Q: In Poor Things, Bella’s body seems to be learning how to exist all over again. How did you create movement for a character who doesn’t yet know the social rules of the body?

In Poor Things, I worked specifically in the dance scene and the fight that follows, plus the dance of the extras in a couple of other scenes. In terms of how Bella dances, I focused on the character who was a child exponentially growing on an adult's body and, in that particular scene, the turning point that that dance is for the character and for the relationship with Duncan. The dance is a moment of wanting to be part of and, at the same time, to break off (with Duncan).

Q: How does improvisation transform into finished material for the stage?

We use improvisation to create and to get into a trance state where the movement has its own life and gives us the chance of surprise. Once we get there (the improvisations are recorded), movement gets fixed according to the scene.

A: There are scenes that are fixed from the beginning, like all the work I do with live camera. It is directed and fixed on the spot, and it builds until the scene is done. It means every moment of the stage, the performers, and the text is fixed every day, minute by minute. Sometimes there is a brilliant improvisation like Steph Quinci's monologue on live camera in The Hunger. It is recorded, transcribed, and I build the whole scene around it.

It is different every time, but it is always fixed. The ending of The Future was somehow improvised, but by the end of the run it was also pretty fixed.