LINOTIP – A new space tailored for contemporary dance

LINOTIP Independent Choreography Center was opened in late 2016

Luana Pleşea, 19.08.2017, 13:00

Towards the end of 2016, choreographers Arcadie Rusu and Ioana Marchidan made public the opening of a space dedicated to contemporary dance, LINOTIP Independent Choreography Center. Located at the heart of the capital city Bucharest, in the building of Universul Palace, which hosts a number of other independent projects, Linotip is a solution to the critical shortage of venues for dance shows.

Arcadie Rusu: “We have a very important mission as contemporary dance barely exists in Romania. There is no such thing as a culture as far as contemporary dance is concerned, which was banned during the communist regime. I believe contemporary dance is a special form of art. And we are really interested in educating the audience in this respect. More often than not, the things left unsaid are more obvious than the others. We have, in our genetic code, a certain intelligence that allows us to swiftly detect and read corporal gestures and intentions. We dont understand them mentally, but emotionally. What I would really like is to stage dance shows that are watched by people who have never seen a contemporary dance show before. I believe that contemporary dance is not a form of art aimed for the connoisseurs alone, but also for the general public.

Linotip Independent Choreography Center has a capacity of 60-70 seats and a stage of 120 sqm. Its not that simple to manage a venue for independent projects. That requires a strategy for at least six months, in order to keep it functional and have a faithful audience, says Ioana Marchidan:

We have already staged our fourth contemporary dance workshop, so we are focusing on the educational aspect. The amateurs who take part in our workshops also make up the audience of most dance shows in the city, not only of those staged by Linotip. The next step, actually the step we have already taken, is a dance season. To the best of my knowledge, there has been no such thing as a dance season so far. The public only knows they go to the Linotip Independent Choreography Center to watch dance performances. Three shows a week…Just as it happens in theater. So we are going to organize a dance season, with our own shows and with guest shows. We want to grant a Linotip Award to Drama and Film Students, be they BA or Masters students, in a bid to stimulate them to perform before a ticket-paying audience. Right now talks are in progress with choreographer Massimo Gerardi, as we want him to come and hold a workshop for professionals and for amateurs. We want him to perform some of his previous shows, such as Magnetic Fields, a Romanian-German co-production. And we invited him to stage a performance with the Linotip company.

The Linotip season kicked off on February the 1st, with the premiere of “Babel, a show created and choreographed by Arcadie Rusu, a show about the contemporary man and the jungle-like city.

Arcadie Rusu: “First of all, it is a performance inspired from the life that we live. Bucharest has been the research platform for this performance. Generally speaking, “Babel is a show about our involution as human beings. We have evolved significantly in terms of technology, but emotionally we still have the same problems. We havent fully understood that our life will eventually come to an end and material things will not matter at all anymore. We are looking for some sort of stability, of balance, hence the egocentric and materialistic ideas that make us miss out on our spiritual nuances. So “Babel is a contemporary dance show speaking about the illusion of stability.“

“Babel was followed by a second premiere signed by Linotip. The show “2 contemporary women was created and choreographed by Ioana Marchidan:

“The show is a little bit about a womans status as compared with that of men, about the gender discrimination throughout history. We know very well that in the past women used to be somebodys property – their fathers or their husbands. Women used to be sold, pardon me for saying that, just like cattle. I did a bit of research on the suffragettes who fought for womens right to vote. And I tried to speak about that, but I took everything to the present moment, I tackled some of the sub-themes of feminism. It is a feminist show, but I did not want it to be a militant performance, I did not want to go to the extremes. I started with bits from womens adolescence, when they have to deal with all sorts of sexist insults while walking down the street. In puberty and adolescence girls are vulnerable, they are sensitive, and things like these can affect them.

Its not that easy to open and manage an independent dance show venue. However, choreographer Ioana Marchidan is confident:

“I think there is an auspicious context right now, given whats going on in the Victory Square and in politics…all the more so as our shows speak exactly about what is happening at present…(…) I think the audience needs this kind of shows and venues. Its hard but its worth it. Im sure things will go well for us.