allows me to invite other artists and “enjoy” these workshops too. I have the opportunity to initiate things, but also to be a student. I follow the teachings of outside instructors along with my students. It’s vital to be able to continue to nourish myself in this way, to learn things I don’t know, or that I no longer know, and to think actively.

Interview by Aïnhoa Jean-Calmettes

Aïnhoa Jean-Calmettes is a journalist specializing in cultural and opinion pieces. She was the editor-in-chief of Mouvement magazine from 2014 to 2023, and she still directs its “Leaving the 20th century” and “After Nature” sections. She continues her investigations on the connections between contemporary creation and the humanities by writing critical pieces, analytical articles, and investigations in the art world. She works with several cultural institutions and often chairs panels and meetings.

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