Photo : Anika Ste Marie
To Welcome the Universe
Elina Saryazdi
Personal Statement
Elina Saryazdi is a dancer and choreographer from Devon, England. Her practise is centred around breaking and contemporary dance forms, combining the authentic feeling and floorwork technique from breaking with the freedom of what it means to move in a contemporary, or new, way. Her background as a baker and former mathematician influences her style, often working with precision, restriction, shapes, efficiency and energy conservation.
She graduated with a first-class Bachelor of Arts from London Contemporary Dance School, where she worked with artists such as Boy Blue, Ekleido, Maxine Doyle, Vicky ‘Skytilz’ Mantey and more. There, she choreographed a work in collaboration composer Tayla-Leigh Payne and musicians from the Guildhall School of Music, which was later selected for and re-performed at the Peggy Hawkins Gala. Like many of her works, it delved into real-life feelings of humanity and connection.
Choreographically, she often works with counts, intricate spatial patterns and angular body positions, placing an emphasis on researching and fully embodying the intricacies of movement in context to the theme of the work. Her creations have been presented at The Place Theatre, Britten Theatre, and the Cymbals and Dancers festival at St Pancras New Church.
As an avid baker, Elina is also researching the ways in which baking principles can enrich and inform contemporary dance practises and has developed a method which she frequently explores within improvisation. Specifically, she uses recipes and practical baking processes as movement scores and has experimented with this both individually and during self-held workshops.
Artistic Statement
To Welcome the Universe is inspired by my inner feelings surrounding my move to Montreal. It explores a preserved sense of self-control, where I deliberately put myself in places and positions, planning out my life and holding on to perfectionist values. In contrast, I discover what it means to trust in the universe to bring me where I am supposed to be, allowing other forces to guide me in my journey without trying to control the path. Through this work I aim to find a balance between my internal and external universe. What does it look like to be in equilibrium?
In the internal universe, I worked largely with physical restriction and deliberate movement choices. In life, I spend a lot of time in the internal and find it to be limiting; being caught up in the first-person perspective doesn’t allow for opportunities outside of our imagination. Externally, I investigated broadening my awareness and being unconsciously moved by an outside force. I used the imagery of being in space, as if I was an astronaut discovering the world, where everything is new and so vast that it is impossible to control, just as life is. In the end, I aim to make peace with and invite the external into my life.
This research is inspired by principles taught to me by Arran Green and John Chan at London Contemporary Dance School, and pays homage to my previous solo creation ‘I Am Here,’ exploring my decision to study dance in higher education.
Music credits: ‘Belly’ and ‘See Through Me, I Dare You’ by Raime, ‘Pan Galactic’ by John Serrie.