Background: How Did the Idea for This Project Come About?
Contemporary dance is a form of movement that breaks away from traditional techniques, embracing a wide range of styles, physical expressions, and creative approaches. It emerged around 100 years ago as a reaction to the constraints of classical dance, and it continues to reflect contemporary cultural, social, and aesthetic developments.
Like contemporary art in general, contemporary dance can sometimes encounter resistance from audiences who are more familiar with established rules, clear structures, and traditional forms of expression. The openness and complexity of contemporary work can initially feel disorienting.
Since the very beginning of my choreographic career, I’ve been driven by a few central questions:
How can we present contemporary dance in a way that sparks curiosity rather than fear?
How can we break down barriers, open doors, and create real encounters?
In the early years of my professional journey, I developed specific methods for audience engagement – such as my “keychain method,” which I’ve continued to use, and specially designed publication formats that help interpret dance works.
From this foundation, the idea was born to turn these guiding principles, goals, and intentions into a dedicated program – Mat Iech was created.
Much has happened since then. In just three years, we’ve delivered 43 events through this program – primarily in Luxembourg and the Greater Region, but also in Scotland and Germany.
What Is Behind the Program Mat Iech?
Mat Iech is our program for dance education and accessibility.
It stands on two central pillars:
What? – Accessibility
We bring dance to places and people who might otherwise have little or no access to it – due to age, illness, language, background, or social circumstances.
Our company performs in senior homes, rural areas, so-called “social hotspots,” hospitals, and youth centers. The formats we offer are flexible and tailored to the needs of each audience – often accompanied by live music, always with an open heart.
How? – Mediation
For each stage production, we develop a bespoke outreach program: a tailor-made event shaped for its specific audience. These range from post-performance discussions using the “keychain method,” to creative workshops and customized publications for different groups, featuring playful puzzles, commissioned poems, and interviews with the artistic team.
We apply this diverse toolbox of methods in a targeted and context-sensitive way – always with the aim of making dance tangible and accessible.
How We Work?
Mat Iech – Dance Pieces for Unique Spaces and Encounters
As part of Mat Iech, we adapt our dance pieces – originally conceived for the stage – to smaller and often unconventional venues.
This means:
We flexibly adjust content and format – both to the spatial setting and to the people we are meeting. We reduce cast sizes, create individualized event formats, and develop creative settings that respond to the specific context.
We work resource-efficiently and are highly mobile: Our productions can be transported and set up with minimal effort.
Each event is one-of-a-kind: We listen, respond to the moment, and invite people to experience dance as a shared, living encounter.
Our goal is to create a genuine point of connection – a moment in which dance opens a doorway.
Connection Through Dialogue – Listening as Part of Our Practice
After our performances, we intentionally open a dialogue with the audience.
We ask questions like:
What touched you? What thoughts or memories came up? What images or feelings did you experience?
My aim is always to convey to the audience: Everything you saw, felt, or associated is valid. And valuable.
Many people approach contemporary dance with hesitation – worried that they might “not understand it.” To counter this fear, I often begin by saying that these encounters are a gift to us. There is no right or wrong – only personal experience.
Audiences learn from one another when they share impressions: one person sees a snail, another a rocket. One feels joy, another sadness – and this is precisely the richness of these conversations. Dance is reflected in so many eyes – and every perspective is a gift.
These intense moments of reflection and exchange enrich not only the audience, but also us as dancers and artists.
Much of our work happens in the protected space of the studio, far from direct interaction with diverse people. Engaging with audiences allows us to feel the impact of our work – who it moves, and why we do what we do.
From Watching to Participating – Dance Workshops After the Performance
Following our performance segments – which vary in length, emotion, and format depending on the audience (sometimes solo, sometimes ensemble; sometimes short, sometimes longer) – we offer a dance workshop.
These workshops are a core element of our concept: they bridge the gap between observing and doing.
The design of each workshop is tailored to the age and needs of the group.
Together with our dancers, participants co-create a short choreography, accompanied by live music – for instance, from the United Instruments of Lucilin, with whom we’ve worked extensively.
The music enhances the atmosphere and helps connect emotion with movement.
The result is a shared moment – a small, collective artwork that shows: Dance isn’t just something you watch – it’s something you can experience yourself.
A Booklet for Everyone – Our Publication as an Extension of the Experience
To conclude our events, we give audience members a specially designed publication.
This booklet is more than a program or companion piece – it’s a multi-faceted gateway into the world of the performance, created for diverse audiences.
And by “diverse,” we don’t just mean age or background, but especially interests.
That’s why our booklet includes contributions on various levels:
- In-depth content: Essays or scholarly-inspired texts that delve into and contextualize the themes of the piece.
