Dancer Choreographer Illustrator
© Sid Dankers & Paul Braspenning
ABOUT
© Bjorn Frins
Laura Daelemans (Duffel °1999) is a dancer, choreographer and illustrator. She graduated from de! Kunsthumaniora for Contemporary Dance in 2017 in Antwerp (Belgium), as Bachelor in Dance from the ArtEZ University of the Arts in 2021 Arnhem (The Netherlands), and is trained as a tap dancer. From a young age she was fond of drawing and as a child she won colouring competitions. Illustrating remained a constant in her life which is why parallel to her dance studies, Laura continued to develop herself as autodidact illustrator.
In 2020, before graduating, Laura started to choreograph at SALLY Dansgezelschap Maastricht (The Netherlands), I SOLISTI Belgian wind ensemble Antwerp (Belgium) and Theater aan de Rijn (The Netherlands). At the latter Laura created the solo performance 'Total eclipse' which got selected for the Moving Futures Festival (The Netherlands).
In 2021 Laura joined I SOLISTI to be one of their four MAKERSpace Artists for the next three years. Laura was also selected to go in residency at Instável - Centro Coreográfico (Portugal) for 'That’s so Tapical' in collaboration with Margarida Constantino, hosted by Teatro Municipal do Porto (Portugal).
In 2022 Laura was invited to choreograph at the Seminar Hakibbutzim in Tel Aviv (Israel), at the MOSA Ballet School (Belgium), at SALLY Dansgezelschap Maastricht and at Theater aan de Rijn (The Jam). Next to that she started to create and direct her own production 'The Beehive' at I SOLISTI MAKERSpace in collaboration with her brother / composer Frederik Daelemans, a multi-disciplinary artistic team and DE SINGEL International Arts Centre (Belgium).
In 2023 Laura was invited to join Talentlab, a collaborative project for 8 emerging young makers produced by Toneelgroep Maastricht and VIA ZUID (The Netherlands). She was also invited for a new creation at Theater aan de Rijn (vier x vier) - 'Tales to disturb' will tour in spring 2024 -, started creating her second work within the I SOLISTI MAKERSpace and was invited to choreograph a new piece for the MOSA Ballet School's (Belgium) end of year performance.
Laura has been performing for Paula Niehoff, Liza Van Brakel, Toon Quanten and in her own work. She has been invited by the Codarts University of the Arts (The Netherlands), the ArtEZ University of the Arts, de! Kunsthumaniora for Contemporary Dance, the MOSA Ballet School, and SALLY Dansgezelschap Maastricht among others as a guest teacher. As an illustrator Laura works with composers, choreographers, dance collectives, cabaretiers, poets, installation artists, and creates her own work. She is currently working on merging her performative and visual work. (Illustration)
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Artistic vision and movement language
To me, dance means celebrating your emotions. Expressing your emotions through dance feels like growing a flower from a seed. For me to create art means to listen to your emotions and to give them shape for others to see. I feel the essence of art is communication, which simultaneously is the essence of who we are as people. I believe to be able to create this form of pure communication is the most beautiful thing there is, and therefore I strive to reach this any time I create. In my aim to create an experience for both the performers and the audience, I always work from intense emotions and try to remain true to them, both in my performative as visual work.
I am currently focussed on the research and further development of my movement language. I connect everything that affects and moves me and let go of techniques I related to in the past. This results in my own artistic language which is based on enhancing the effect of images through which the body speaks. By delicately reshaping these images through especially focussing on details in the hands and face, I aim to clarify and intensify their expression. The first out of the three major elements on which this movement language is constructed, is dynamic energy. This is generated from the rhythm in which we experience emotions or from the groove extracted from the respective music.
The second element is indirect gestural expression. This element is initiated from the urge to express literally, and subsequently manipulated through a visual abstract filter. I am an illustrator as well which inevitably adds a visual layer to my work. I am passionate about creating new shapes and mechanisms with the body as if it were with pen on paper. By visually reshaping gestural movements, the literal meaning disappears and the motivation of the movement remains clear and prominent. This way I emphasise its emotional message rather than the symbolic connotation we have to the movement, which on a smaller scale resembles the core of my work.
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The third and final element is grotesque facial expression. In 2020 I created an exercise that enables the attainment of my characteristic facial expressions when working with other dancers. These grotesque facial expressions combined with my choreographic approach bring about an absurd landscape of quirky movements grooving in odd coordinations, driven by strong emotional intentions: my movement language.
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De Limburger
Sporza
De Limburger
I SOLISTI Reflections
De Arnhemse Koerier
I SOLSITI Reflections
