Eco-performance in Bucharest

The awareness of climate challenges makes the world of artists, including dancers, think of a gentler relationship with nature

Ana-Maria Cononovici, 30.10.2023, 19:05

The awareness of climate challenges makes the world of artists, including dancers, think of a gentler relationship with nature, with everything that surrounds us, for many years now. And as the free and organic expression of contemporary dance fits very well with the expression of worries, but also with the joy of life, as it is, it is no wonder that in Romania there is already an ecoperformance collective, a show that intertwines with nature, or is born from the relationship with nature, protecting it, even enhancing it.

According to one of the initiators of this movement on an international scale, choreographer Maura Baiocchi, from Brazil, ecoperformance also aims to respond to the ecopolitical challenges of our century, encourages interdisciplinarity, and focuses on the relationship between body movement, nature (ecology), and ancestral tradition. This autumn, Maura Baiocchi was in Bucharest to share with those interested the secrets of a better relationship with nature through dance.

Maura Baiocchi is the director and founder of Taanteatro in Brazil and creator of the working formula of the “choreographic theatre of tensions”, founder-director of the Ecoperformance Film Festival, author of over 80 choreographies, plays, performances, and co-author of numerous volumes, including the first book on Butoh dance, written in Portuguese.

Maura Baiocchi told us where this concept of ecoperformance comes from:

Eng: “Ecoperformance. If we analyze the word itself, it is made up of eco and performance. Everyone knows what a “performance” show is. And “eco” comes from the Greek root “oekos” and means “home-at home.” Thus, we can understand it as a practice, as a concept through which we try to access or perform “at home”. This home can be at home in your body, because you can look at your own body as a kind of home. So we have a house that we live in, and then we have the environment, actually all kinds of environments, that are our home. A patch of land can be your home. A home can be at home. Theatre can be a home. And so, the place where you are, the place where you perform, can be your home. Ive always been interested in this. I started as a dancer and as an artist, and I was always interested, for many year, over 40 years, in this idea that our body always wants to inhabit or be inhabited by the environment we are in.”

Maura detailed explaining that everything that surrounds us, people in our neighborhood, sounds, images, become one with us, with what our body is. A team of young artists applies typical ecoperformance approaches in their performances. Alina Tofan is one of them, and shared this with us:

“Since 2020, Georgiana Vlahbei and I form together Fine Art Performance Collective, the only group in Romania that uses the working method of ecoperformance. Thats why Maura Baiocchis presence came as a necessity to better position our work practice. During the week, Maura was here, a series of events took place, at the National University of Music, at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, and at the Carturesti library, where the conference took place, the presentation of an ecoperformance from her, and the premiere of a film we made: “Ecomovement”, an eco-video-performance. We have been collaborating with her since 2021, when we applied for the first time to the Ecoperformance Film Festival in Brazil, a video that was selected, we participated this year with a paper, we were present in conferences and events, and we correspond constantly, because we realized that our visions are very similar. And Maura and Wolfgang, the creators of Taanteatro, care very much that those who use their working method are truly in tune with their values and their poetic work. So the meeting was one that made us and them happy, and for the coming year we are preparing together an edition of the festival in Romania.”

The Ecoperformance Film Festival in Brazil reached its 3rd edition this year, and doubled its number of participants every year. Maura Baiocchi told us that this concept of ecoperformance is one that can guide us in everyday life, beyond dance or performance:

Eng: “I were talking about inhabiting space, but also the opposite: letting yourself be inhabited by space. This conversation between environment and body has always been very important to me. I think its important for all of us, not just artists. It is the last moment to become more aware of this in everyday life. For me its the most important thing to have a future, or a present.”

And because she stayed in Romania among young artists, and not only for a few days, we asked Maura if she thought that ecoperformance techniques have chances to be embraced in our country:

Eng: “I think its a process, a complex process. And of course, to see that, I would need to spend more time in Romania. Five days is not enough to understand society. Between artists everything is great, and its very important because artists have a voice that is heard, so lets get that message across!”

And as awareness grows of the relationship of continuous interdependence with everything around us, so does the chance that we will all be more attentive to everything we choose to do, so that, perhaps, we can be able to collaborate more effectively with nature.