As a musician, performer, educator, poet and maker I am fascinated by the simple and deep expressions revealing and reflecting the vulnerability and honesty of human expression, emotions, the conversations between the body-the soul-the spirit, searching for the real and raw beauty connecting us beyond the artwork or performance. As a musician I specialize in playing the flauto traverso and other wooden flutes, often working with voice and extended techniques. Fascinated by & rooted in physicality and musicality of the body, instrument, sound, voice, poetry – I create music-movement-poetry performances, compositions and encounters, pushing/shifting/breaking the boundaries of performance genres & between performer and audience, and between the “classes of people”.
Ako hudobníčku, performerku, pedagogičku, poetku a tvorivého človeka ma fascinuje jednoduché a hlboké sebavyjadrenie – akéhokoľvek rázu – odrážajúce krehkosť a skutočnosť ľudských emócií, prepojení medzi telom – dušou – duchom, hľadanie autentickej krásy a ľudskosti, ktorá nás prepája za hranicami umeleckého diela alebo predstavenia. Ako hudobník sa špecializujem na hru na flauto traverso a rôzne, prevažne drevené flauty, pričom často pracujem s hlasom a rozšírenými technikami. Moje korene ako performerky tkvejú vo fyzikalite a muzikalite tela, nástroja, zvuku, hlasu a poézie – tvorím hudobno-pohybovo-poetické performancie, kompozície a stretnutia posúvajúce – dekonštruujúce a lámuce hranice performatívnych žánrov, medzi performerom a publikom, a medzi sociálno-ekonomickými vrstvami spoločnosti.
Growing up in Bratislava, Slovakia, and having a background with experimental, contemporary, early, improvised and club music, I followed music education from early childhood while frequently cheating on it with exploring movement, dance and later theatre environments and secretly writing poetry, always looking for the core of myself and my practice. Embodying my music influences, my curiosity and passion for movement and creating my own way of performing led me eventually into the physical theatre and interdisciplinary performance worlds. Moving from a post-soviet Slovakia to the “free western world” country the Netherlands for my music studies years ago has completely changed my perspective on the world as such, while always meeting people from all walks of life and all kinds of backgrounds, listening to their stories and life experiences has made a lasting impact on how I now think of art, life and creativity, it has changed me and inspired me deeply.
I graduated in early music performance at conservatories in Amsterdam and The Hague, finishing my studies Cum Laude for my graduation performances LOST AUDIENCE and SOLITUDE OF THE BODY, combining early and new music and poetry. The paradox is that I chose to specialize in the phenomena “early music” essentially for getting deep into mastering my music instrument – the wooden flauto traverso, with which I fell in love for its deep, colourful, human-voice-like sound. At the same time I was following the practice of ´Musicality of Movement´ and physical theatre for many years at an independent education platform MAPA – The Moving Academy for Performing Arts, and attending dance and movement classes, slowly developing my own movement language.
Discouraged by the business-like capitalist approach to music and art in the classical/formal environments, I never wanted to play in an orchestra or join the music performance machinery. I thrive in the undefined spaces “in-between”, always looking for ways of performing that embody vulnerability, authentic and raw self-expression allowing me to truly connect with myself and my audience.
Following this desire together with the belief that art is “food for our souls” therefore it needs to be accessible for everyBody from all classes & backgrounds – I passionately explore the many ways of “being on stage”, de-constructing the traditional performance formats, breaking free and pushing the boundaries between the performance genres and between the performer and the audience, bringing music & poetry into diverse spaces and shifting perspectives on what live performance is and could be. As a performer I see myself mostly as a mediator where feelings, ideas, visions are flowing through my body to express and share them with the audience.
As a child I wanted to be a dancer, but being diagnosed with an autoimmune chronic illness at the age of five, I could never follow this path fully. However I believe this moment is what determined my path until today, giving birth to my life-long fascination with the theme of “the body”, living the various stages of my relationship with it, and allowing me to connect deeper to the “stories from the other people´s bodies”, ultimately leading me to find my way as a physical performer and educator working with people with various body-specifications, (dis)abilities, (hyper)sensitivities and finding the real human beauty in being exactly the way you are.
Creativity is part of daily life, and anyone trying to elevate art above life, does not do it a real justice. That is what I have slowly understood for myself, and somehow that guides me to do what I do. I thrive in the “in-between” spaces, the “in-between” genres where I can breathe, expand, explore and discover what would otherwise remain hidden but where – for me -lies so much potential for creativity, magic, true connection and thinking about creativity from an upside down perspective.
I see my creative practice as an ever-evolving and transforming process embodying my life experience, lived emotions, encounters with stories of other people and artists. Recurring subjects in my works are transformation, vulnerability, love, nature, (dis)connection, human emotions, the body-and-the soul.
spring 2026
music x movement x poetry • by Dorota Márföldi-Matejová 