- Literary entries: We regularly commission poems or short stories that engage artistically with the work.
- Playful elements: Riddles, coloring pages, small tasks – a source of joy for children, but also adults. We believe: there’s a piece of childhood in everyone.
- Insights into the team: Personal questions, thoughts, or anecdotes from the production process create a sense of intimacy and invite identification.
The goal is to extend the experience – as a memory, a conversation starter, and a way to keep thinking, playing, or feeling beyond the performance.
In senior homes, for example, we intentionally hand out the puzzle and coloring sections – as an invitation to smile, engage, and rediscover a playful sense of creativity.
Audience Voices
“The participating residents greatly enjoyed the performance.”
Fondation J.-P. Pescatore
“Thank you very much! The students really enjoyed the performance and the workshops. They were also very impressed by the huge marimba.”
Lycée des Arts et Métiers
“I really appreciated how the dancers / the entire team were able to respond to the children and their wishes and needs. The children thought the performance was very ‘cool’. Thank you very much.”
Fondation Kannerschlass, Centre Thérapeutique La Passerelle
“Very positive feedback from both children and adults!”
Alive + / Foyer Famil
“A lovely afternoon for our participants, and I was surprised how many people joined the dance moment at the end of the performance. It was wonderful.”
Fondation Autisme Luxembourg (FAL) Belvaux
“Thank you again for this experience :)”
SERVIOR Op der Léier
HOW TO PREPARE TO OUR TOUR / WANT TO INVITE US?
TOUR – Florescence in Decay
Following the premiere, Florescence in Decay were brought to retirement homes, foyers, and hospitals in and around Ettelbrück. The aim was to make dance accessible to people who can no longer attend theatre performances themselves. In this way, Florescence in Decay became a shared experience that creates connection, presence, and moments of beauty – right in the midst of everyday life, with and for the people of Ettelbrück.
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6 – 12 May 2026
CDI Clervaux, Ateliers du Tricentenaire, Bissen
CHNP Pontalize, Luxembourg, CHNP Annexe Syrdall Schlass, Manternach
Maison Don Bosco, Luxembourg, Maison Saint Martin, Luxembourg
HPPA Clervaux, Autism Luxembourg (Foyer Boxhorn)
CHNP Ettelbruck (De Park), Fondation Lëtzebuerger Kannerduerf, Mersch
Fondation Autisme Luxembourg, Munzen, Trisomie 21 Betzdorf, Lorentzweiler
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The tour was funded by Fondation Sommer, Oeuvre Nationale, Fondation EME, and Fondation Loutsch-Weydert.
TOUR – Sensorial Symphonies
7th – 13th November 2025
Fondation Pescatore, Luxembourg City
Fondation Autisme, Centre Culturelle Rambrouch
Maison St. Martin, Luxembourg City
Servior – Op der Léier, Esch sûr Alzette
Fondation Kraizberg, Foyer la Cersaie
Fondation Kannerschlass Centre Thérapeutique, Souleuvre
Elysis, Esch–sur–Alzette
LAM – Lycée des Arts et Métiers, Luxembourg City
Foyer Famill, Esch-sur-Alzette
Centre Hospitalier, Ville de Luxembourg
Fondation Autisme, Belval
Centre Hospitalier, Luxemburg City
Fondation Autisme, Belval
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We sincerely thank our funders, Fondation Sommer, for their profound commitment to this endeavour, as well as the Ministère de la Culture – Accès à la Culture, Œuvre Nationale de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte, and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg for their generous support.
TOUR – ITA INFINITA
9 – 13 October 2022
SOS Kannerduerf Mersch
Centre thérapeutique Manternach
Two School Performances, Trifolion Echternach
Servior Um Schleeschen Echternach
School Performance, Trifolion Echternach
Servior Belle Vue Echternach
Haus Bergfried, Synagoge Wittlich
Hospice civile in Echternach
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Due to the great flexibility that Ita Infinita offers, it is to tour to both theatres, festivals and alternative spaces. A specific focus for the October 2022 tour has been to tour the work in full or excerpts in or around senior homes, in so-called socially deprived areas, in hospitals, in rural areas with poor accessibility or also in kindergartens and schools. The tailor-made events are highly flexible and adapted to the specific needs of every institution and inhabitants and include a moderation, a post-show performance talk as well as a short movement workshop and the distribution of the free accompanying publication.
Final Words
Mat Iech is not just a program.
It’s a mindset. An invitation.
A heartfelt attempt to create connection through dance – in a world so often shaped by distance.
Cree Barnett Williams
Johanna Schmitt
Johanna Schmitt
