New flagship company of Temal Productions, the acrobatic duo Nikki & JD makes us dream. In their latest show (KNOT), they tell us a love story through dance, they express themselves with their bodies through acrobatics, and each movement reveals a distinct emotion. Combining strength and vulnerability, the characters surrender completely in front of moved spectators.
To find out more about what is behind this KNOT of movement and passion, we asked Nikki about the duo she forms with Jean-Daniel, their latest creation, what unite them. Incidentally, we took the opportunity to ask her how her confinement went.
Temal Productions : How was lockdown for you? Do you feel changed after the experience?
Nikki: On a personal level, I feel lucky to have not lost any loved ones from COVID-19. I also feel heartbroken by the loss of performance dates and the yawning pit of uncertainty that has opened up under the entire arts sector. I’ve learned that it’s ok to slow down, take stock, feel how I really feel. I’ve learned that I can eat cheap food and still be happy. I’ve learned that I need to live with uncertainty because we’re all going to be stuck with it for a long while.
Temal Productions : How did you meet your current partner jean-Daniel?
Nikki: We met at the National Centre for Circus Arts in London. It was a chance meeting in a studio. We weren’t students at circus school, we were adults who had a choice over who we wanted to work with. And we chose to work together. It still makes me smile to think about the first time we trained together. JD made a little video of our training just a few weeks after we met and it made me think, “this is a very good person to work with”.
Temal Productions : What was the creative process behind Knot?
Nikki: It was a long process, over the course of two years. We made the show in stages: First a 20-minute version, then a 35-minute version, then a 50-minute version. I think this was one of its strengths. We had time to create, to step away and do other projects for months at a time, then return to it with fresh eyes. It gave us clarity around what we wanted. We also invited a lot of different outside eyes and support to get involved, which was both helpful and a challenge. It helped us to hone our priorities, our artistic tastes, by being faced with these diverse voices, and the two of us pulled in the same direction.
Temal Productions: Why is the bond between your two characters so special and unique?
Nikki: It is a very intense and all-consuming sort of relationship. When you work with someone as your acrobatic partner, you draw a line around yourselves as an ‘exclusive’ partnership that seeks work together, turns down other opportunities if they are not inclusive of you as a duo, and prioritises each other’s time. In this way in feels like a marriage. It’s not terribly sustainable, but it’s beautiful in its intensity and emotional care. I think many people can relate to this in their feelings about their own intimate relationships, even if they are not acrobats.
Temal Productions: How similar and how different are you from your partner Jean-Daniel? How do you get along?
Nikki: We get along well. We’re friends, first and foremost. I think there’s a lot of care and sensitivity to how we approach things together. We also have similar tastes in movement qualities, we often get excited by similar artistic and creative challenges, but we also have our own individual tastes and ideas. We have a similar distaste for toxic masculinity, arrogance and corporate slickness. We have fun moving together.