conversations in ten questions 36 : Rita Góbi

In this series of interviews we try to get to know the artists who were the artists of İstanbul Fringe Festival in 2022. Our third guest is Rita Góbi from Góbi Dance. 

 Ayse Draz, Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Mehmet Kerem Ozel, Writer

© Marcell Piti

What is the essence of performance in your opinion?

For me, the essence of my performance is the condensed energy, the presence which attracts the gaze, as well as sharing different elements of life with each other.

Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How?

I believe that art can chill you out and turn you on at the same time, it can make you think, add something to everyday life - like a meditation. It allows your thoughts fly freely and see the piece through your own life. If you let art open you, you will be able to embrace it.

When you are working on a piece, what sources inspire you? Do dreams play a role in your works? 

I always have plenty of ideas, visions, they come very easily. I let myself be immersed in them and the piece starts writing itself. At the beginning I don’t try interpreting, I choose “just” flying – after a while I stop and look at what I have drawn, what I have sculptured with my body. It is like a child building a castle while playing.

When do you decide to give a title to a work you are working on if it already does not have one?

As the title always leads the audience’s thoughts to a certain interpretation, I usually choose “working title" as a starting point, and I make the final decision when I already see the main direction of my creation. The best would be to be able to finalise the title only at the very end of the creation process, but it is obviously impossible for practical reasons.

Are there any artist whom you can describe as "my master", or any person whom you think influenced your art most? And if there is such an artist or person, who?

I should say that everybody and everything has a big impact on me – even a mosquito can inspire me. The way how to warm up, strengthen and stretch my body – I learnt it all by observing elder colleagues. I have been watching plenty of performances, I have been going to all the premiers around, I have been researching dance archives, I have been watching dance performances from all over the world on TV, I have been participating at dance courses and workshops – just learning all the time. When I studied at the Hungarian Academy of Dance in my very young age, the biggest gift I got was that our professors let us create, thus I could realise choreographies which has been presented on stage and television.

How do you think that this pandemic which humanity is facing at a global scale today will transform performing arts in the future?

I think that the online sphere is in our life for a long time already, and now it became more obvious, mor in the focus of our lives. The notion of ‘home’ became more important, online courses and meetings proved their worth – but people also need physical presence and contacts. I feel all this is a transitional situation.

What does ‘Fringe’ signify for you?

The main aim of every performance and of every travel to another culture is sharing. I want to share the world of my piece ‘Volitant’ with others.

From the programme notes we assume that music (by Dávid Szegő) played an important part in the composition of Volitant. Can you tell us a little bit about this relationship to music and the creation process?

In most of the times I start working without music. When my inner music is already built, when I already feel my own inner pulsation, I invite a composer to the creation process. Thus my own music turns into a duo with the composer’s music, a dialogue between the movement and the music begins. In case of Volitant the bases of this dialogue were the Morse codes. I sent different words related to the choreographies to the composer and he turned them into Morse codes – it launched a flow where every idea was followed by a next one.

If you had to translate Volitant into a single sentence, what would that sentence be?

Being a bird. Runway. Flying away.

Why did you decide to participate in the Istanbul Fringe festival particularly with this work of yours?

I aim at presenting my work to the widest audience possible – thus after Denmark, Serbia, Romania, Spain, Bulgaria, Czechia, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Mexico, Korea, Germany, Poland, Greece, Austria I’m eager to fly on.

[The Turkish version of this interview was published in unlimited]