The progressive wave: Interview with Matan Zamir and Gal Naor, the choreographic and theatre-makers duo from Israel who are fascinating the Berlin performative scene by combining dance, performance art, and visual art, along with political and spiritual studies.
They encourage the empowerment of individual identities and the authentic way of personal expression.
Zone; Ph by: Irma FS Cadudasa
How was The progressive wave born and how did you choose to be called so?
The progressive wave was born from our mutual wish to unite and create a platform where we can dream, collaborate, and co-create with other creative minds.
The inspiration for the name is coming from our aspiration for progressive and intelligent humankind; as humans, we can either be carried away by a wave or decide to ride on it consciously. With our performances, we encourage radical ways of thinking. Even though we sometimes challenge the spectator to conclude all the different parts, we remain emerging from the same basic principles of Love, Unity, and Peace, while Truth and Beauty are natural fragrances to them, which births our company’s name.
Oráculo; Ph by: Ruthe Zuntz
What is your current artistic research based on?
We are preparing now for the third part of our interdisciplinary performance trilogy, 'Science of Signs'. The trilogy is exploring the relations between performance, science, and philosophy. We call this research exploration 'future-humanism' or 'rehearsing the future' as we believe our task is to study all humanity's future probabilities and rehearse the best-case scenarios, where real inclusion and acceptance is a common ground of understanding.
We use improvisation as a strategy to unlearn the habits of the mind. Some of our research questions for our upcoming creation are: when can the personal become political? In which means the 'personal' is linked to the 'universal'?
Oráculo; Ph by: Ruthe Zuntz
Do you have a main source of creative inspiration?
Ancient wisdom from various traditions inspires us the most, and the new targeted ways of reading the ancient scriptures, the overlaps between the different teachings, and the joy created by imagining their up-to-date stage interpretations. We are also intrigued by the interconnections between the personal and the universe and the links between the spiritual and the political.
On the performative aspect, human beings in general and their specific forms of expression, and our creative performers, in particular, are our main source of inspiration.
We believe everything is made of infinite-consciousness; therefore, we hold everything as inspiration, whether we grasp it through our acknowledgment, perception, or intuition.
Was it difficult to conquer the independent theatre scene in Berlin?
We've been lucky along the way with getting funds and meeting the right partners who could co-produce and present our works. We have no intention to conquer anything. Our only wish is to be able to do the work we do in the best way we can. We trust our approach when working with performers or non-performers, creating together an intense yet joyful experience.
Sharing is caring, and we hope that now, within this challenging Corona era, people will reevaluate their priorities.
Zone; Ph by: Irma FS Cadudasa
Our wish is to be able to create a space in Berlin that offers a genuine creative meeting point where artists
can get inspired by one another, to allow the independent scene to experience new possibilities to connect, experiment, grow together, or near each other. </