”Impressive. Yanci brings power and admirable versatility to the representation of characters.” Morning Star, London, England Inter-View… Do you create stories and vignettes around specific characters that you would like to portray? The characters evolve through the piece. Sometimes it’s a single movement that breathes life into them. Suddenly the whole character becomes crystal clear, transparent, in-spite of all the complexities. And if the fit is right, you ‘wear’ the character, like a tailor made suit. The amazing thing is that you can play as many different parts as you are willing to draw from your imagination: young or old, male or female, bird or butterfly, Samson or Delilah, wind or fire. It’s all expressible. Do you think about situations or topics that can be funny when you are working on new material? The humor develops out of the story and the situation. An interesting idea has many possibilities for comical surprises. Slipping on a banana peel can be funny or tragic. The way in which the story then continues to unfold determines the fun we can have. How important is humor when you are developing your ideas? Humor is a refined way of holding the audience’s attention, even when you want to say something meaningful. It prepares them to listen. Do you make a decision to create a comedy? The initial idea usually sets the tone of the piece. Sometimes comedy develops within a piece that originally was not intended to be funny. So you end up balancing the comic with the tragic, which can have wonderful results. Or, you can end up with a piece that is laced with black humor. You include in your show numbers that use puppetry, and special light and visual effects. How did you come to this direction? It was a chance happening. I had an idea for a piece about a man loosing his head. The circumstances of the situation so overwhelms him that his world is literally turned upside down. I arrived at the solution of doing it with puppetry, using space age materials, to create light figures. The effect is that the man really does loose his head. It’s a fun way to explore visual communication. How would you describe your style? It depends on the study and the statement. A particular piece may require a multi media concept, or dance elements. My style is to keep the language and the story elegant and simple so that the audience can easily identify with the characters and situation. Is Yanci your real name and why only the one? It’s a trademark of the figure who appears on stage. It’s simple and on a first name basis with the audience. I once read an article in which the writer stated that ”only God should have one name”. There should be more room than that for flexibility, don’t you think? © Copyright: Excerpt from the article: Movement, Body Language, and Pantomime – A Discussion in the field of ”Dance”. By J. Plueckebaum, University of Hamburg.