Renowned choreographer EMANUEL GAT speaks to Lara Zammit about his upcoming performance Utopia created alongside ŻfinMalta 

LZ: Your choreography Utopia, to be staged this month at the Manoel Theatre, seems to possess two thematic threads – that choreography can be an allegory with which to point to ideals, or utopian models, and that dance, as is the case with all art forms, strives to achieve transcendence – itself, like utopian ideals, largely unachievable. Both threads are utopian in nature, lofty to the highest degree. Can you elaborate on the thematic structure of your choreography?

EG: I would define my work in general, which of course is the case also for Utopia, as a continuous study into the ways in which groups, and the individuals that form them, behave and function.

In that sense, it is a way by which to look at how society organises itself in different contexts; it can therefore also be seen as a way of looking at alternative models.

The notion behind Utopia comes simply from the obvious gap that exists between the choreographic models created in the studio and the reality of the ones which we can observe outside of it. The main idea behind it has to do with the role I think art has, which, as I see it, isn’t to imitate life, but rather to elevate it. It also had to do with the notion of decentralisation and horizontal, self-governing systems, as opposed to the norm, which is vertical and highly controlled.

Decentralisation is the most subversive and urgent strategy choreographers can adopt nowadays. If there’s any sense whatsoever in looking outside the studio and choreographic process, for any sort of substance worth relating to, it’s this.

Decentralising the conventional structure of hierarchies between choreographer and dancers, rethinking the distribution of power and responsibilities, coming up with new ways of defining what choreography/dance making can actually be, is the most valuable manner in which dance can become a relevant force in pointing out societal anomalies and proposing alternatives.

LZ: Utopia is the result of a collaboration between yourself and the ŻfinMalta company dancers. Where do you as choreographer begin and where do ŻfinMalta dancers end in this piece? Can you speak more about your collaboration? Is the sort of collaboration you have forged utopian, or aspiringly so?

EG: Choreography for me isn’t about telling dancers what to do. It’s about the development and sharing of tools and mechanisms so dancers can make up their own minds and decisions. This is in the same way in which teaching should be about teaching how to think, rather than what to think.

I look at the world through the prism of the choreographic process rather than at the choreographic process threough the prism of the world.

Decentralisation is the most subversive and urgent strategy choreographers can adopt nowadays

I don’t make work in order to comment about the world, I make work in order to understand the world. An artwork which emerges from the need to comment about the state of the world would be better off reduced to an article in the opinions section in a daily newspaper, or a political party.

Therefore, the work is really the sum of all the people involved in the process. The dancers are there to tell their own stories as much as it is me telling mine.

Choreographer Emanuel Gat. Photo: Sara Gat

LZ: Utopias are by their nature unachievable but contemplation of them is necessary in the process of social analysis, holding a mirror to society and showing it what it may aspire to change. What does your choreography hold a mirror to and what does it wish our society may change?

EG: A choreography that needs and depends on predeclared themes in order to justify its existence isn’t one at all. At best, it’s a handicapped one.

Is the world in need of themes and arguments to justify its existence or explain itself? In that sense, choreography behaves like music, more than literature, theatre or even the visual arts, in which all there is most of the time is the argument, concept, theme taking the place of an actual artwork.

Choreography, just like music, is free from the need to base itself on external themes and concepts. In general, I think you can’t make art about something. Art requires a void that shouldn’t be filled.

From a social perspective, choreography – being that its main subject matter through the presence of dancers is people – is an ongoing investigation and analysis of how power is being organised in the context of human groups and relations.

From an artistic perspective, though, choreography is the main field, alongside music, in which the practice of looking into the alchemy of how to organise separate lines of information (through time and space) into one coherent whole (as in, counterpoint), is the main focus. Defining its specificities as a field of knowledge, a space of study and a meaning producing practice.

Utopia, choreographed by Emanuel Gat and produced by ŻfinMalta National Dance Company, is showing from May 26-28 at 7.30pm at the Manoel Theatre, Valletta. Tickets from booking.teatrumanoel.com.mt. Utopia is supported by the Embassy of France in Malta.