Lucas HEYMANNS
Dancer

Lucas received a grant to participate in the Camping project organized by the Centre National de la Danse.

What is your artistic background ?
My first contact with theatre was when my mother would take me to her theatre classes. I watched closely, and whenever I could I would find a way to participate with the adults. When I was 10 years old, I started doing plays with a local group and never stopped. My grandmother was also an actress, so my family and I always had a lot of respect for the craft. As a big fan of reading and writing, I found in the theatre ways of merging fictions and bodies, storytelling and different ways of relating to space and people—dancing. I graduated in Theatre Studies and finished my Masters Degree at the same university (UDESC/Brasil), with research focused on the concept of 'the strange' in contemporary theatre and acting theory. I'm very amused by the interdisciplinary aspect of theatre, and have worked with projects and groups linking performance, psychoanalysis and anthropology. Being on stage and on set is the best part of it all, where everything that I learn and explore seems to integrate and vanish at the same time, opening space for what’s happening in the moment.

How do you see your profession today ?
It is a very challenging profession, especially living in this disturbed moment of Brazil's history. In a period of crisis, art can be viewed as superfluous or as extremely necessary—we artists tend to believe in the latter. Despite that, I think performers are of great importance to this new technological zeitgeist, where our ability to relate, be present and play with different bodies and fictions can be explored in many ways beyond entertainment. Making up new ways to put people together, to move, or just to create awkward situations where we can rearrange things and concepts is not only thrilling but politically necessary. Although it's economically very challenging to be an artist where I live, it's a privilege to think and experiment with themes that are part of my own deep interests and desires as part of my work.     

How do you see yourself in five years ? In 10 years ?
I see myself working hard and experimenting with different media, areas, possibilities. I'm more and more fascinated with the dance field as well as with performance in general, and I want to mix it with my passion for literature and cinema. In the next five to 10 years, I hope to be able to explore the most, collaborating with other artists and learning as much as possible to consolidate a work that can take me around the world and make me grow as a human being. I want these next years to be years with lots of energy and movement, because we are going to need it. Create and share works that can bring up the different shades between black and white, blur the lines a little more, make us less certain.    

This interview was conducted in 2017
Photo credit: Céline Anaya Gautier