Tania Dimbelolo is a contemporary dance artist, contortionist, actress and model highlighting the power of communication through dance and movement. Trained at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, Tania utilises her dance work, which is a fusion of contemporary with contortion and bone-flexing elements, to express and evoke emotion, and to communicate narratives and discourses. During our conversations, Tania afforded clarity on the ways in which dance is a means of self-articulation and a way to conceptualise thoughts, emotions and experiences into a visual form. I spoke with Tania to discuss her creative practice, pivotal career highlights, influences, audience engagement, storytelling through movement and much more.

NAHUEL CONTRERASHow did your formative training at Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance impact your pathway? TANIA DIMBELOLO I would definitely say my training at Rambert heavily impacted my pathway as an artist and person. I had started training in Ballet and Contemporary at the age of 14 years old, which is considered quite late in the industry, so I had a lot of 'catching up' to do. Rambert had always been my first conservatoire of choice as I knew I would receive rigorous training around Ballet, specifically to achieve my own personal goals at the time. The great words of Martha Graham come to mind when I think of this period of my life, "Freedom to a dancer means discipline. That is what technique is for- liberation". Through the training I had become significantly stronger and more articulated in my body and thanks to this I found I could experiment and have more freedom in my expression.
I also really fell in love with Graham during my time at Rambert, there was a very ritualistic approach to the practice that I found to be truly special. The classes were formulated of set exercises and phrases of movement that, through repetition, we all came to know inside out. The muscle memory of having a class be already known to your body allowed the mind and spirit to wonder, and this made every repeated exercise/phrase something new and magical. This approach is something I, to this day, benefit from; choreography I am performing for the 50th time will still have a newness to it. NCWho or what influences you and your practice? TDI am influenced by so many things. I would actually say curiosity and play as an approach have increasingly influenced me over the years. I have found that I have more of a creative and even physical ‘flow’ when I approach my practice like a playground. Over the years I have made following curiosity and playfulness a big part of my process in most things I do, as this helps quiet down the inner critic and allows space for the required ‘mess’ in any creation. I feel as though I have quite a multidisciplinary approach to my work, in that I am heavily inspired by different art forms. Each medium has its own language and way of creating a story or a feeling that is so moving to me. I also feel very lucky to be surrounded near and far by so many great and inspirational artists from across all mediums, the list is too long but I’m very grateful to them all! NCThe relationship between dance and fashion has long been artistically structed and seen as a way for dancers to add expression, feeling, emotion, shape, fluidity and movement to a garment. You have worked for Net-a-Porter, Nike and the Kenzo SS19 and SS20 shows. Why do you think that dance and fashion are so intertwined, and what do you love most about the correlation between the two art forms? TDI personally see it as art complementing art. Nowadays I consider myself a multidisciplinary artist because I feel it’s limiting to stay cemented in one medium, naturally all forms of art bleed into one another. With fashion the storytelling is within the seams, colours, prints, materials and structure of the garments all woven together. I would say the union of dance and fashion is so celebrated because the physical embodiment reinforces the story ‘sewn’ and elevates the narrative behind the clothing. NCYou define your dance work is a fusion of contemporary with contortion and bone-flexing elements. What inspired you to start learning contortion? Did your specific style adapt over time, or did it come instinctively to you? TDI actually got into contortion through my Dad, he was a contortionist himself. In the beginning of his career he would do a lot of street performances and I every now and then would get to play the part of the ‘showgirl assistant’, helping him into a washing machine for one act or bringing him an unstrung tennis racket for another. One day I was bored of just watching and I started to copy what he was doing, I was elated when I realised I could do these amazing things with my body too. From then on contortion and bone breaking became one of my favourite hobbies and ‘party tricks’ that I would just do for fun.
