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Maximilian Balduzzi's Fresh Tracks Residency at New York Live Arts

By Cory Nakasue
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Published on December 16, 2013
Maximilian Balduzzi. Photo by Shige Moriya.

A Restless Presence

Fresh Tracks
Dec 19 - 21 at 7:30pm
Tickets: $10

Featuring new work by choreographers Martita Abril, Maximilian Balduzzi, Ben Grinberg & Nick Gillette, Daniel Holt, Leslie Parker and Gabrielle Revlock.

For more information on Fresh Tracks

The Fresh Tracks residency and performance program at New York Live Arts provides opportunities for new artists to present work and do research in a supportive environment. I recently caught up with Maximilian Balduzzi, 2013 Fresh Tracks resident, and we got to talk about action, rhythm, being called a "choreographer."

Cory Nakasue for The Dance Enthusiast: I've recently taken your performance workshop, which focused heavily on vocalizations and attuning the five senses and attention to the present moment. Would you say that finding an absolute "present" is a quest for you---in your training, in this piece?

Maximilian Balduzzi: Yes. Well done. The piece I'm presenting is called REQUIEM/Imposter. It is a fifteen minute solo based on a research project called Requiem, that's had three other incarnations. It's my desire to explore what in my training can be brought into the performative realm.

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Maximilian Balduzzi. Photo by Cory Nakasue.

TDE: What is that training?

MB: Primarily physical acting, which I studied for years with two master teachers in Italy. I still consider myself a physical and vocal performer. My training is action oriented. Since moving to New York City I've collaborated with so many dancers and choreographers, and the fact that the definitions of dance are so fluid here is freeing. I’m still just learning about dance, but it has already begun to infiltrate the way I think and work.

Maximilian Balduzzi.  Photo by Shige Moriya.

TDE: How is your action oriented training finding its way into your creation of movement?

MB: Being a resident at New York Live Arts is one of many experiences here that feels like a calling---something is calling me towards dance. No one has ever called me a choreographer! Yet, here I am. Things are shifting for me---things are even shifting in my body. My training is based on concrete actions in the present moment: I'm talking with you, I'm touching my notebook...that action is happening and forwarding a narrative, idea, emotion etc. In dance there seems to be less attachment to concrete action--I may be wrong about this. I've built a belief system about dance that is being challenged--that dancers are free to move according to design or concept. I'm open to the challenge of letting go of concrete action while committing to the present moment.

TDE: How?

MB: Rhythm. That's the meeting point of the two worlds for me. I trust rhythm, even in my theater work. Finding the song inside the movement, and using that as a structure. Even the viewer can trust the rhythm, no matter how esoteric the rest of it all seems. The rhythm communicates---rhythm is essentially present.

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