Articulating Choreographic Thought: Simona Șomăcescu in dialogue with Sergiu Matis

Thursday, April 23, 2026, Ileana Berlogea Hall, 1^st  floor, 4:15 – 6:15 PM

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Sergiu Matis is one of the most provocative and visionary choreographers of the 21st century. His creations defy easy categorization: they are intellectual yet visceral, rigorous yet unruly, unsettling yet deeply human. His choreographic language moves with urgency and precision, confronting audiences with questions that resonate far beyond the stage. Through his distinctive blend of physical intensity, conceptual clarity, and meticulous research, he continually pushes the boundaries of how dance can speak to contemporary realities. With each new work, Sergiu Matis reminds us that choreography is not merely an aesthetic endeavor but a vital mode of inquiry—one capable of reflecting the complexities of our time while imagining alternative futures. His contribution to the evolution of dance is profound, not only through the originality of his artistic vision, but through the courage with which he inhabits and expands the field. For his relentless pursuit of innovation, for the boldness of his artistic spirit, and for his extraordinary capacity to reshape our understanding of movement and meaning, we are honored to place Sergiu Matis at the center of FOCUS ON. His work stands as a testament to the power of creative risk and the enduring potential of dance to provoke, illuminate, and transform.

Biography 

Sergiu Matis is a Romanian choreographer living in Berlin since 2008. His work has been presented throughout Europe, including at ImPulsTanz (Vienna), Centre National de la Danse (Paris), PACT Zollverein (Essen), Trafó (Budapest) and DansFabrik (Brest). His most recent performance, Earth Works, premiered in December 2024 at Radialsystem Berlin. Sergiu was born in Cluj-Napoca. He studied dance at the Liceul de Coregrafie in his hometown from 1991 to 2000, and then at the Mannheim Academy of Dance as a recipient of the Birgit Keil Foundation scholarship. He began his professional career at Tanztheater Nuremberg, where he worked under the artistic direction of Daniela Kurz. He has been involved in several productions with Sasha Waltz & Guests, both as a performer and rehearsal director. In 2014, Sergiu completed his masters in Solo/Dance/Authorship (SoDA) at the Inter University Centre for Dance (HZT) Berlin. He was awarded a scholarship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation for the duration of his studies. Sergiu has been commissioned to create new works for various dance companies including the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company, Studio Contemporary Dance Company (Zagreb) and ŻfinMalta National Dance Company. He has led numerous workshops and educational activities worldwide, most recently at the Hollins University (Virginia, USA) MFA summer school in Plovdiv (Bulgaria), and at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. He has additionally conducted workshops and training at institutions including HZT, WASP Bucharest, Sasha Waltz & Guests, Seoul International Dance Competition, Nihon University College of Art, Miyako Dance Space Tokyo and ŻfinMalta National Dance Company. In 2024, Sergiu received the National Center for Dance Bucharest Award for his contribution to the development of contemporary dance in Romania.

List of works 

Press excerpts 

“The constantly moving bodies immerse us in an infinitely variable choreographic fabric, capable of generating atmospheres that are earthy and dream-like, and at times disturbing. The gestural choreographic composition is evocative; its practice lies on the borderline between structure and breaking free from it, and it escapes from a purely visual framework to become a collective moment of listening. The activated choreographic process was able to break the dance/choreography dichotomy, leaving the strong feeling that, here, choreography was constructed through dance as a form of living composition.” 

“Earth Works […] is a convincingly rigorous choreographic ensemble piece.” “Matis succeeds in creating an atmospherically dense performance through gestural, dance-based and linguistic examination and realisation of text fragments, which often only comprise a few words.” “Earth Works convinces through the concentration of replicating movement sequences, which, in precisely these repetitions, enter into a constantly new recontextualisation with the fragmented narrative threads, opening up all those worlds whose creation – and death – the authors describe.” https://www.tanzschrift.at/buehne/nah-besehen/1842-impulstanz-ein-zweiter-blick-auf earth-works (in German) 

Angela Heide (Tanzschrift) 

“[Matis is] one of the most urgent voices in contemporary dance.” “[Earth Works] breaks open dance as a mode of ecological activism – imaginative, insistent, and deeply humane.” “An exemplary fusion of form, content, and context.” 

Nadejda Komendantova (European News Agency), https://www.european-news-agency.de/kunst_kultur_und_musik/vital_resonance_sergiu_ matiss_earth_works_-91696 

“Earth Works invites us to rethink the relationship between humans and nature, and celebrates the power of transformation.” 

“Through their bodies, the dancers let truth flow. If words may abstract meaning, the dancers carry the detailed significance of each thought – making it visible, perhaps newly understood, and why not, loved for the first time.”