Jiří Kylián

2008/2009 Dance Mentor

Interview with Jiří Kylián

Is a dance mentor different from a dance teacher?

Absolutely. A teacher prepares you for a profession. A mentor teaches you about life.

Jason says that you’ve become his “life coach”.

That’s true in a way. And our relationship is very playful, a sort of learning through joking. We’ve even played pranks on one another. I love it when this crazy guy knocks on the door and says: “Here I am again.” But there’s a more serious side too. I’m old enough to have met and worked with so many wonderful people. And I can tell Jason stories about these extraordinary people. I’m an open book and I encourage him to tear out whatever pages might be helpful to him. I can also serve as a gateway through which he can meet some of these remarkable individuals and, hopefully, be stimulated by them too. In that sense, he can have many mentors.

Why did you choose Jason as your protégé?

That’s easy. I was fascinated by his great range of interests. And his curiosity. I knew that our partnership could then go in many different directions. I was also eager to learn more about the digital media he’s so knowledgeable about.

Tell me about the work you’ve choreographed for the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich. How did you decide on the title, Migratory Birds ?

Imagine yourself working in a theatre like this beautiful opera house [the National Theatre, Munich] and you open all the doors and windows and birds fly in from one side and out the other. Professional dancers are like migratory birds. They fly in and out of companies from many parts of the globe. In Migratory Birds , there are dancers from Brazil, Spain, Australia and Germany. I’m Czech, Jason’s an American, and the woman operating the tape recorder for rehearsals is from South Africa. Also, like birds, dancers are always defying gravity.

Is it fair to say that your own choreography differs from both the sort of emotionally-wrenching dance theatre we associate with a European artist like the late Pina Bausch and from a more typically American choreographer like the late Merce Cunningham who emphasized abstract movement as an end in itself?

Cunningham was a hugely rational artist. Pina Bausch based her work on deep humanity and emotionality. I’m a very rational person, but I also like to dig into the psyche of human beings. I want a marriage of the two. An exploration of the human condition must go hand in hand with the most immaculate movement design or shape. That way, you amplify the emotionality of human beings through the shape of their movement.