Linking innovation

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Susanne Linke

You just don’t see Susanne Linke dance, but you observe and explore her movements.

One of the foremost contemporary dancers in the world, Susanne has set trends in the world of dance and choreography worldwide. Known for her subtle-yet-strong technique, she has wowed audiences worldwide. She is in India at present to speak about her particular approach to and engagement in dance at the Gati Summer Dance Residency 2012. We get the dancer talking about her love for dance, Chandralekha and lots more.

Q) Many years ago when you conducted a workshop in Mumbai, students at the workshop said that your approach was quite different — less acrobatic, more scientific and safer. You also border on the line of subtlety and avoid a dramatist approach. Could you elaborate a little more on the technique that you approach dance with?
As a professional, you have to be conscious about your body. One can be very talented and do everything right without knowing technique, but that according to me is just a stage of innocence. You cannot continue working like that as a dancer. At some point the technique needs to set in. Using technique means using the body organically; it means learning how to not get injured. Expression is also a technique. Here expression means, one that is “of your own body,” otherwise it looks too sentimental and kitsch. Technique of the body also involves attaining good abstract lines. Learning how to suspend the body in space is just not by doing only movement, but also by simply standing.

Q) What have your years as a dancer with an artiste like Pina Bausch taught you and how have you grown internally as a person over the years with dance?
I trained under Pina Bausch for only a year. However, even in that short span of time there were very interesting aspects of dance that I learnt. Under her I was able to learn how to dance “combination” which involved complicated and precise movements. She taught us a confluence of techniques originally developed by Martha Graham,José Arcadio Limón and Jean Cébron and mixed them up in a good way. Her methodology was based on Classical Ballet. From her I absorbed how to release the body with a heavy weight onto the floor, how to shake ones body and to rebound. This meant learning how to be strong and relaxed at the same time, energy generated from the torso while moving.

Q) What about dance excites you?
For me dance is an archaic media to express and overcome almost everything, from joy to fight against something and so on. It is associated with projecting dynamics. With dance one gets to rhythmic impulse, which is according to me a deep archaic feeling. It is like going into a trance, where one goes into another world, dance makes that possible. It allows the spirit to come out through the body. This spirit to me is the energy created while dancing.

Q) How was it interacting with Chandralekha? Could you tell us something about her style that struck you and stayed with you?
When I saw Chandralekha, I did not see her performing, but the totality of her persona. She is one of the most remarkable women from India that I have ever known. When she got involved, she spoke with her head, heart as well as a place which originated from somewhere in the abdomen. She had a strong passion for communicating messages she felt personally involved with. She had different but natural ways of being — she was childish and intelligent in the same moment. Coming from a background of Bharatanatyam, Kallaripayattu and Yoga, her artistic work was pure, strongly following her own ideas of these forms she was originally trained in. Till the very end, she remained a great friend.

Q) Do you see contemporary dance setting new trends and charting paths for innovation and developed technique? What do you have to say about the Indian contemporary dance scene?
I do not know much about Indian contemporary dance. However, while observing the contemporary practices I believe innovation of technique can only come from the process of learning the particular technique and from the position to teach. I don’t believe in pure improvisation or just doing a confluence of various techniques from different forms, even if it is a fresh and new approach to moving. I agree that having energy is one of the most critical aspects of dance, but learning to have straight crisp lines are equally important. That’s why when I take workshops, my first question to the participants is what they are here for — therapy, fun or learning something new? Because when you learn something new for the first time, then it is not about pleasure. Improvisation is good ( contact improvisation its self is technically driven), but it need a lead and needs to be controlled. But I doubt, whether teachers provide corrections to students. Workshops of two weeks each is not good enough to teach the techniques of a particular form. We need time to allow the technique to seep into the body and go down to the big toe, which takes time. In India, I feel it’s the other way round.