Please can you introduce yourself and tell us more about your background?

“I’m Joy Alpuerto Ritter.  I’m a dancer and choreographer from Berlin. I have Philippine roots.  I was born in the US but I grew up in Germany, where I also had my dance education. I’ve danced with different companies – Akram Khan Company, Cirque du Soleil, Wang Ramirez.  They’re inspired by different dance styles and folk dance so I’m also playing with these different influences in my new creation with VERVE.”

Can you tell us more about your new work for the company?

“I’m creating a new work with the VERVE dancers, the first idea was the topic of family; family structures, family relationships.

On the first day, we had a big talk about it and I noticed it’s a very delicate, personal and complex theme.  There’s not enough time in a short piece to share all the experiences we have and there are different perspectives on the topic of family, so I focused more on family events – a birthday, a funeral or a wedding – where family members gather but also close friends gather together to celebrate within this ritual. I was interested in how these people come together, what kind of dynamics are created within the group from different generations.

We also worked a lot with characters – we were improvising and exploring character work.  Everybody could choose a character; someone they’re maybe connected to or that they’re maybe interested to explore and then found a way for these characters to move and navigate themselves within this event. The events are happy or sad – it’s about loss – it’s about celebration of life, it’s about love.

We’ve been talking about these topics and also finding lightness within heavy stories but also even seeing it in a comical way. So we’ve been laughing a lot, we’ve been talking a lot. There were tears; it’s been quite emotional but really fun research.”

What can we expect to see in the finished work?

“I hope the audience enjoy the show and can connect with the characters on stage – to the energy on stage – to the emotional journey that will happen and we’ll see where it is going to go.”