In most of my choreographic work I make use of the voice. Sometimes, the voice is present in the way of a live spoken text, sometimes it is just a few words or whispers. In recent times, the use of voice in my choreography has become more predominant, for instance, in 1670 Herz (2021), there is voice almost from the beginning of the piece until the very end.
Something I have discovered along the way, is that not every space is adequate for the use of voice. Owing this discovery, my spacial awareness has changed; If in the past, I looked for the adequate performance spaces for dance, now I look for adequate performance spaces for voice.
Two weeks ago I had quite a shocking realisation, I went to a concert in the beautiful Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona. I can’t remember when was the last time I went to see a concert with life orchestra, and if I can’t remember perhaps it has been too long ago. The first thing I noticed during the concert was the acoustic of course! I was sitting quite far from the orchestra, however I didn’t miss any sound, I could clearly listen every single small detail from the violins. After the concert suddenly two strong feelings arose inside of me, on the one hand the feeling of admiration for the architect who designed the place, on the other hand I felt very inspired. It was exactly in that moment when I realised that perhaps I should start looking for concert halls instead of dance theatres for my work. I thought it would be amazing to one day show one of my choreographies in this architectonic beauty. After all, it all starts with a vision or a dream, some do come true.
Side note: As I started searching for spaces with a good acoustic, I also realised how little I know about how sounds travel in space and how it resonates depending on the material. In my professional dance education, acoustic was never a subject of importance. I am very excited to learn more about space, sound and acoustic.
