INTERVIEW: Hagit Yakira on Hagit Yakira dance's autumn 2017 tour

Award-winning Hagit Yakira dance presents Free Falling, an open-hearted double bill of down-to-earth dance that’s sensual, striking and a beautiful respite from the hustle and bustle.

Based on a collection of stories gathered through years of working as a therapist, Hagit Yakira has created a powerful and atmospheric mixed bill that eloquently uncovers real life experiences about common uncertainties we share.

In anticipation of Hagit Yakira dance’s autumn tour, The Insanity In Dancing interviews Hagit to find out more about her background and her choreographic work.

Hagit Yakira (PC: Camilla Greenwell)

Maya Pindar: tell us about your time in Israel as a young person, how did you discover dance?

Hagit Yakira: I discovered dance at three different moments in my life. First as a little girl, I always danced, I loved it! Then again in my teens whilst dancing at the Jerusalem academy of music and dance I developed a complex relationship to dance - kind of love and hate relationships to it. And then in my early 30s when I chose choreography as my profession; when I realised that dance is what I have to do. I have to dance, create and make other people move.

MP: tell us about your choreographic processes and methods

HY: I work collaboratively, meaning I come to a process with a subject matter, with a sensation, with an idea. I then offer it to the dancers through different physical tasks, improvisation and group work and see what happens. I direct the dancers to a state of mind and a teamwork which I wish to convey on stage - I try not to force it on the dancers, but to lead them to it through very demanding and precise physical explorations. In that way there is a constant dialogue between the dancers and me. 

I am an emotional woman; I understand the world through my feelings, sensations, emotions and this is also how I treat my work. It is emotional and therefore and accordingly the creative process is as well. In that way I treat emotions, sensations and feelings as a concept to explore intellectually and physically. To me they are a most insightful source of knowledge to explore and experiment with. 

PC: Camilla Greenwell

MP: what inspired you to draw upon your experiences as a therapist for Free Falling?

HY: The depth and richness of being a human being. What I mean is – is that as a therapist I met many sides of humanity that I was less aware of – different scales of compassion, empathy, struggles, pain, acceptance, patience - it was important for me - still is - to work with these. 

MP: what has the biggest challenge been in the creation of the double bill?

HY: Time and money! This is probably something all the artists who work within the scale that we do have to face. Very little means, not much time but very big expectations.

MP: in a nutshell, what can we expect from Free Falling?

HY: Feelings, emotions, humanity and connectivity.

PC: Camilla Greenwell

MP: finally, which one piece of advice would you now offer a young Hagit?

HY: Do it your own way! Don't give up and always combine it with other things - with life! With love! With friends, food, traveling, books whatever takes you away from dance a bit... Give it everything you can but then know when to give it absolutely nothing!

Free Falling collaborators - 

Sabio Janiak                            Music
Michael Mannion                   Lighting Design
Lou Cope                                  Dramaturge

Elizabeth Barker                    Costumes
Bettina John                             Costumes

Gene Giron                               Production Manager 

Free Falling dancers - Sophie Arstall, Joel Benjamin O’Donoghue, Stephen Moynihan, Verena Schneider  

Find out more about Hagit Yakira dance and the upcoming tour here.

INTERVIEW: Bawren Tavaziva & Lisa Rowley on Izindava

Following a successful tour of Africarmen in Spring 2017, Tavaziva Dance are now entering their rehearsal period for Tavaziva's new work Izindava. In between rehearsals, I met Artistic Director, Bawren Tavaziva with dancer and Rehearsal Assistant Lisa Rowley to talk about the inspiration behind Izindava, Bawren's memories of Zimbabwe and what we can expect from Izindava.

PC: Tony Hay

Maya Pindar: what are you most excited about for Izindava?

Bawren Tavaziva: well, it’s not what I expected! It’s growing into a much bigger idea. It touches on a lot of subjects. It’s different to my usual choreography- the vocabulary is very different. I’m excited to do something that I’ve really not done before.

Lisa Rowley: it's a completely brand new company, so all the dancers are fresh and have never done Bawren's work before. It's a totally different energy in the studio. Seeing Bawren's choreograph on new bodies will be really interesting- I'm really excited to see how Bawren's vocabulary develops on the new dancers.

MP:  Bawren, some of your choreography is inspired by your upbringing in Zimbabwe. What are your memories of Zimbabwe?

BT: I’ve always been afraid of the dark. I grew up with fear. The school I went to was built up with fear- beatings and you know… And church as well; even at youth club there was humiliation. That was scary. Under Robert Mugabe’s regime, everyone was disciplined brutally. That is why Zimbabweans don’t speak a lot. You know, there’s no freedom of speech. So I suppose most of my work is based on my own experiences.

MP: and what are your memories of freedom?

BT: the first time black people were allowed to walk on the street in Zimbabwe. Mugabe stopped the racism and segregation. We were free to go in any shop or restaurant. So when I came to London, I was surprised to see a white person sitting on the street begging for money. Where I’m from, a white person always has money- he’s the boss.

Dancer Lisa Rowley in rehearsal at bbodance. PC: Leah Fox

MP: where do you find your resilience and how do you put this into your movement?

BT: I found my strength in music and through movement. I love making music! And perhaps with dance- I find ways to talk about things I don’t usually talk about- verbally. I’m lucky because I can place those thoughts on a stage and share it. So, I try to find music that matches my idea. If I can find the right music, my body automatically finds the movement. The music is the drive.

LR: at the beginning of the rehearsal period, we'll focus only on the steps, without any emotion. At week five, we'll start piecing in emotion and story line as an extra layer. Bawren totally gives us the reigns though- I usually draw on my own personal experiences, so the movement really comes alive.

Artistic Director Bawren Tavaziva and dancers in rehearsal. PC: Emily Winfield

MP: Lisa, can you tell us a bit about Bawren's choreographic process?

LR: it's very much about Bawren being present in the moment, and how he's feeling in that moment. He generally churns out movement step by step. Everyone learns everything to being with, and then he will select which phrases fit each dancer. 

MP: and finally, can you tell us one thing that we can expect from Izindava?

BT:  so, Donald Trump is part of Izindava as well. What I'm really talking about here is Trump’s behaviour… basically, if he was black, would he get away with it? I'm talking about white supremacy- because it’s still strong and it still exists.

Izindava begins it's tour in the Autumn. For full dates and details visit Tavaziva's website.