conversations in ten questions 42 : Becca Hoback
© Andrea Behrends
In this series of interviews we try to get to know the artists who will perform in Fringe Festival İstanbul 2022. Our first guest is Becca Hoback from Enactor Productions.
Ayse Draz, Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Mehmet Kerem Ozel, Writer
Enactor’s solos are exploring what it means to be a human being having a relationship with your body. As I was beginning to curate the collection of solos, the spark was wanting to understand how to better integrate my relationship with my body into my identity. I realized there was a strong separation between the times when I was aware of my body - usually in the dance studio - and the rest of my life. As I began exploring this topic and having conversations with others, I realized that each person’s body-relationship is going to look different - sometimes drastically. I knew I wanted to work with others to gain more perspective and explore just that. How do we think about and treat our bodies? How does that affect the way we move through the world - literally and figuratively? How can our bodies be a source of experience, inspiration, power, and connection?
Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How?
Yes, absolutely! For me art is a way to process life experiences and emotions. I can “know” a lesson or cognitively “understand” it in some way - but the message never quite sinks in until I’ve had some kind of integrative, creative experience. By moving my body through an experience - or watching someone else move through an experience - I am able to unpack concepts and lessons more deeply. I think this is also the case for audiences experiencing art; they enter another world in the performance and that distance from everyday life can make space for a cathartic experience. A big goal of mine is to inspire artists and non-artists alike to engage with creative activities to access these transformative experiences.
When you are working on a piece, what sources inspire you? Do dreams play a role in your pieces?
In the creative process, oftentimes interaction plays a large role in the work: how the choreographer and I are relating in the studio, how we are challenging each other, and how we are supporting each other. When I am self-choreographing a solo, I often try to create some form of this interaction with the space, with a prop, or by bringing other dancers into the room. It’s a bit counterintuitive, but I think that while solo work digs really deep inside the individual, it is always in the context of a community. Why is this person onstage isolated… or are they really? What else is present onstage? These kinds of questions help me refresh my approach with works in my repertoire that I’ve rehearsed and performed a lot.
When do you decide to give a title to a piece you are working on if it already does not have one?
The title of the show, Enactor, came after these three solos were completed, and I was trying to identify the deeper themes behind these works, for myself and hopefully for the audience. I came up with Enactor, because for me the work is all about physically moving through experiences, emotions, and states of being. I feel there is sometimes a tendency to intellectualize and analyze circumstances, but to physicalize them brings them into a sharper focus and can be a confronting, challenging, fulfilling, and cathartic experience for all involved. This “enactment” is at the core of what I want to do - not only consider and plan, but put thoughts and experiences into action.
Are there any artist or person whom you think influenced your art most? And if there is such an artist or person, who?
I feel my work is a result of all of the people and artists I’ve collaborated and interacted with. Certainly the choreographers of this program have heavily influenced my work and my life: Ana Maria Lucaciu, Ben Green, Roy Assaf, and Ariel Freedman. These collaborations were my first steps in exploring how my past experience would manifest in my independent work; what do I want to take with me, and what do I want to leave behind?
When you consider the current state of the world in every sense, what is the most important and urgent issue for you as an artist?
I think connecting with our bodies is urgent for our health, well-being, and interconnectivity. Our increasingly virtual existence has rendered our bodies more motionless than ever before, and we are spending more of our lives in a mental/virtual space. I believe that when we are presently engaged in a creative physical practice, we become more self-aware, empathetic, empowered, and connected to our humanity. I feel this is vital for our thriving as individuals as a society.
What does ‘Fringe’ signify for you?
For me, “Fringe” signifies a sort of independence and freedom. I feel I’m an artist who is developing on the outskirts of the established performing arts heirarchy. I always believed that I had to rely on a dance company to produce and validate my career and creative vision, but in the last years I’ve really enjoyed feeling like I’m growing something on the outside of that ecosystem. It seems several artists at the festival have a similar journey, and I’m eager to connect with them and experience their work.
Why did you decide to participate in the Istanbul Fringe Festival particularly with ‘Enactor’?
I applied for the festival because I’m curious to know how this performance lands with an audience outside of the United States. I’m honored to be invited into this community to share this work, and hope to have meaningful conversations that will help inform the future of the work that I create and curate. To be honest, when I saw the application I thought to myself “there’s no way I’ll be selected, but I have the submission materials so let’s just try!” … and it worked! I still can hardly believe it.
What is the reason that brings together three solo works of four choreographers in the same evening?
I wanted to give multiple perspectives on the topic of body-relationship. I feel the combination of the three works gives variety and also enables more than just my voice to be heard. The through-line is an investigation of how we as individuals relate to the body, and how the body is both a public and private entity.
Is there anything particular you would like to tell the Istanbul audience before they experience your piece?I’m incredibly eager to have conversations with audience members and learn what this program evokes in them! What strikes a chord and moves them? What is challenging or confusing? More than anything I hope the audience feels a connection with me onstage that inspires them to come have a conversation after the show!
[The Turkish version of this interview was published in unlimited.]
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