Maéva Cochin trains about 30 to 40 hours every week: She is a student at a professional contemporary dance school in Montreal, Canada. Not only did she take us into her everyday life, but also told us about her experiences and dreams.
Since the age of eleven, she has had a passion for dancing. Over time, Maéva Cochin has come to understand and know her body. She then developed her own style through improvisation. In this process, it is essential to work with precision. Less important in contemporary dance are physical prerequisites, which play a more significant role in ballet. “Nowadays you can be an excellent dancer without having excellent flexibility.”, she tells us. According to her, talent can help, but work and perseverance are the main criteria.
During the week, the first class starts already at 8 am. Some days it is only over at 7:30 pm. She also sometimes stays in school to work on personal projects or to reinforce the skills she has learned. We ask ourselves whether she still has the opportunity to pursue other hobbies. “Yes, definitely!” she replies. “It’s necessary for an artist to enrich themselves with other forms of art or other activities in order to flourish in the dancer’s life.” It is during the times when she is not training that she gets the most inspiration. “I get inspiration and ideas from everything! I am very creative at night, because then I am alone with myself and often get bored. Consequently, I have time to create. I really like to be inspired by other art forms, such as music, visual arts, literature, photography and also philosophy.” It’s precisely because she can be inspired by anything that she loves contemporary dance: “I can use my personal style and that’s what I’m looking for.”
After her graduation, she would like to start with an international professional dancer career and then become a choreographer to pass on her values and technique to other dancers. However, the market is tough and competition is fierce. What role does discipline play in this? “To get a healthy body, a healthy mind and to improve in dance discipline is very important for the dancer. It is really difficult even impossible to stay disciplined 24/7. Everyone must know for themselves how much discipline is necessary.” For this reason, it is also important to have one’ s emotions in control. On the one hand, the dancers should show their feelings on stage, on the other hand, there is often hard feedback that has to be dealt with.
“We need comments and feedback in order to progress and to understand what is right or wrong, However, we often face criticism. Some teachers are tougher than others.” That is also why it was not always easy for her to consider her work as sufficient and good enough. “This has really been complex for me. I always feel like improving my creations. Sometimes I can modify a choreography after a year of work. This, I think, will change with experience.” Yet her passion has changed her life: “Dance has really changed the person I am and I often say that I would be a completely different person that I might not appreciate. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to see life as I see it, which is with a lot of sensitivity, maturity and empathy.”
We are excited to follow her path in life and are curious to see on which stage of this world she will perform one day. You can also accompany Maéva Cochin on her journey: She regularly publishes content on Instagram.
