We recently connected with Marianna Varviani and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Marianna thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

When I decided to start my own company, I knew I needed a name that not only encapsulated the essence of my work but also evoked a similar sensation when spoken aloud.

I work with dance theater, crafting distinct movement languages for each of my productions. My process involves delving into the movements of the world around me. I aim to unearth small, personal treasures from my collaborators: gestures, textures, and mannerisms that can inspire movement exploration.

I’ve always sensed that my perspective on life and my artistic taste were a little peculiar. Embracing this uniqueness rather than trying to conform to conventional thinking has opened new avenues for me. I’m drawn to journeys that forge their own paths, and I relish the study and practice of storytelling, amalgamating various elements like images, music, movements, narratives, and senses. I’m fascinated by the combinations through which an artist can create meaning and construct experiences for their audience. How can I compose experiences that reflect on joy, destruction, anger, fear, or hope? Experiences that audience members can go through together, forming a collective memory that might alter their viewpoints, spark new thoughts, and perhaps even be catalysts for subtle shifts in their lives.

Each of my pieces endeavors to discover its own mode of expression, moving past existing genres or styles. Grounded in personal elements, these forms of movement storytelling interweave emotions, beliefs, memories, stories, and environments that each of us has encountered up to that point.

So, in my quest for a name, I began by exploring words that were a bit strange, much like me. I looked into words from different languages, words with multiple meanings, or words that resonated intriguingly with my ears. That’s when I found “Selcouth.”

Selcouth is an English word, featured in Shakespeare’s texts. It denotes something unfamiliar, rare, strange, and yet marvelous. To my ears, it didn’t sound English, rather like a mystical, unfamiliar language. In terms of its meaning, it perfectly encapsulates what I envision for my work be: strange and yet marvelous!

Marianna, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My artistic journey started from theater, realistic, raw, hard to swallow, method acting, at a local group in Athens, called Omada Nama. At the time, I was questioning everything and trying to understand the how’s and the why’s of the world. Through stories, I started to empathize with different characters, connect information regarding their context, spaces, feelings, politics, dreams to reality.

I gained my BA in Contemporary Theater focusing on physical and devising theater, at E15 in London. In my ongoing quest for purpose and understanding, I sought to unravel the interplay between different worlds, exploring how art and society engage in meaningful dialogue. To delve deeper into political theater, I trained with Theater of the Oppressed in Rio De Janeiro. I had the privilege to work with diverse groups of people that each brought very different experiences and energies to the process.

Upon returning to Athens, where I am originally from, I started teaching theater and movement to various age groups and backgrounds, while performing with different theater groups. Together with like-minded artists, I co-founded ‘Ha! Theater Ensemble,’ dedicated to creating pieces that resonated deeply with us.

My relationship with dance was strange for many years, I felt that dance was more for people that expressed themselves through flow and ease. And I wasn’t one of them! As I kept working in physical theater, I started focusing more on body language and movement details and less in verbal communication. Without understanding when and how, I was working in dance. I entered a one-year choreography course lead by Patricia Apergi which helped me connect parts that were missing in my process. The freedom of abstraction connected to dramaturgy was a thrilling new perspective of work for me.

Looking for more time and space to invest in my research, I came to UCLA for my MFA in Dance. Through a plethora of information, and inspiration, ‘chaos’ as I like to call it, I constructed my own frameworks in order to make work. I am inspired by everyday details, the way someone walks, their mannerisms, the way urban architecture and sedentary life affects our bodies, and limits our potential. We have so many things to react to that our bodies speak of oppression, challenges, and limitations. And yet, we find pockets of profound joy and bliss, where we inhabit our bodies fully, letting go of control.

When I was younger, I was hungry to be on stage, the play of energy exchange with the audience was feeding me. In recent years, I find more joy behind the scenes.
As the artistic director of Selcouth, I create dance theater pieces that resonate with the present- reflecting my feelings, needs, and parts that I think are missing from my surroundings. All my works emerge from strong creative collaborations. While I hold a distinct vision for each piece, it is only completed by the contributions of my colleagues. I try to foster safe environments where my collaborators can have the means, inspirations, and space to create freely and joyfully.

