Unfolding Kafka Festival 2024
“We all share the same space”

The renowned Unfolding Kafka Festival, dedicated to contemporary performance, is in full swing. With just two weeks to go before the world premiere of Mo[ram]lam by CocoonDance in collaboration with the festival’s director, Jitti Chompee, we had the opportunity to speak with the company’s artistic director Rafaële Giovanola. Together with her husband, dramaturge Rainald Endraß, Giovanola develops concepts for the German-Swiss performance art collective CocoonDance.

In our conversation, Giovanola shared insights into the creative process behind Mo[ram]lam and offered us a glimpse of what to expect from this unique project.
Supported by the Goethe-Institut, the production will be presented on 20 and 21 November 2024 at the Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts at Chulalongkorn University.

By Helena Lang

Helena Lang: Watching you immersed in rehearsals for Mo[ram]lam sparked my curiosity about your company's working methods. Could you tell us more about CocoonDance and how you work together to develop your projects?

Rafaële Giovanola: CocoonDance has been in existence for 24 years now, and in the early years, I also performed as a dancer in our productions. Over time, however, I transitioned into a more behind-the-scenes role, which I find deeply fulfilling.

One of the key defining aspects of CocoonDance is our teamwork. We operate in a very horizontal structure with our collaborators, whether they are dancers, musicians, lighting designers, or costume creators. It’s a true collective effort, and I believe that the title of "artistic director" or "choreographer" is just a label. What’s important is the collaborative process we go through to bring each project to life. Rainald and I co-created everything from the beginning, and this partnership has been essential to the development of the company. It’s something we built together with the dancers, and I see it as an ongoing collaborative creation.

HL: This isn’t your first time participating in the Unfolding Kafka Festival. How did your cooperation with the festival initially begin, and what led to your involvement in the most recent edition?

RG: In 2019, CocoonDance was invited to perform Momentum at the Unfolding Kafka Festival after Jitti saw our work at the German Dance Platform. Following the festival performance, we stayed in Thailand to continue our research on Muay Thai boxing, during which Jitti introduced us to traditional Thai dancers, marking the start of our connection. As I saw more of Jitti’s work, I felt a growing creative spark, and we bonded over our shared artistic interests.

For this year’s festival, I initially thought about presenting HYBRIDITY, the project that emerged from our previous research blending Muay Thai with romantic ballet. However, Jitti proposed something entirely new, a collaboration focused on Molam music. At first, I was hesitant about working with Molam, given its traditional sound. But after researching its cultural roots and how it continuously evolves across generations, I became fascinated—not so much by the sound itself, but by the philosophy behind it. Since we were also working on vocal projects, I saw the potential in Molam’s use of both male and female voices to complement our vocal explorations.

HL: You've already described Molam as the focal point of your new production. Could you tell us more about Mo[ram]lam?

RG: The project is still evolving, but together with Jitti, we've developed a new piece featuring two male and three female dancers. Each of us is creating an individual work within a shared space. The audience is split into two groups, each experiencing one of the works—either Jitti’s or ours—with moments of overlap enabled through lighting. Not everything is visible at once.

We’ve faced challenges along the way, such as budget cuts and the inability to meet in person until recently. As a result, we’ve been working quite separately up until now. I’ve seen what Jitti has created with the dancers on his side, and we’ve had some initial meetings in Germany with the musicians, but it’s only now, as we come together in the final stages, that we’ll truly see how everything fits together. In this process, the project is still in the formative stage, so some aspects may change, and the final result could differ from what I am describing now. But this is also quite fascinating, as the two works progress, they begin to communicate and inspire one another.


HL: The way you describe it sounds like there are so many layers to the piece, and music seems to play a significant role in shaping it. How does the combination of music and movement shape your creative process?

RG: The music serves as the unifying thread. Both sides of the audience will hear the same Molam musicians, including Berlin-based vocal artist Justin F. Kennedy and electronic sounds by composer and guitarist Szymon Wojcik, which connect the two halves of the performance. For me, the connection with Molam music lies in how it draws inspiration from the world around it. The Molam musicians have a remarkable ability to create sounds from their environment. One of the musicians we’re working with, Sombat Simla, is blind. His heightened sensitivity to sound adds an incredible layer to the process, as he can replicate sounds he hears around him. Even though we can’t communicate in a conventional way—since I don’t speak his language, and he can’t see what we’re doing—we’ll have to find new ways to interact. It’s almost like establishing a new language for our creative exchange.

HL: How does this collaboration differ from other projects you’ve done?

RG: This project involves elements I wouldn't have explored on my own. When Jitti first brought this idea to me, I wasn’t sure at first, but now I can see how it’s pushing me in new directions. It's different from doing my own work, because there are frames and structures here that I didn’t choose initially. But sometimes that’s the interesting part—it forces you to approach things from a new perspective.
For me, Mo[ram]lam exists somewhere between a choreographic or physical project, an installation, due to its unusual setting, and a concert. The bridge that ties it all together is the music and the presence of live musicians. At times, the musicians will take center stage, performing on their own while the focus shifts entirely to the sound. Then, we return to the dancers, weaving everything back together. It’s a complex process, like piecing together a puzzle with three key elements: the musicians, Jitti’s work, and our own.

HL: Is there something specific you want to emphasize or that feels particularly important about Mo[ram]lam?

RG: I think what’s really exciting about this project, is the challenge of building something unified from two very different worlds. The costumes, the movement, the music—all of these elements are distinct, but at the same time, they’re coming together to form one piece. It’s a challenge, but it’s also what makes it so interesting. And, of course, the idea of the separation between the two sides of the stage is really intriguing. It’s as if we’re reflecting the way the world operates—how on one side of the planet, people are living completely different realities, and yet, at the same time, we all share the same space.

HL: I’m really looking forward to seeing it. Thank you so much for sharing this insight into your process, and I wish you the best for the world premiere.

RG: Thank you!