Stijn Cellis has been invited to create a new work for Dancenorth in Townsville.
Where were you born and where did you train?
I was born in Belgium, in the province of Antwerp in a small town called Turnhout. I studied dance at the Stedelijk Instituut voor Ballet.
What sort of a family do you have?
My parents come from very mixed background. My mother is from Mauritius Island and she comes from and old aristocratic family. My father comes has more modest ancestors: my grandparents on father’s side were farmers and my uncle made it to
become the mayor of the village my father originates from! My father was
a cook and my mother had different occupations, from housewife to selling sewing machines. My father’s free time occupation as a young man was playing the drums in a jazz band! Other than that there was no sign of art in my family! I have one sister and she loves painting!
What is your first memory of dancing?
A stiff feeling in my legs as I looked at them costumed in pink tights!
You received a scholarship to the Graham school in Florence while a dancer at the Royal Ballet of Flanders. How influential was that experience?
It was the experience that shifted, opened my appreciation from classical ballet to the more expressive and physical Graham technique! I loved the rigour and the almost sacred devotion to her floor-work and I became mentally and physically a better dancer, with a stronger back and [more] width in the movement!
You were a member of the Zurich Ballet, the contemporary Dance Zurich, the Ballet du Grand Theater de Geneve and the Cullberg Ballet. Were you a classical or a contemporary dancer?
First I was a ballet dancer and didn’t feel too comfortable about this way of expressing myself and then I moved to companies with a contemporary repertoire but still with a classical training method. That is where I felt I could become the best dancer I had imagined myself to be!
On stopping performing at age 32, you studied stage design. Had you given up all thought of dance at that time?
No, I had put choreography on hold, but the dancing was definitely over then!
What made you take up choreography again?
I felt I missed seeing and being on stage with dancers so that pushed my curiosity and desire to check if I could be make a living from it and see where it would take me!
How much has your design training influenced your choreography?
Good choreography is well designed, and a good space is half of the work done! So I can say that thinking about the space or the body is not different, only the proportions change!
You were artistic director of the Ballett des Stadttheater Bern from 2004 to 2007. Could you describe the company for us please?
We were a group of people that committed to work with each other over a period of three years. And we experimented with a lot of different propositions, from children’s shows (Cinderella) to very experimental work (Hidden Garden) that would drive audiences to debate whether it still was dance that we were showing! The dancers came from very different backgrounds, both contemporary as well as classical. Each and every one was sort of the creator of his own artistic trajectory!
Your biog lists eight choreographic commissions in the past two years, encompassing companies such as Bodytraffic LA and the Royal Swedish Ballet. Do you consciously alter your work when choreographing for contemporary rather than classical dancers?
Yes I do – I start in the comfort zone and then try take leaps away from it! No I don’t – sometimes I really need to see something about something I sense or have imagined and then I don’t compromise at all. Actually, that is how it always should
be! But sometimes it is not the right environment or time to do this!
How did the Dancenorth commission come about?
I met Raewyn at the Juilliard in New York where we both were choreographing for the students and having spent many evenings and afternoons discussing life and dance together we thought it would be possible to join forces!
Where do you seek inspiration?
I read a lot, movies, exhibitions . . . daily life, my cortex!
What role do the dancers play in realising your vision?
They inspire me, they are the most important of all ingredients and I see it as my duty to inspire them. We create that inspired environment together!
STOP PRESS!
Stijn has had to withdraw from his commission with Dancenorth. The company was to perform his work as part of a double bill, which includes ‘Fugue’, by artistic director Raewyn Hill. The double bill will still be performed, but with a replacement work, in Townsville from August 10 to 11 at Riverway Arts Centre, from August 16 to 18 August at Dancenorth’s home in the CBD and at the Cairns Centre for Contemporary Arts from August 22 to 23.