Julia Monschau is one of the wonderful human beings I have met in Berlin. Their latest production “Rückenwind” was incredibly touched. I feel the passion and determination from the world they created. The crowd was supporting with great energy. The production team “monschau&barvulsky” is made up by two female dancers, Octavia Barvulsky and Julia Monschau. Their goal is to create and perform projects manifested of their own artistic visions—inspired by pictures and scenes of daily life. They do things to find new ways abstracting and developing their own language. And they celebrated lives. If someone asks me why we need to go to the theatre, I would say it’s because you feel the sensation to live in another universe.
I wonder what motivates her to create their own piece. She responded, “when you start creating something, you never know where it leads you to discover in the end, or if there is an end. For example, sometimes you finish a piece, and the same idea keeps you still awake at nights.“
She added, the working process is super exciting for her. It opens up new places who haven’t been before. One would never stop learning and ask questions. So to speak, the motivation is to find this new places, to build this different worlds and characters, like a book or movie that takes you in.
What’s the concept behind the latest production ‘Rückenwind’?
Our Starting point for the production “Rückenwind“ was a poem—“Liberté by Paul Éluard“, discussing what it means to us and the personal interpretation of it. After that, we created four characters, who live together in a fictive world/scene. To complete the story, every dancer had to fill up his character with life and a story behind it. In order to do so, we start to think of the character. For example, figuring out how he looks, talk, walk and reacts to the others and the fictive world/scene they live in. Considering that, the interpretation of characters of the poem had a big influence on the story. We worked together with two other dancers, Kostis Spyrou and Nina Baake. In addition, we celebrated with a musician named Tim Leimbach.
How does the creating process go with your team?
Normally we start with different images, that we have and create a whole world around it. For instance, we ask questions such as What kind of characters would live in it? What’s the relationship between them? How’re their personalities? And then, we just go with the flow and play around. We never take ourselves too seriously.
Trailer “Rückenwind” from Julia Monschau on Vimeo.
What is it mean to you for being a female in your professions?
To be honest, we never think about being a female when we create. We don’t see ourselves as female or male because it is not important for creating and developing your own thoughts, feelings and ideas. We create as a human being. We just live. Life doesn’t make a difference between genders when it goes along.
What or who inspires you?
Life, the world and everything. For instance, a falling leaf, the sound, the feelings, the facial expressions of people/animals. How they walk, act, react to each other and behave in situations. If we look behind the curtain, what is hidden? Is it really exist? So to speak, the energy around every particular molecule on the planet inspires us.
Anything you would like to share with youth interested in creativities?
Just do it. Don’t be afraid of expressing yourself or failing. There is no right or wrong. Most importantly, be patient and trust yourself.
With many thanks to Julia Monschau & tomonschau&barvulsky
For more information about monschau&barvulsky, please check their Facebook page.
Original article in Mandarin contributing to Red Bull please see the link.
