On stage, dance is an integral part of A Song For You’s genre-bending performances. Likewise in »A Soulful Missa« at Beethovenfest 2024, the members of A Song For You do not only sing, but also dance. Stephanie Ilova has choreographed the three large sections Kyrie, Credo and Agnus Dei for the project, as well as created short films for each of the five chapters. The videos, which are played before each section, explain the context and create bridges: »between Beethoven and us«, says Stephanie Ilova in this interview.
As a collective, A Song For You seeks new forms of creative expression and constantly crosses perceived boundaries. What characterises your choreographic work with the collective and on this project in particular?
There are two projects: A Song For You (ASFY) and the dance collective Movement Seven, which I direct. In our work with ASFY, we make people who would normally sing dance as well. In this way we constantly challenge the members of the choir to expand their artistic repertoire by adding performance. As a professional dancer and choreographer, I really enjoy working with people who are not normally associated with dance!
A »Soulful Missa« and the collaboration with ASFY is all about meeting at eye level. We are a BIPoC collective, and especially in the context of traditional European history, it’s about finding moments where we meet on an equal footing. For me, the most important thing about this production is to put all the performers on stage on the same level and to create representation.
What part does your choreography play in this?
The more interdisciplinary a performance is, the more exciting it is! We try to place the two art forms – music and dance – on an equal footing, because they are equally important for our performances. There are always different ways of telling a story, for example through instrumentation, singing, dance, poetry or light, which touch people in different ways. Everyone has a different approach to art. Dance is one of these media that appeals to people particularly well. Everyone has a body and can identify with dance. Just as music is a universal language, so is dance.
We spoke to Noah Slee and Dhanesh Jayaselan some time ago about the production of »A Soulful Missa«. It was very important to both of them to »fully utilise sound, space and light for all the senses«. How does this also apply to your work as a choreographer?
Light can be used to create new spaces in already existing rooms. You can emphasise certain things and support the message even more. For example, a very dramatic scene in which spotlights make individual characters more visible is told in a more tangible way. People who don’t normally have the patience for classical music find it easier to concentrate when more senses are being involved – in the age of TikTok, we have to incentivise them to engage with something for an hour and a half!
For »A Soulful Missa«, the five large parts of Beethoven’s »Missa solemnis« were adopted and transformed into five chapters. The headings of the original remain Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei. Did Beethoven’s music also influence you as a choreographer?
I sat down beforehand and thought about what it actually means. What do the parts in the mass normally stand for? I read through Noah’s reinterpretation and listened to the music. Everyone knows Beethoven, the »Missa solemnis« is a piece of music history! To have the honour of working on this at all, to add your own two cents and unite your own art form and artistic language with it, felt like a great responsibility. How can you deal with that? How do we treat a Beethoven piece with respect, but how do we honour our own background at the same time? How can you bring the two together and let them speak to each other? There has been a lot of influence!
When I think of Christianity and masses, I also think of my Pacific background. I am from Papua New Guinea and missionary work has been very important in the Pacific region over the last century, in both positive and negative ways. So what does Christianity mean to me as a person with a colonial background? I found it exciting to deal with this and to see how one can fulfil all the different feelings, attitudes and political contexts that arise.
Before each chapter of the performance of »A Soulful Missa«, we will be shown short videos that you have created as director. What is the idea behind the videos and what are they supposed to convey?
While the orchestra and choir take a break, five short films are presented without music and each including a poem. Especially in these poems, written by me and my friend and ASFY member Sorvina Carr, we have explored what Kyrie, Gloria, Credo etc. mean – in Beethoven’s mass, in masses in general and in the interpretation of ASFY. It’s very much about reclaming, which is about empowerment and representation.
Together with the videographer Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern, who is a dancer and choreographer himself and produces wonderful dance videos, we were able to shoot the videos in the Konzerthaus in Berlin, which naturally conjures up many images as a location. I ran the short film series under the working title »Monument«. The »Missa solemnis« alone is a monument of music history. The question that runs through all the videos is: What do we see as a monument in our society? Who do we look up to? How can we create something like equality, self-determination and equal rights, especially for black and brown bodies in the context of such traditional European, white history? That's what the videos are about.
Each chapter of the mass has its own character. From the humble but hopeful Kyrie to the Credo as a contrasting but collective creed. Is this reflected in the short films? How did you choreograph the various scenes?
I think that the video inserts create a bridge from the confrontation with Beethoven to us. One part consists of images of very striking dance styles from non-European or non-white dance culture: there was a voguing dancer, a krumping dancer and also my own version of Pacific dance. The dancers are like statues that come to life – in the end, the room is empty because they have left for freedom ... But I don’t want to give too much away!
Is there anything else you want to share with the audience before the performance?
My suggestion to the audience is to allow themselves to experience Beethoven in a different way than they are used to, to approach it without expectations and with an openness to seeing something new. Especially in the classical field, many people look forward to seeing something that they have seen before. I would like the audience to approach the performance with an open mind and to see something that is perhaps not yet perfect, that actually invites us not to be perfect. This highly intellectual concept that we often associate with classical concerts can also be experienced on a very human level.