We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marianna Koytsan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with marianna below.
Marianna, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
One of the projects that was meaningful for me was to create my first dance piece under my dance company Neta-Kinetics and perform it on different stages in NY to name a few, Dixon Place Theatre, Gibney Dance Theatre, Mark Morris Theatre.
It was very important for me to put together the visuals that I had in my mind into the movement and eventually create a piece out of it.
The name of the piece is
The Thermocline:
It is inspired by the water element – the natural metaphor of the ocean’s thermal layers to explore complex relationships, both external and internal. Two people present the surface and the deep layer. Where you see the relationship between each other in the middle point – the thermocline, one can’t exist without the other. It goes from the relationship between humans, animals, and the law of nature, to the relationship with yourself.
It’s a piece that talks about Interdependence, Harmony, Balance, the law of Nature and the human world, and self-reflection.
It’s a duet that is performed by Marianna Koytsan and Jenya Romanovich
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Marianna Koytsan is a New York City – based street-style and contemporary dancer originally from Russia who has been performing locally since 2012. Ms . Koytsan has performed at City Center, Barnard College, LaGuardia Performing Art Center, and Little Island, Dance Parade NYC to name a few, as well as participating in competitions and battles in the US including Ladies of Hip Hop, Bay Area House Dance Festival, Blueprint in Houston, The House in DC, and Second Sundae in Philadelphia.
Informed by natural world rhythms, shapes, and patterns, Ms. Koytsan’s practice relies heavily on physical and emotional opposition. Dissonance in movement and musicality are key components in this exploration. A founding member of Neta-Kinetics, a dance company that builds intensely physical, character-based worlds that weave in the diverse movement backgrounds of our group while keeping the integrity of street styles a primary focus of the work.
Ms. Koytsan is also a faculty member of PMT House of Dance and currently co-hosts the weekly House Head Sessions; a long-standing and beloved dance session that brings a spectrum of new talent and long-standing legends and aficionados of house and street-style dance and music to experiment, train, play, and continue the legacy of House dance and music.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I think for me is to work on something personal as a show and see the results of it being produced into a whole show or performance on stage. Seeing dancers flourish on stage after putting so many hours of hard work.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
While I was creating “The Thermocline” there were moments of self doubts and always thinking that you never satisfied with the piece. Thinking to change some things here and there. Sometimes by changing too much you can self doubt or procrastinate to finish the piece. I remember that when our piece got chosen even though it was not finished fully. We had a month to go before the performance. What helped me is to focus on finishing the piece and revise later and enjoy the process. Instead of stressing that I could fix here and there in the piece or completely change things.
I believe my resilience came into act when I started to notice my own doubts which sometimes are your worst enemies.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariannakoytsan/
Image Credits
Tanya Navasiolava