[On Stage] Choreographer Marcos Morau of "Dance of Death": "Death Is Democratic"

"Death is extremely democratic. It comes to everyone equally in the final moment of life, regardless of what kind of life you have lived. That is the idea behind this work."

Choreographer Marcos Morau, who became the youngest recipient of Spain's most prestigious National Dance Award in 2013, described his work "Dance of Death: Tomorrow Is a Question" in this way.

GS Art Center will present Morau's work "Dance of Death" on May 17 and 18. GS Art Center has selected Morau as the featured artist in its planned performance series "Artists Series," showcasing three of his works. "Afanador" was performed at the end of last month, and "Pasionaria" will be staged from May 16 to 18, alongside "Dance of Death." Both upcoming performances reflect Morau's cynical perspective.

Spanish choreographer Marcos Morau is explaining his choreographed works "Pasionaria" and "Dance of Death" at a press conference held on the 14th at GS Art Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
Photo by Sihoon Kim

In "Dance of Death," Morau imagines everyone dancing the dance of death together on the final day.

At a press conference held on May 14 at GS Tower in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Morau said, "I believe every creator has the desire to talk about death. Not only creators, but all humans are curious about death. I wanted to talk about how thoughts of death, which evoke human vulnerability, affect our society."

Explaining the relationship between death and society, Morau also mentioned the situation in Europe, which is experiencing turmoil due to issues related to immigrants.

There are five dancers in "Dance of Death," and the stage encompasses the entire GS Art Center space. The audience is limited to 100 people, who move throughout various parts of the GS Art Center with the dancers, becoming part of the performance themselves.

Morau explained, "We have performed in a variety of spaces, including a museum in Milan, a cathedral in Girona, an art museum in Madrid, and a theater in Barcelona. The core of this work is to have a conversation with very different spaces, that is, with architecture."

Regarding the dance performed by the dancers in "Dance of Death," Morau said, "It is based on dances that were often performed in medieval times in Europe, especially in Spain and Germany. It is a dance with folkloric characteristics."

About "Pasionaria," Morau said it is a work that explores the "absence of emotion." "When I created Pasionaria, I was so focused on the theme of the absence of emotion that it became almost an obsession."

In the performance, the name of the planet that serves as the spatial background is Pasionaria. The work depicts a future for humanity created by forced progress. Eight dancers appear, portraying everyday people such as a delivery person carrying a box and a man with a vacuum cleaner, but they move with the precision of robots, devoid of emotion. The dancers' bodies are strangely distorted, making the audience question whether these beings possess emotions at all.

A short video of the Pasionaria performance was shown at the press conference. The dancers performed bizarre movements reminiscent of the famous staircase scene from the film "The Exorcist."

"I am always concerned about a world where human passion and emotion cannot be found. I continue to reflect on how people would face and overcome a world without emotion. I believe such a world would be one where people do not even look at each other and everyone lives in isolation. As individualism grows stronger today, I think this atmosphere is becoming more prevalent."

The bizarre movements are based on "Kova," a physical language that Morau and the dancers of his company, La Veronal, have studied for a long time. "Kova" means "solid" in Finnish. Through Kova, the dancers display movements and tension reminiscent of robots, with suppressed emotion.

Morau explained, "Kova is a kind of rule for expressing emotion or movement itself."

"Rather than being organic, it takes on a logical or less human approach. Through this, we can create very complex movements or very strange and bizarre forms. It is a way to show how complex dancers can be and how mechanized they can become. I believe such strange things can also become a new kind of beauty."

Pasionaria means "flower of passion" in Spanish, but it also has Latin roots meaning pain and suffering. The background music for the performance includes Bach's "St. John Passion" and "St. Matthew Passion."

Although Morau is currently one of the most prominent young choreographers and directors in Spain, he never actually studied dance.

"Because I was not trained as a dancer, I believe I will always be able to work freely. I could create a circus, or work in film or other various fields. Recently, I have also worked on opera. Since I never studied dance, I think I have the advantage of being able to create very freely, without being confined by anything."

Morau is set to make his choreographic debut next year with the Paris Opera Ballet, considered the world's leading ballet company.