Whilst I have always felt inspired by the unusual and remarkable shapes a body can create through contortion, I would say that today I am even more influenced by the actual sensation of ‘breaking’ and stretching itself. In many ancient rituals across the globe there is a recurring theme of stretching the physical body to bring about spiritual ascension which I resonate a lot with. There is something so liberating about how it feels to move in the extremities of your body that I honestly find difficult to word! In terms of my style of movement, I would say my background in bone breaking and contortion definitely gave me a signature flare, not only physically but mentally too. Again, the element of play and experimentation in trying out ‘strange’ or ‘unusual’ shapes with my body gave me a very open minded approach to dance and movement. NCI understand that you also act and model. How do these practices influence your dancing? Do you utilise the technical skills of communication, expression and performance from dance, and apply these factors to your modelling and acting? TDWell I would say they all naturally inform and help one another in my personal experience. I had always been interested in performing since I was a kid and had dabbled in choir performances and in theatre, one of my favourite experiences to date was actually a school production of Macbeth performed at Bristol Old Vic. I really loved the play and was ecstatic when I got the role of one of the witches, “unearthly beings ('That look not like th' inhabitants o' th' Earth')”. I loved how I could embody the sinister nature with my whole body and use movement to bring the character even more to life, I got teased quite a bit by my peers for being too committed to the role but that comes with the territory of being extra I guess! With dance there is a real understanding of what an emotion feels like in the body that I believe really benefits me when it comes to acting; feeling it in the body allows me to access it emotionally with more authenticity. In regards to modelling, I would say being comfortable and playful with movement and creating shapes is what I unconsciously take with me into the work I do. NCWhen performing live, does the presence of an audience impact your work? Do you prioritise engagement and are you conscious of eliciting an emotional response from the audience? TDThe presence of a live audience is so powerful and hugely impacts my work on both a conscious and subconscious level. Unless it was part of the work to intentionally interact and engage with the audience, I would not say I mentally prioritise engaging with them. When it comes to eliciting an emotional response, I obviously want to connect with the audience but in my experience I have found if you approach it in that way, the focus is too much on how what you’re saying will be received and not enough on what you’re actually saying and feeling. A good internal ‘compass’ I trust in is; if it feels real and authentic for me then it will feel real for the audience and vice versa, if I feel blocked or just too in my head, then the audience will feel that too and the experience won’t be the same for either of us. Change of space with a live audience can be so interesting too, for example, when you’re performing in smaller spaces where the audience is up close, the experience is far more intimate and saturated somehow. The smallest gesture or even breath is picked up on by the audience and so there is generally less focus on projecting and much more on the internal experience, for me anyway. NCDuring the current socio-political climate, how have you been able to manifest inspiration and motivation? TDUntil we had faced this pandemic I had never really realised just how lucky I was to be living in this age, even in isolation we still have access to so much through technology. I watched a number of incredible filmed dance theatre productions during lockdown which was such a gift, of course it isn’t the same as seeing live work but I am still so grateful to have been able to access so much art and artistry during what was a mad year for all of us. I believe motivation is the product of inspiration, so as long as you’re inspired you will have the drive to fulfill your curiosity and creativity. NCTechnology and the Internet have revolutionised many traditional art practices; generating positive changes but also challenges. Has social media impacted your work? TDWell like I said for me I had never been more grateful for social media until this whole pandemic situation, being able to connect with artists all over the world is simply amazing. Like with anything there is of course a challenging aspect to it, the validation and perfection side of Instagram has us normalising what simply isn’t real at times but this just makes being self-aware even more vital. Whenever I feel that the social media sphere is becoming in any way toxic, I step out for as long as I need; we are humans, not an algorithm and taking off the pressure to ‘perform’ on social media is for me a part of self care. NCYour portfolio ranges from performing at Tête à Tête Opera Festival at The Place Theatre, to featuring in the international UBER advertisement ‘Effortless Night’. How do differing performance environments create different means of communication and expression? TDI feel like it makes a difference to me as I personally tend to bounce off of the environment I’m in. The main difference in your example here is that one of these is a live performance work and the other is a film work. In live theatre I feel like it’s so important to mentally get into a ‘zone’, the muscle memory is already there and so for me it’s about trusting that the body will follow as long as the mind is centered. On the other hand, when it comes to film work I tend to have less muscle memory to rely on due to the usually fast turnovers. This means I naturally take on more of a calculated approach as I have to consider not only my performance but the technicalities too such as camera placement, angles, light, staying