Oana Hodade - on multiple facets

In June, we invite you to the season's second premiere, Second Skin, a collective creation coordinated by Ferenc Sinkó. It's a hybrid show in which the performers explore the marks that work, exposure and everyday life leave on their own bodies.  In the lines below, we talked with Oana Hodade, who signs the show's dramaturgy and sound design.

1. What interests you when you start working on a show? What exactly are you researching? Is there something on your mind these days regarding your artistic work?
Oana Hodade: A few of the subjects I keep coming back to are memory, archiving the past, but also time, presence and attention. I'm also drawn to the big subjects — love, identity, absence — and how they show up in interpersonal relationships. Often, in the research phase of a show, I'm curious what the existing discourses around the theme are, especially from an anthropological or philosophical perspective, what ideas I can engage with or draw inspiration from for the work. And, of course, I'm interested in getting to know the work of the people I'm working with and their concerns.

2. How was the working process/rehearsals for the show Second Skin conceived, given that it's a show blending elements of dance/movement and theatre?

O.H.: We started the working process with a few days away from Cluj together with the artistic team, I'd call it a mini-residency where we set ourselves a very relaxed but efficient work schedule. We had time for exercises and physical improvisations, we launched a few themes for discussion and writing, we watched shows, we cooked and ate together. We kept this structure once we got back too, when we met again at Reactor (maybe minus the last part, the cooking, but we do have lunch together). We moved forward in rehearsals building on the material generated by the five performers, with a few simple stage situations, a few improvisation principles, and leaving a lot of room for freedom when it came to form.

3. How was this theme of the body approached in different contexts, alone and in relation to others? In what ways did you approach it?

O.H.: We started from three facets or instances of the body: the intimate body, the social body and the professional body. But these facets are never isolated from one another, they exist rather overlapping. Depending on the situations we go through, they adjust and make room for whichever one can respond appropriately. Throughout these processes, they inform one another and work with form in real time. With these starting points in mind, we headed toward the memory of the body, the gestures, the experiences that define us. For actors, performers, dancers, the body is a tool, and they actively work with exposure, with the act of performing, which holds the three facets in tension.

4. What does your contribution to this show look like, given that you have two roles — dramaturgy and sound design — within a collective creation framework? How did you manage them?
O.H.: In this process, the roles or contributions were somewhat more fluid than how they're marked by function. We started from a concept for the show that would put the body at the centre, without having a text or any other fixed element to guide or constrain us. With such a loose weave, there was room for multiple visions to build the show, coming from every member of the team, who is at the same time also a co-creator. I focused more on the content side, on how we translate the memory of the body into more concrete actions. Then, together with Fero, I proposed themes for writing or thinking about, and together with the performers we chose the texts we use in the show. As for the sound design, in my view it goes hand in hand with the dramaturgy, because music and sound have a subtle way of emotionally mediating what happens on stage. Here I tried not to intervene too much, but to let the natural sounds of the space and of the movements exist, and at most amplify them or shape them into something that plays with theatricality.

5. What did you discover through your encounter with this artistic team (director/choreographer, actors, actresses, set designer, assistant director)?
O.H.: That we have very different bodies, and that's totally okay. That we know, understand, care for and love them to different degrees, and that's okay too, as long as we don't neglect them.

6. How do you think this show will be received, both in terms of form and content? I'm also thinking about the fact that artistic intent can always be perceived differently by different spectators.
O.H.: As with any show, I hope the audience comes with an open mind and without too many expectations. In Second Skin, the focus isn't on text, but on another kind of language, one they'll recognize and decode easily. Anyone can resonate with the theme of the body through the lens of their own experiences. In fact, it seems there's a kind of "empathy" created when we watch a body in motion, which activates the locomotor system and makes what we see get mirrored and reproduced internally.

Cultural project co-financed by the National Cultural Fund Administration. The project does not necessarily represent the position of the National Cultural Fund Administration. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding beneficiary.