PAVLE HEIDLER: THE COSMIC DUST PRACTICE

 22.9. ^premijera ● 22:00h ● 60 min ● &TD Semicircular hall

The Cosmic Dust Practice is born out of the wish for the exploration of the performative potential of the act of speaking (the first wish) about dance (the second wish). How exactly talking relates to dancing will be partially revealed during the exchange.

The main topic of the evening will be dance, but other related themes that could enrich the discussion such as breathing, growing up, tradition, relationships and/or theatre, will be warmly embraced. The exchanged performative practice will consist of talking, reading and storytelling by the use of both verbal and movement languages.. The performance practice will offer itself to watching, listening, laughing and – daydreaming.

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INTERVIEW

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR THE COSMIC DUST PRACTICE  TO A RANDOM PASSER-BY?

It depends on the place. I imagine myself walking around the streets of Zagreb and it always seems to me as if random passers-by are angry with me, as if they resent me. I cannot even imagine starting a conversation with them that would concern prejudices, attention, sensibility of the body and alternative ways of being together, especially if we start discussing sexual practices.  If I do start a conversation about my work with a stranger, I let their interest lead the conversation. Depending on their interest, I let myself get excited – knowing that I easily get excited whenever I talk about topics that I care about. I’m learning to be careful with excitement because I realize that excitement can easily inspire excitement as well as rejection in other people.  Actually, I very rarely initiate conversations about my work with strangers.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS FORM TO TALK ABOUT REALITY? 

I chose dance when I was very young, for a simple reason. The only thing you needed for dance was only your own body which, as opposed to the violin that I played at the time, I never had to „carry with me“ nor could I ever „leave it behind“. Dance is a very practical medium, the instrument being always available. In the last couple of years, I started realizing that the physical omnipresence is an extremely interesting and loaded conceptual problem and it is important to think about it, especially out loud. By this very nature, dealing with the physical omnipresence becomes elaboration on the topics of life, meaning reality. I cannot really say there was a moment in which I consciously chose dance or movement in order to talk about life or reality. I can only say that at one point I recognized the connection between them  and decided not to ignore it, but to work on it.

WHY SHOULD WE, AS AUDIENCE, CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE DOING?

It is of great importance for me to clarify that I consider the relation that a person maintains with his or her own interests (better to say, with his or her own interestedness) to be one of the rare practical ways in which it is still possible (if it is possible at all) to preserve any kind of personal autonomy within the capitalist structure that we so strongly depend on in our everyday life. It is important for me to say that the interest of the audience for my work – is a responsibility of each person individually. I know little about it before meeting that person in the act of performance. And it’s important to keep it that way.  My responsibility towards the personal interest of each person in the audience is to support it as such, and then present her/him with my own interests. The clash of interests is what makes the format of performance interesting. It could be said that my job means organizing such experience while it’s going on.

IF YOU HAD ANY MEANS AVAILABLE (‘IDEAL WORLD SITUATION’) WHAT KIND OF PROJECT WOULD YOU DO?

I have given a lot of thought to this question before I realized that in reality I do have „any“ means, and the great thing is that I have what I have and I work with it. Which is more or less the equivalent to the way I approach my work. I foremost deal with the analysis of existing structures, materials, movement and body; and in the very act of analysis I find creative potential, which I then share with other people, the reason being a „simple“ wish for participation in conversation and exchange. This is why I deal with practices, I’m not creating coherent closed artistic performative unities. I think that the most interesting thing for me is building and sustaining unstable structures whose value is recognizable exclusively through a specific relation between two people that make them possible.

WHAT THREE THINGS NEVER FAIL TO BRING YOU PLEASURE?

It is important for me to approach things in a positive and generous way, especially when they’re difficult. Or complicated. Giving support makes me happy. Especially if someone makes a decision „against their will“ in order to help someone. In a way, independent people make me happy. They are the source of my inspiration. And friends. I like to be independent from binary way of thinking, for example…realizing that bad performance doesn’t necessarily mean bad experience. I like paradox. And chocolate.

BIOGRAPHY

Pavle Heidler works as an author, performer, collaborator, teacher and/or critic. He studied at the dance academy SEAD in Salzburg, dance academy PARTS in Bruxelles, and the MFA program New Performative Practices at the University in Stockholm.

CREDITS

pavleheidler for TOGETHER ALONE