Each of my projects reflect a very specific chapter in my life. I am proud of all my works. They continue to resonate in my mind and in the bodies and energies of the people that they have ‘touched’. Like a puzzle they complete each other and evolve with me. The gifts of each project are the relationships and memories that it is responsible for. This is one of the reasons I love the opportunity to travel and work with other artists and connect with different audiences.

I am currently working on a new piece, titled ‘Mark. ‘Mark’ has a unique structure, where the composition incorporates local performers wherever it is performed. For it, I am committed to traveling and sharing this process with individuals in different corners of the world.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I was lucky enough to come across devising early in my career. Through this process, I learned how to turn life’s lemons into lemonade. I’ve navigated solutions with limited budgets, unconventional performance spaces, conflicting schedules, and various of life’s beautiful obstacles.

One of the most challenging periods so far for me was during the onset of the pandemic, with George Floyd’s murder, and a surge of racially motivated crimes which highlighted the depth of our flawed system. These pressures intensified with lockdowns and their implications.

As performing artists, we work through things together. We connect in a common space, exchange ideas, thoughts, movement, and energies. Together, we build and present our creations for others to witness. Being isolated in such important times was not only challenging in terms of work, but also in terms of dealing with reality. A reality that at the time was on the tipping point for change!

At the time, I was working on a concert dance piece with a large cast. It took me a while to let go, but eventually I understood that this piece would not be able to happen in the current circumstances.
Not working at all, was not an option for me. The main reason was, as time passed, that my collaborators and I needed an outlet! We needed to express what was happening to us in the way that we knew best. So, I shifted the plan completely and came up with a new structure and project. “Time to Dream” emerged—a compilation of seven short dance films that confront oppressive forces from the past and present, envisioning a better future. The project aimed to inspire us to imagine a future we desired to bring into existence. We aimed to transcend the challenges of the present and paint a new reality. It was fascinating to witness how challenging this was for all of us. We’re often accustomed to reacting rather than envisioning.

There we were, having rehearsals online, isolated instead of meeting in person. Instead of composing a live performance we wove our narratives through film. The entire cast met only once for the group film shoot. The rest of the scenes were filmed individually; and the films where created. We managed to create something that was beautiful and very personal to all of us, despite the extreme challenges.
The films gained great responses as they have now traveled to more than 20 international film festivals and have gained awards.
For me it was an intense but very rewarding experience as I experimented with a new way of storytelling.

I believe resilience in the arts could align closely with an individual’s artistic drive. Personally, my resilience to life, is my practice—through it I find meaning, purpose, joy, and hope.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

A goal that I have in my practice is to un-learn! To let go of movements, beliefs, ways, perspectives that I didn’t consciously choose. It involves opening up myself and others to recognize the limits that we might have unwillingly accepted, internalized and sometimes embodied. To immerse ourselves to freedom, and its unlimited possibilities. To discover joy and the inherent capacity to select and shape whatever we desire, whether it’s creating a moment, a dance, or a new idea!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.selcouth.info
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/selcouth_movement/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/selcouthmovement/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianna-varviani/

Image Credits
Photographers: Alexis Cohen, Sofia Alexiou, Marili Zarkou, Friidom Darrel Dunn, Fillippos Tsapekis, Cameron Paris Cloud, Thomas Arsenis, Chronis Perakis, Dimitris Mamaloukos, Dancers: Miel Lei Apostol, Lane Fricke, Alexis Irritant, Tyler Law, Obiageli Ogbodo, Maya Peterson, Maasai Piliavin-Godwin, Sophie Poe, Ghislain Grellier, Katerina Foti, Christiana Kosiari, Lia Hamilothori, Iro Konti, Lia Chamilothori, Erato Chatira, Katerina Foti, Nadi Gogolou, Stella Spyrou, Marianna Varviani, Tyler Law, Sophia Poe, Gurmukhi Bevli, Jade Chen, Yingru Huang, Mary Sweetnam, Jessica Warshal, Gurmukhi Bevli, Cheyenne Dixon, Hannah Ferguson, Marianna Varviani, Alexandra Wood, Tanya Xu