CLAUDIA ROCHAS-PÁRIS
WE LOVE WOMEN
PHOTOS BY CLAIRE O'KEEFE
Ruth St. Denis
Claudia Rochas-Páris is a dancer based in Paris, originally from Switzerland, where she grew up surrounded by mountains and lakes. “There was something magnificent/majestic/grandiose about nature, between the earth, sky and water, it was the perfect place for choreography, I learned to comprehend space through movement of the body so dance came naturally. When I was at dance school in Basel, I met my husband who was exhibiting at the Art Basel fair. He was a Portuguese artist and we moved to Paris together.”
She now lives in their art studio alongside her daughter the artist Lia Rochas-Pàris and her grandaughter - three generations of feminine creativity unfolding like a Russian doll: “The women in my life are my greatest teachers, my mother, daughter, granddaughter. Life has taught me so much, you never know what's going to happen for sure, every single encounter serves a purpose for navigating through it. Life itself is a great adventure, full of twists and turns. I see life as one big circus. I've lived most of my life with an artist and when you're an artist, a dancer, you're like a tightrope walker, you walk on a tightrope without a net, you fall, you get up again, you fly through the air, you juggle…
I've always danced. For me, dance is a metaphor for life, between movement and static postures where breath and breathing are vital. I dance every day, every movement of the body is a miracle, life is a choreography. A simple smile can move me, as can a small cloud in the sky.
My childhood in Switzerland was very enriching, and today, even though I live in Paris, I'm lucky to have a garden where I watch the birds, which I love to listen to as they sing. I spend time looking at the sky, observing the seasons as they pass through the leaves of the trees, watching the bees foraging, the clouds passing by - isn't that also a great choreography?”
For Isadora Duncan, dance is “the movement of the universe concentrated in an individual”. For Martha Graham, “dance is the hidden language of the soul, the body”. For Claudia “dance is the poetry of gestures and bodies, it is essential like all the arts, it opens up other worlds, and it paves the way to other realities.”
As great modern dancer Ruth St Denis said “we have the capacity to receive messages from the stars and the songs of the night winds” . Perhaps like her, Claudia feels “I have lived so long because in those moments when I am dancing, I am beyond time and space.”
“Recently, at a performance I took part in, I had the chance to meet an incredible dervish dancer, Macha. The circular movement that leads to trance hypnotised me, and it was soothing to watch her spin around for hours as if her soul were floating above her, a light glowing from her body.”
Claudia admits that: “Music is as much a part of my daily life as silence. I need both to find balance.” And balance is perhaps one of the most important things to a dancer. For Claudia the key to feminine beauty means a balance between elegance and humility: “I've never followed fashion, preferring to opt for comfortable, timeless pieces and noble materials that stand the test of time. At Cortana, I find a respect for movement in the fabrics and noble materials that invite us to move as much as to rest. I believe in conscious, sustainable fashion - it's essential if you want to feel in harmony with your body and nature.”
Claudia´s advice for younger dancers today is: “Let your minds and bodies merge, don´t over- conceptualise, let go and be guided by improvisation. Nothing is set in stone.”
I imagine a future where many of us will call ourselves dancers and collaborate to make an art which concerns itself with primary areas of life... for me, peace is a communal work process, a collective vision. The dance itself tries to exemplify a few of these methods in a truly grounded and practical way so that the people can say: yes, there are prospects of survival.
Anne Halprin