Composing “Being Together” into Performance
Interviewee: Elaine Thomas (Artistic Director)
Date: February 25, 2026
What continues to define AMICI’s current position, even after the death of its founder, is its commitment to preserving being together as a fundamental condition of artistic creation. AMICI has long worked as an inclusive dance theatre in which many members, with and without disabilities and with differing levels of experience, share the stage. What matters here, however, is not simply that “diverse people are together.” The deeper question is how the movement and relationships that emerge in that space are shaped into performance. How can a stage be composed as a collective whole without erasing individual presence? In the accumulation of these artistic decisions lies the core of AMICI’s practice.
What to Preserve After the Founder
AMICI’s history cannot be separated from the presence of its founder, Wolfgang Stange. The company is now in a period of transition following his death, gradually moving toward a new artistic leadership structure. One of the first themes that emerged in the interview was not the urgency to transform the organization, but rather the importance of not losing sight of its core values.
“There is nothing in particular that we have decided to change. Things may gradually evolve over time, but there is so much we want to preserve.
Being together. Sharing each person’s strengths. Existing as a collective while respecting the individual.
And we want to continue making work.”
What is being described here is not the preservation of past methods in their original form. Rather, it is closer to reactivating the principles of being together, bringing individual strengths into a shared space, and building a collective while honoring each person’s presence—within the realities of the current members and circumstances. For AMICI, “preserving” does not mean repeating the same form. It means continuing to keep that core alive through artistic creation.
“Magic” Exists in Environment and Relationships
During the interview, I asked about the phrase “AMICI’s magic.” It is a term often used when speaking about the company’s practice, and I wanted to understand whether it referred to a technique, a method, or something else entirely.
The response suggested that it was less the name of a methodology than a way of describing how AMICI’s creative work comes into being.
“At the center is working with the people who are in the room.
We don’t impose a technique or style. We begin with the people who are there, and what they can bring.
We try to draw out something within them that even they may not yet have discovered.”
What is valued here is not fitting people into a pre-designed framework, but identifying where the entrances to expression may already exist within their movements and responses. The process begins by recognizing possibilities that even the individual may not yet see, gradually expanding and supporting them. This sensitivity and skill form a central part of AMICI’s artistic practice.
For this to happen, the way a space is built also becomes essential. In an external workshop, facilitators may need to shape the atmosphere and rhythm of the session from the beginning. At AMICI, however, many members have worked together for years. Ways of entering the class, responding to one another’s movement, and offering support have accumulated over time among the members themselves. The environment is not sustained solely through instruction from one person; it is held through the layering of relationships.
AMICI’s “magic,” then, cannot be isolated as a single method. It exists where two things overlap: the ability to carefully observe those present and draw out what emerges from them, and the strength of a shared environment cultivated over a long period of time.
Weaving Improvisation into Performance
Improvisation plays a major role in AMICI’s creative process. In classes, participants engage with foundational vocabularies rooted in ballet and contemporary dance, while experimenting with improvisation individually, in small groups, and as a full ensemble. Music also functions as a strong driving force. Yet improvisation does not become performance as it is.
“Sometimes very powerful moments happen in improvisation.
A dancer may do something new, or a movement may emerge that suggests an idea or a character.
Then we begin to extract those moments. It’s a very organic process.”
AMICI does not stop at creating a “good space.” Movements and relationships born from improvisation are eventually shaped into stage works. While the entry point to creation remains open, artistic direction and compositional decisions become more explicit as the work moves toward performance.
“The creative part begins with improvising, moving together, playing together.
But when it becomes a performance piece, there is more direct artistic direction involved.”
Michael Vale contributes perspectives related to narrative structure, text, and visual design, while Elaine, as Artistic Director, focuses on movement and music. Specialists in scenography, costume, lighting, sound, and video are involved from an early stage, allowing works to develop as fully professional productions. This is closely connected to why AMICI described itself not simply as a community group, but as a professional company.
When I asked whether artistic ambition and care might sometimes come into tension, the response returned to a phrase often spoken by Wolfgang:
“Wolfgang often used to say, We will find a way.
If something is difficult, we simply try, and try again, and keep checking.
We never impose an idea of how something should look onto the dancers from the beginning.”
This might mean suspending a body in the air using a harness, or creating a duet between wheelchair users. Even when technical difficulties arise, the starting point is not to decide that something is impossible, but to explore methods beginning from the dancers’ actual bodies and circumstances. Rather than forcing artistic ideas onto performers, AMICI builds the form of a work from what the performers can truly do, and from the movement and relationships that emerge there.
■ Research Notes
AMICI approaches being together not as an abstract ideal, but as a compositional technique. In Japan as well, inclusive practice is often discussed in terms of “open spaces” or “opportunities for participation.” AMICI, however, reminds us of the responsibility that lies beyond participation: the responsibility to shape what emerges into stage work.
How can difference remain visible without being erased, while still creating a coherent whole? How can something born from improvisation be woven into a work that reaches an audience? These are some of the questions that become visible through AMICI’s practice.