detheatermaker

For three weeks, Nata Mandaria, Sesa and Mira Maria Studer immerse themselves in their own work. Every Friday, they come together to share new insights and ideas. On Mondays, they rotate locations so that by the end of the trajectory each artist has worked for one week in each house and absorbed its atmosphere. In this way, the artists get to know one another as well as different spaces for working and performing.

Each maker departs from their own question, practice, network and background, which inspire and shape their work. By meeting weekly and exchanging ideas, they strengthen each other’s research and open up new perspectives. Knowledge sharing is central to this residency, as the makers learn from and challenge one another.

Shared Research, Shared Practices is a collaborative project by Mestizo Arts Platform, Monty, Rataplan, C O R S O and detheatermaker, with the support of Arenberg and the Vlaamse Gemeenschap.

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MIRA MARIA STUDER

Mira Maria Studer (1996, she/they) creates performances at the intersection of singing and contemporary dance. Born in Solothurn, Switzerland, she lives in Brussels, Belgium. She studied at La Manufacture, La Faktoria and P.A.R.T.S., and is part of the Swiss performance collective noDIN. Her artistic practice engages with deliberate misinterpretations of songs as choreographic experiences and digitalization as an act of interpretation. She loves karaoke.

In Funnel of Love Mira Maria Studer departs from a physical exploration of two voices: naturjodel, a swiss yodel style without lyrics, and the chanting of sports fans. In the focus lies the phenomenon of yearning to belong through sound – collective vocal expression of emotion and vocal techniques that reach/resonate over topographic, architectural but also through socio-cultural distances. A phenomenon that can be heard in the roar of the masses on the stadium’s terrace, in a nationalist cultural practice in the mountains, but also in the streets during protest. How does it resound differently in each context? How are these vocalities shaped by and interact with the physical and social spaces they inhabit?What kinds of bodies, minds, and identities are performed?

Fieldtrips in the city with friends searching for these vocal events build the departure point for later performative reflections in the studio.

Credits
Mira Maria Studer with friends: Carolina Mendonça, Mary Szydlowska, Magdalena Öttl, Juliette Bersou, Lotta Beckers, Federico Protto, Lietje Bauwens, and more
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NATA MANDARIA

Nata Mandaria (she/her, °2000) is a socio-cultural worker, writer and performer. Originally from Limburg, she found her home in Brussels at eighteen. As the daughter of first-generation Georgian Orthodox immigrants, her artistic practice often departs from that background. Her work begins with “a feeling,” which she returns to the audience through powerful, rhythmic texts.

In 2024 Nata presented a work-in-progress, moederwittevrouwen / თეთრი დედა ქალები, created within WIPCOOP Leuven with the support of Mestizo Arts Platform and fABULEUS. The project observes the women around her and questions the fluctuating role of women.

For nuance in language, Nata often turns to the work of Georgian writer Nino Haratischwili as inspiration and source material. Further developing moederwittevrouwen / თეთრი დედა ქალები does not feel like a priority at this moment. Instead, she is searching for experimental space: exchange, expertise, collaborations and critical thinking. She seeks a playground in which to move further, to deepen and unsettle her writing — situated between theatre text, spoken word and poetry — and to explore how language can exist on stage without becoming fixed. Since 2023 she has been deepening her own authorship.

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SESA

Sefora Sam, also known as “Sesa,” is a spoken word poet, author and performer from Antwerp. She draws inspiration from both the small and grand moments of life and is known for her sincere, vulnerable and boldly honest introspection through poetry. Her work transforms heartbreak, insecurity and childhood trauma into love, growth and self-acceptance. She published the poetry collections The Thrill of Victory (2016), The Break Free (2020) and the workbook Rose Quartz (2019). She has performed at venues such as De Roma, Arenberg, Bourlaschouwburg, deSingel, VIERNULVIER and Théâtre National. In 2022 she founded Break Free Babes, a community fostering collective healing through art.

Sesa aims to develop a thematic research project focused on her roots, and more specifically on her foremothers. Their stories are central: the pain they carried that still resonates, but also the strength and healing passed down through generations. Musically, she wants to deepen her practice in rumba and explore the sounds of the Otetela people from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, living across the Kasaï and Sankuru regions. She seeks to uncover hidden stories within herself and discover what texts and music can emerge when she fully opens to that source, engaging in exchange with artists working on similar themes and musicians experienced with Congolese instruments.