Alter Ego International Theatre Festival
Enactor: Is this good? / Offering / Reprise
Post-Show Interview
Originally published on Alma Alter Theatre’s social media page
On the last day of the International Theatre Festival Alter Ego we had an amazing performance «Enactor: is this good? / Offering / Reprise». This performance is brought to us by Enactor Productions, created by Becca Hoback, a freelance movement artist, performer, collaborator, and choreographer from the USA.
After the performance Tanya Danilova, the festival volunteer, talked with Becca about feelings, emotions and thoughts from inside the stage.
- Tanya: What is the most important thing for you as an artist and as a human in your performance? What inspired you to make this performance?
- Rebecca: I started off really thinking about my relationship with my body and I wanted to unpack different experiences of my life and the emotional journey that I’ve been through through physicality. And I think I just wanted to focus on this idea of using the body, using our full selves to experience life and experience our emotions.
- Tanya: I feel like you succeeded in doing that! The way you existed on the stage was compelling to watch. For me it was nostalgic and relatable in many aspects. And I know it was also relatable for many other people from the audience as we’ve already had a chance to exchange some feedback after watching the performance. At a certain point a person who was sitting next to me and I just looked at each other and found ourselves on the edge of crying a bit because of how relatable the whole experience actually was.
- Rebecca: Thank you! It’s especially special because I’ve never been to this place before, I mean to Sofia, Bulgaria, I’m a total outsider. And the fact that the work is still resonating is really meaningful. I think that’s incredible! I’m so grateful.
- Tanya: Your performance consists of three parts, the two of which you’ve made in a collaboration with two other choreographers, respectively. And the last part is completely yours, right? Why did you decide to work on the first two pieces of your performance with these specific artists?
- Rebecca: I really wanted to work with Ana Maria and Ben because we have had a close connection for a long time. And so it feels like they really know me, and it felt like we were really able to dive into some more intimate sort of processes because we knew each other.
- Tanya: While watching the performance I also had an impression that dancing is a very important part of your identity. It seemed to me that you’ve been dancing for a lot of time in your life, probably trying out various styles. That’s because of how you looked, of how well-controlled but at the same authentic and organic your movements were and how you played with different kinds of music.
- Rebecca: I’ve been dancing since a young age and I grew up training in ballet and contemporary dance. However, now I’m thinking about it a lot more as just movements and physicality. So it’s definitely a part of my identity, I think. But I also think that it’s sort of a part of all of our identities because we all have bodies. And each body is going to be different and move differently. But I think that inherently the way we move through the world is actually us.
- Tanya: Definitely. But I’m also curious about the choice of the music for the performance. There were some classical music pieces mixed with some choral music and more dramatic contemporary things, and also old American songs and music from a Muppet show, right? So, what inspired you to use this specific music?
- Rebecca: Two other choreographers chose the music for the first two pieces, and I think were intending to set a mood, a tone, create an environment with the soundtrack. And similarly in the last piece, the way that I chose the music was that I was playing with tracks that felt very nostalgic to me, felt like they resonated with the themes that I was playing with, but I was determined not to just play them as a playlist right after the other. I really wanted to experiment with layering them and kind of imitating a disrupted train of thought with a disrupted sound score.
- Tanya: Indeed, you managed to convey that feeling. I also felt that I was flicking through a personal diary when I was watching the performance. Half yours, half my own because of how resonating it was. Was there a particular story that you either consciously or subconsciously put into the performance and wouldn’t mind to share?
- Rebecca: For sure, there’s a lot. I think that in the base of all of the works—and these three in particular are very personal—there are stories, and relationships, and experiences that show up in each of them. And it also changes each time I perform them because each time I have new experiences, even in between each performance. And so I try to let that inform the work so that I’m keeping the ideas and narrative arc the same, but I’m keeping it fresh for myself by processing what is currently happening to me.
- Tanya: I know that you brought your own bucket with you. From the States. This is kind of a long travel for a bucket, right? Honestly speaking, I find it strangely touching. When you work with an object its importance grows for you. It becomes close to you, you develop a connection with it. Could you please elaborate on that a little bit? I just wanted to learn more about this small companion of yours and how you feel about it.
- Rebecca: Yeah, absolutely! (smiles). I think for me the bucket and the water is sort of another character on stage almost. And I think that character for me —at least in how I’m interpreting it when I perform — changes from moment to moment. It can symbolize and mean one thing in a certain section and then be completely something else in another section. At the beginning when I’m walking with the bucket I’m almost feeling like I’m holding my own rib cage. Like it is a part of me or something that I’m protecting and holding close. But then there is a moment of tension and confrontation with the bucket as well. So I think it just serves as another almost person on stage that I’m connecting with. And I’m also unpacking the identity of the water. Is it part of the bucket or is it a third character, you know (smiles).
- Tanya: I see, you share some unique bond (smiles). Rebecca, how did you feel today when you were performing in the festival? What was the vibe?
- Rebecca: It felt very cathartic. Just felt like I was really diving into some deep emotional places but at the same time not disregarding the audience at all. I really felt the energy and I felt the presence of everyone in the room. But the more I can go through the journey in a very personal way and almost for myself, the more I feel like it often resonates with people. I mean when I’m not showing the choreography or showing the piece, but I’m actually just doing everything I can moment to moment to be present and be in the emotional arc. That’s when I feel the most connected and that’s also when I feel the most connection with the audience. And then there is a moment—I think that’s how it works with everyone—when you zone in and zone out, and something works very well, and then something else doesn’t work very well, and you just kind of always try to find yourself back to the energy, the rhythm of the piece, the present moment. Grappling with that was challenging but also I think that is the choreography, in a way, that is the work.
Published on October 16, 2022