Question of Taste: Alexandre Iseli of Tipperary Dance International Festival picks his faves 

Johnny Cash, Radiohead and Pina Bausch feature in the Swiss choreographer's selections 

Alexandre Iseli, Tipperary Dance International Festival. 

Alexandre Iseli is Artistic Director of Tipperary Dance International Festival, currently taking place in the county. A choreographer who grew up in Switzerland and trained as a biologist and a dancer, Alexandre has been living in Ireland for many years. In 2008, he founded the festival with his partner Jazmin Chiodi. Running until October 16 October, the festival has performances in ten locations across Co Tipperary. See  www.tipperarydance.com 

Best recent book you've read: I regularly come back to Jim Harrison's books. I love the simplicity, the fluidity, the wild spirit, the no-fuss spirituality and how it is anchored in the reality that surrounds us. Strangely, my bedside book has been James Ellroy's White Jazz. Fantastic elliptic writing, and the constant hope for redemption in the dark.

Best recent film: The last films that had a really lasting impact on me were Lars Von Triers' Melancholia, and Wim Wenders' Pina Bausch.

Pina Bausch. 

Best recent show you’ve seen: It's not recent, but Simon McBurney's theatre piece The Encounter is the one that really sticks with me. Fantastic acting, dramaturgy, use of sound, narrative, triggering of the imagination, and all with a single actor onstage.

Best piece of music you’ve been listening to lately (new or old): I am mostly sensitive to voice. Johnny Cash's American VI: Ain't No Grave overwhelms me. I just heard 2+2=5 by Radiohead, I wish I could do dance pieces the way they do music. Poema by Francisco Canaro is a jewel.

First ever show or piece of dance that really moved you: It was a documentary film about the late choreographer Dominique Bagouet. I discovered the dialectics between depth and lightness. I saw the depth and joy that exist in just crafting movement to describe the subtleties of feeling alive.

The best dance piece/show you've ever seen (if you had to pick one!): I think that Trisha Brown's Set and Reset was the most literally exhilarating piece I have seen.

Tell us about your TV viewing: I rarely watch television and if I do, I watch ski competitions or the news. I sometimes watch the French-German public channel Arte.

Radio listening and/or podcasts: There is a podcast on a French channel by Guillaume Meurice, who interviews people on hot topics like race, immigration, etc. He exposes the meanness, racism and narrow-mindedness in some people's reactions. He is very witty, doesn't let anything slip through the cracks, very frontal. He offers a real warning against self-righteousness and entitlement.

You're curating your dream dance festival – which three artists are on the bill? Marlene Monteiro Freitas, without a doubt. She is originally from Cabo Verde and based in Portugal. We have programmed German choreographer Alexandra Waierstall at Tipperary Dance Festival, and I would love to invite her again. It would be fantastic if people in Ireland ad Tipperary could see the work of Ayelen Parolin an Argentinian choreographer based in Brussels. We had the pleasure of sharing some creative moments with her in 2015. She is really bold and always relevant.

A file picture of Jazmin Chiodi and Alexandre Iseli dancing together. 

Your best/most famous celebrity encounter: I don't know anything about celebrities. When I worked in La Rochelle's National Choreographic Centre in France, we spent a week outdoors working with Land Artist Andy Goldsworthy. He is one of Land Art's leading artists, but I am not sure that matches today's description of celebrity. I loved his work, not only his pieces, but why and how he works. 

You can portal back to any cultural event or music era – where, when, and why? Maybe Woodstock, to share that moment of history when people and artist went together to challenge the establishment. Many artists are now struggling to be free and simply express their own vision. Not how they see themselves, but how they read the world. Everything seems to be managed by context, policy and fame now. The huge historical success of Woodstock was based on a vast organisational failure, what a lesson! At Tipperary Dance International Festival we try to create a context that makes space for the artists, for their actual voice.