Jonathan Pietrzak: art as an experience of reality
After nearly twenty years exploring contemporary dance and its intersections with visual art, sound and the graphic arts, and following a brief ten-year hiatus, Jonathan Pietrzak is making a full return to creative work with Zone Sensible, which is setting up in Saint-Martin this year. An organisation conceived not as a new dance school, but as a space for research and knowledge-sharing, with one aim: to bring movement into places where it is not necessarily expected.
Jonathan Pietrzak began studying dance at a very young age in Burgundy, starting – like many – with ballet and jazz… He turned to contemporary dance in 1996 with the Di-Helo company, where he discovered aerial dance (on ropes and elastic bands, for the uninitiated). In 2007, he became artistic director of the Le Tube company, driven by a desire to develop research and creative work centred on contemporary dance, whilst also fostering a multidisciplinary artistic approach by bringing together dance with visual arts and multimedia, music, writing and, more broadly, the performing arts… it was here that he found his calling. For nearly twenty years, Jonathan Pietrzak thus pursued research at the intersection of dance, perception and sensory experience.
But the work was demanding, so he took a break, worked in the catering industry in the south of France and, in 2015, marked a new turning point by moving to Saint-Martin, a place he had previously only visited on holiday. This year, he decided to fully relaunch his work with Zone Sensible, his production company, which is gradually establishing itself within the island’s artistic scene.
Tailor-made projects
Zone Sensible takes a holistic approach to the arts. Whilst contemporary dance remains at the heart of Jonathan Pietrzak’s work, it now engages with video, sound and other art forms, in a resolutely multidisciplinary approach. This evolution has been shaped by ten years of development.
Zone Sensible is an organisation that enables people to work on the body through movement, using a pedagogical approach. However, it is by no means a dance school. On the contrary, the idea is to complement existing schools through workshops, collaborations or in-depth sessions such as Cunningham technique, spatial awareness and ‘de-dancing’…
With no permanent premises and offering one-off sessions, this flexibility also allows Jonathan to adapt to all kinds of requests, whether from schools, hotels, companies… whilst prioritising work with socio-cultural organisations, and even care homes, so that every individual can reconnect with their body, whatever their background. In a society where human contact is becoming increasingly difficult, and the body is sidelined, dance can act as a form of therapy. Many people in the region are working towards this goal; Jonathan’s dream is to bring people together to create something that makes a visible impact.
Regular workshops
Zone Sensible also runs one-off workshops to introduce people to this world through experience, with no prior experience required. Here, participants explore balance, breathing, weight and space… and learn to inhabit their bodies differently, to shift their habits and to allow whatever is seeking to move to emerge, without the pressure to perform or the obligation to ‘know how to dance’. Here, movement becomes a space for listening, presence, self-expression and creation.
From September, a workshop will be held every Thursday evening at Studio The Vibe, in Hope Estate. The first hour, from 7.00 pm to 7.45 pm, will be devoted to physical training, including floor barre and conditioning exercises, followed by a session from 7.45 pm to 9.00 pm focusing on choreographic exploration.
A monthly session will also be organised at Oyster Pond, centred on instant composition. The principle is to work from rules, scores or constraints, whilst leaving the execution entirely free. Each session thus gives rise to a unique composition, constructed and improvised in the moment.
The creation of performances, inevitably, is never far away. Jonathan is fine-tuning the choreography for his next solo piece, which will once again feature video and sound, this time exploring the loss of reference points in terms of perception… with the aim of exploring slightly different spaces, to take dance beyond the settings where we are used to seeing it. For he “doesn’t just want to present dance, but to create spaces where everyone can rediscover a freer, truer and more vibrant relationship with their own body.” Zone Sensible is only just beginning!
