We had a talk with Olga, a participant of the Business & Creative Lab for Choreographers last year!
Artist: Olga Merekina – Picture: Alina Kochetova
Can you introduce yourself and your work as a choreographer?
I am a Shanghai-based choreographer and performance artist. Since my studies at China Academy of Art, I have been researching aspects of intercultural communication, while body and movement have become my main media of artistic expression. My recent projects address collective memory, commodification, and ecology of communication. The choreographic works ranges from site-specific experiments to stage performances evolving multidimensional perception.
You decided to attend the intensive program of La Fabrique de la Danse last year, what were you expecting?
I expected to obtain practical advices how to develop dance performance piece from a subtle idea in my head into an artistic product, which can be offered to the audience. I hoped to get some clues about what I am doing wrongly and what I can do better.
Can you tell us about your experience there?
My experience was incredible. I was placed in a safe and encouraging environment to work with open-hearted professionals both as mentors and fellow choreographers. As an artist I received a chance to speak to and be heard by colleagues who saw me not as a rival but friend. And as a producer I received a great kick to improve my management skills, especially in the field of personal relationships. Although it seems obvious, but I did not realize before the need to divide an artistic and business being in myself. I tried to stick to my tolerant and creative identity, which could be a nightmare to deal with production process.
A few months later, what did you retain from it?
Now I am trying to sort everything out and focus on a few objectives. Also I am trying to figure out my professional relationships, I still find myself too involved emotionally. But I think it is a part of growing process, although it is a painful one.
Who would you recommend this summer intensive to?
I would recommend this program to emerging choreographers, who has got some experience with production process and trying to come up from the abyss of creative chaos and understand which direction they want to go and how to map their way to it.
