\Silviaspeaks: Hello Roni, thank you for accepting my inviation. I am an artist and researcher working between dance and robotics. As I followed and discovered your work, I am interested to learn more about you, see how do you work and how do you define yourself as a dancer and choregrapher.
\Ronispeaks: Well, I guess my identity is always changing and I do not have a permanent one, so it's a hard question for me. I can maybe describe the things that attract me to dance. I believe in sensual communication that is not based on words, I believe that we can go deeper to the mistery of the world through non verbal language - including dance. I believe that dance is a way to heal and a way to connect to the truth of our being and the truth of the body, taking over the mind. When I create, I try to put the body first, create from it, dance from it; try to think less about everything and allow myself to feel more everything. I find the body possibilities together with music, among the most enjoyable and the main reason for me to dance. The pleasure in it.
\Silviaspeaks: One of the main topics of my research is embodiment and how we are aware of our body and inner sensations through dance. Can you relate to sensorial experiences like seeing, hearing, smelling while dancing? Is this area of research important for you?
\Ronispeaks: Well yes, actually a lot. When I create, I always start from the body and never from concepts. I let the concepts appear from the body. I believe the body can be much more intelligent than everything. And I really trust the body more than everything. When I create, I search for ways to allow my body, nervous system and emotions to come up without thinking too much about what does it mean. When I move or imporvise, I feel very much connected to the nervous system of different body parts, as if each one has its own desire, need, passion and I’m just there to observe them, play and listen to them. This helps me to understand myself better and to know more deeply how I feel in the moment. In order to give more control to the senses, I also use a lot of music in the studio. I believe musicality is what creates dancing and sometimes the easiest way for me to create material or to improvise, is to search the right tune/music that helps me observe my body more attentively, \textit{listen} to it.
\Silviaspeaks: Another topic that I am interested in is emotions and I was curious to know how do you relate to emotions while dancing? What is the place of emotions in your work?
\Ronispeaks: Yes, actually its part of what I already answered above. I’m always connected emotionally to the material I create and it’s one of the biggest engines for me to create. I believe without this strong connection to how I feel and what I create, I would just stop creating. But I have to be touched in the body first, and this experience will later touch my heart. It is not only about the brain or the aestetihcs.
\Silviaspeaks: I see. Do you have an emotion that you try to recycle through your work or the other way around ? I mean what come first for you: an emotion then the body reacts through dance? Or the body and then you find the emotion ?
\Ronispeaks: mmm its hard to tell.. a bit like the egg and the chicken myth. I think they are very mixed for me sometimes.. and usually when I say that I start from the body, it already includes a lot of emotions in it. Emotions for me are something I can feel in the body itself.. not in the mind.
\Silviaspeaks: While seeing your work oline, I was triggered by the way you're deconstructing movement, with anthorpomorphing figures emerging from your own body. This is very different from robotic movement and I am curious how do you prepare this, how your own body awareness influences it? How and where does the movement appear in this process?
\Ronispeaks: Well yes its a very interesting question I am always asking myself. I think about it mainly when I teach other dancers my material. I find that there is a big difference between how I dance and how other people dance, not about how it looks like but the difference in the source of the movement. I think most dancers have a lot of mind critics and noise while they dance and they try to really design the body to be beautiful or the right thing and not a lot of dancers allow their body to take over, working from the sensual influences that are happening in present time, like music influence and so on. So when I teach, I try to really talk about those topics and bring the dancers to a state where they are carried away with the body, so they are more into the physical /emotional experience and not thinking about what it creates or who are they in it.. it is very interesting to try to release these, in dancers and to see how it changes the way they dance.
Also very funny the topic of robots, because my boyfriend deals with it a lot and we had a lot of arguments about it. He loves the idea and I hate it. I think art and creativity is the only thing left for the heart, which is real and it is very hard for me to imagine that someone could teach a machine how to have a heart. I don't think we will ever get to the level of nature (and by that I mean also the body, the human mind, the feelings) and I think it is also a crime to do so.
\Silviaspeaks: This is a big debate for myself as well, but what i try to say is about emotions is that they are very opaque, neurosciences still tries to figure out how they work. Since creativity manifests itself spontanely and the body has its way of expression, maybe a robot body can also have it somehow...
\Ronispeaks: I think robots will never get to the complexity of the human mind/heart/sensations, the human spirit.
\Silviaspeaks: Yes and emotions are the key to it, but I am not sure the emotions, we understand them with the brain or just live them in the body or both as you said.
\Ronispeaks: It is how you feel things, not what kind of feeling or what or why.
\Silviaspeaks: This brings in the topic of imitation and emulation. By imitating something you appropriate it and transform it. It's common in visual arts but the body is alive and as you said a choreography depends on the dancer. I've started this quest but is more to understand myself than the robots i think. So it's an ongoing investigation...Thank you again for your time, I will update you on the follow-up of this echange and hope to get to see your work in Europe soon !
\Ronispeaks: Great, thank you, I look forward very interesting topic.
