‘An Honest Conversation’ Aims To Reinvent What A Dance Duet Can Be
Image: L-R: Sacha Copland and Vicki Van Hout, Azzam Mohamed and Hoyori Maruo. Source: Supplied
Two dancers, one hour, no script: this is the premise of An Honest Conversation, a highly original show created by acclaimed New Zealand choreographer Sacha Copland. Playing as part of FORM Dance Projects’ duet-centred That’s Two Thank You festival, the show is a deeply unconventional take on the art of the two people-dance, as the two performers move together while holding a conversation the whole time.
For Sacha, the idea for the show came from a simple desire. “I’ve been dancing and choreographing my whole life, and I realised I just really wanted to talk and have conversations that you don’t always get to have,” she tells City Hub. “I wondered if we danced if that would make us more honest and help us find spaces that are about curiosity, figuring out and not knowing.”
The fusion of speech and movement means that the usual barriers of conversation are broken down. “I think at first we’re a little more guarded, but as it goes on it’s almost like you don’t have as much of your brain left. The body always brings out honesty, I reckon.”
An Honest Conversation breaks down conversation barriers
A core part of An Honest Conversation’s framework is that Sacha and her partner in dancing and talking are close to strangers. That way, there’s truly no way to anticipate where their conversations or movements will take them. For the That’s Two Thank You festival, Sacha will be joined on stage by local artists Hoyori Maruo, Azzam Mohamed and Vicki Van Hout, who all differ vastly in age and background.
“It’s exciting to do improv with someone you actually don’t know that well, and lead the audience into the intimacy of it,” says Sacha. “It means half an hour before a show I’m really nervous about what’s gonna happen!”
The unpredictability makes way for a number of interesting dynamics, says Sacha. “There’s moments where you’ll be saying something and your physicality will line up with it so beautifully. I remember once I was just spinning round and round, and I remember saying that it’s so much easier to get into things than out of them. I’d never thought that before, but as I was spinning, it came naturally.”
Sacha comments that challenging typical ideas around duets is precisely the point of An Honest Conversation: “Traditional dance duets don’t always invite the audience in, while this performance feels like you’re at a dinner party and you’re eavesdropping on someone’s conversation, but it’s ridiculously heightened because of the dancing.I like to challenge the formality of the duet; there’s a real casualness within the intensity.”
“It really intrigued us to do a festival of duets”
Presenting new and interesting takes on the duet is part of the rationale behind the That’s Two Thank You festival, says FORM’s Creative Producer Naomi Hibberd. “It really intrigued us to do a festival of duets. We felt that there was something really interesting about the connection between two bodies on stage, with a duet you can get quite close and intimate, while seeing their relationship unfold as dancers.”
“I’ve seen Sacha work in New Zealand and have always wanted to bring her over, but we just didn’t know in what capacity. When we started to build this duet festival, I reached out to Sacha and she came back with An Honest Conversation. In almost the same breath, we said to each other, ‘Can we do this with local artists?’ It just works so perfectly!”
Naomi continues: “It’s really important to us that we’re presenting a wide variety of works. When we start to curate something which has a lot of parts to it or a lot of different works, we make sure that everybody’s voices are heard, that everybody feels represented. And that makes the audience’s experience much richer.”
Sacha says that previous audiences have gotten a lot out of the show, even if they’re not huge dance fans. “I think the challenge is explaining it initially to people who aren’t used to dance, but they come to it and have a really good time. I think the talking really cuts through the formality, making it feel more friendly!”
An Honest Conversation is playing at the That’s Two Thank You Festival from April 1st to April 4th. Book tickets here.