in shot etc. The Uber Ad for example was very meticulous when it came to these details, especially because we were working with multiple props. For the beginning shot I even had someone crouched down (out of shot) to help me swiftly take off my seatbelt to shave time as we had a specific amount of seconds given to execute every shot of the whole advertisement. Through growing in my familiarity with film work I now feel much more confident with the technicalities of everything, which I would say benefits my performances. NCDance has the ability to convey meaning, intent and express emotions whilst portraying narrative. As a proponent of this, how important is narrative clarity and accessibility of meaning? Should a viewer have to work hard to interpret and decipher the depicted story? TDI personally don’t agree with the notion that everyone has to have the same vision or interpretation for anything in life, especially in art. We are all so different and have our own subjective lense and outlook on the world, a work of art could mean one thing for you and a totally different thing for me. I do however understand that in building a story there obviously must be clarity in how the work is delivered, in my opinion it’s an autonomous responsibility for every artist to consciously connect to whatever that narrative is. So to answer your question, yes I believe it’s important to create a bridge with your audience to share with them the message or story. However, I do not expect everyone to have the same singular interpretation and I personally enjoy the fact that it will mean something slightly different for every viewer. NCYour dance solo at The Africa Centre was performed to a Congolese lament, sung by Miriam Makeba. Does cultural referencing, reflection and introspection have an impact on your work, and do you find that storytelling by way of dance serves as a preservation of cultures? TDI loved that song and yes cultural referencing, reflection and introspection have a huge influence on me as a person. Unfortunately there is a real problem in our society where Black culture is adored but Black lives are still nowhere near protected or even respected. Black culture being a current trend in media causes problems in the world of art as unfortunately the intention a lot of the time is to cherry pick the parts that will 'sell' without sufficient regard to the approach and/or meaning for the people whose culture is being represented. I have personally turned down work on several occasions where I have felt this to be the case. Storytelling through dance can and has preserved cultures for many thousands of years, but to respectfully and properly preserve these cultures I do feel that the voices behind the story being shared has to be someone of that indgenous background or who is a part of that specific culture. Culturally appropriating by capitalising off of another culture you have no background in is not only disrespectful, but also damaging as it twists the stories and true meanings behind them. NCWhen you are dancing, where does reality stop and your imagination begin? TDGreat question. Well like I said earlier, I like to approach my work with play and curiosity so the imagination is at the heart in many ways. I have found in my experience the main block of imagination and 'flow' is the ego, critique and the pressure one can place on themselves. The ego takes us away from being present in our bodies a lot of the time as it’s focused on how others will perceive us. Sufi whirling comes to mind here; I had researched the practise whilst training at Rambert and heavily resonated with the philosophy behind the ceremony. It symbolises the rising of the human soul by releasing the ego to become enlightened and united with God/Divinity. I heavily resonate with this ideology as when I’m dancing, my best work happens when I seperate myself from my ego and incessant thoughts. It is then that I enter this state of 'flow' which is one of the most incredible feelings; it’s meditative and honestly exhilarating at the same time. This is also part of why the inner work I do is so important. NCWhat advice would you offer to someone considering this career? TDI think the best advice I could personally offer to anyone considering this career would be to make sure they understand what it is to essentially be an entrepreneur. At a younger age I couldn't care less for the business element of things, to be honest I found it boring and unimportant, but over the years I have come to truly recognise that I am my own manager and in order for me to have a healthy relationship with my work and to appropriately navigate the industry, a business mentality is required. Also, my advice would be to keep the fun in your practise! The transition of taking something you love and creating a business to capitalise from isn't easy for many artists but it is our duty to keep replenishing the fire we all came into this industry with! NCPersonally or professionally, what are you currently working on? TDIn my work I feel that the professional and personal are fairly intertwined, when I feel like I am growing in one area the other inherently benefits too. For the last couple years I have been obsessed with reading material on self development and self identity, I am really passionate about identity now and the reclaiming of our own identity and destiny. One of my favourite books that I’ve read multiple times now is 'Big Magic' by Elizabeth Gilbert, this book really helped me reconnect with my inner child's curiosity, play and creativity that can oftentimes become stifled in adults. Upon reading this book, I began to explore the many ideas floating in my mind that I had previously disregarded, and through doing so I am now currently working on bringing to life a project for a short dance film which I'm very excited about. Post-Lockdown definitely feels like a new chapter for many of us, I am looking forward to dedicating more of my time to creating work as well as performing and essentially putting myself in the director’s seat!