In terms of background, it all began when she was 5 years old and her sister’s feet had the problem of being slightly turned in. In this instance, there were two options: to use insoles or to put her in ballet. So Vania’s parents put both girls in ballet, and later her sister quit, but Vania never stopped. And although she didn’t exactly know why she danced or doesn’t even necessarily know why she dances now, she knows it’s what she does and that it is the best thing for her.

When it comes to how movement makes meaning for her personally, the answer was simple “I have no idea” after a long pause. An easier question for her was what the role of movement and dance really is within the world. Vania believes that dance is beautiful because you cannot grab it unless you record it. Instead, it occurs and goes away at the same moment, it doesn’t really exist. Thus, it is more precious and less tangible, which can be either attractive or frustrating. But one thing unavoidable is that in dance, the generation of feelings is unavoidable. There is a lot you can direct and impose, but then you have to let it go, let it take over you. Vanya says that dance is the most effective way to communicate with ourselves and each other, and this is why she also encourages everyone to enjoy dance: “We want to know what people that don’t dance think of this” she says, while emphasizing her appreciation of people allowing themselves to be vulnerable to this form of communication. She is interested in dance as a form of communication and thinks that if we knew more, we could understand how much communication truly goes beyond words into a world of telepathy.

How Vania feels about working in a group depends, but this time is special since she says Trajal attracts special people. However, she emphasizes that there is a difference between now and 10 years ago and that she has more experience and knowledge about what she wants from life. This allows her to collaborate with Trajal, someone who cannot work with people that don’t work in the way he does since she can allow herself to be available and see. She says that within this group, there are experienced dancers that also allow themselves to be vulnerable, available and comfortable, which she deems necessary in this context, and only communicating with dance and even beyond dance is easy. Also, the aspect of the group being smaller seems to be an important aspect, but also the added element of having four women in the group. She says that if she gets lost, she can look at the other women and immediately see information coming to her by seeing what they are doing, wearing and so on, and within the group, there is communication beyond talking, but also even beyond dancing. At this point, Vania asked whether she had answered our question, and I would like to say that it did.

When it comes to working with Trajal in general, Vania had an interesting approach in describing it. She explained to us that many Many choreographers think they need to tell the dancers what to do to make it their own piece, and some want that intense collaboration to create a piece together. At the same time, the dancers will have different perspectives. And she says that The essential thing, which makes Trajal in the middle, is that he doesn’t tell the dancers how to see and feel, but the way he presents the task shows how much freedom there is and which direction the dancers need to insist on. Nothing is set in stone, the instructions feel alive. When something is important, he tells you, and he also shows when it is your own choice, but there might be changes within this decision, as well.

And here we returned to the idea of experience. Vania not only had told us that the experience is helpful in order to learn to communicate naturally in a group beyond dance, but this seems to also be an aid within working on a piece that is both freedom and specificity. She says that in order to generate Trajal’s mix of two worlds, high composition that seems natural, you need to know yourself and the dance floor.

For her own future, Vania is interested in having a dance collective. She doesn’t like the imposition of teaching and couldn’t be the ‘austere teacher’ although she thoroughly values her own dance upbringing. If she If she succeeds in making a dance collective, her ideal would be to return to her fisherman’s town in Portugal and communicate to the people that art comes from them, to show them how close they are to art. In a way, she wants to convey how much of real life is used in theatre and find a way to include them into the world while also creating a platform for them to create their own art without needing a season, a festival or money. Rather just allow people to create art for art’s sake: “I don’t want to bring dance to the village, but I kind of want to find a way that people can have access to it”.

The Annas would like to thank Vania for her time and the amazing experience!

Anna Noer

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