Roberta Legros Štěpánková: A Week with a Labyrinth
We asked current resident dancer and choreographer Roberta Legros Štěpánková to tell us a bit more about her research, current questions, doubts and process of working during her ART KLASTRY/Clusters residency in the Castle. Here is what she shares with us.
Six questions for ART KLASTRY/Clusters resident Roberta Legros Štěpánková:
Zuzana Žabková: What was the main topic of the research or the creation during your residency?
Roberta Legros Štěpánková: The main focus of my work during the residency was to deepen my collaboration with my musician (Matthieu Legros), to find ways how the sound material produced by myself can be extended, played by him. Within this, we paid our attention to understanding and elaborating the characters/qualities that stand at the base of the inspiration for the piece – namely the myth of the labyrinth.
Zuzana Žabková: What method have you chosen for your research or your creation?
Roberta Legros Štěpánková: The work I did was training and creating/making of material (short pieces) with or without the musician, so that I could find out more about the eventual ways of our communication, co-existence, how we can work together so that it makes sense and creates something bigger. The material was video recorded and still needs to be watched and analyzed.
Zuzana Žabková: What kind of body have you chosen? Were you working on a solo or group study or piece? In which context? Are you interested in interdisciplinary collaboration?
Roberta Legros Štěpánková: It is a solo piece I am actually working on. Though a musician is invited into the collaboration, I would still like to keep it as a solo piece. It is interesting, because it makes me think and reflect quite a lot about how our relationship can/will influence the dramaturgy and scenography of the piece. It is inspiring and enriching in any case.
Zuzana Žabková: In which phase of the process did you enter this residency?
Roberta Legros Štěpánková: I had been working on the piece since late 2018, but the work has taken place in limited periods of residencies (May 2019 – one week at PAF, France; August 2019 – in collaboration with Melanie Venino in Marseille; October 2018 – alone at Cloud/Danslab in The Hague, Holland). I was very satisfied I was given this opportunity by SE.S.TA at the beginning of 2020 to spend a couple of days in a historically and naturally very inspiring environment – to re-center, see where the piece is now and what it needs from me.
Zuzana Žabková: How did you like the work in the castle? Was the place inspiring for you?
Roberta Legros Štěpánková: Unintentionally, I have already responded. Oh yes – and very much!
Zuzana Žabková: Was the frame of the ART KLASTRY/Clusters residency interesting from the networking perspective for you?
Roberta Legros Štěpánková: This time, the situation was very specific, I guess. From before, I expected a big group of artists, but we found ourselves in an oasis of intimate working environment – for which I was very grateful at that moment. To begin the year, to share my material and working process intimately, and to perceive other artists’ work felt like a bliss and a real enrichment. Also, the way the team members (Eva Dryjová and Zuzana Žabková) sensitively guided the work presentation at the end made sense to me and opened some new doorways.
