Naomi Kats: “The audience feels part of the story”

Just over a week before ilDance opens the April tour of BACK2BACK at Estrad Norr in Östersund, we speak to Naomi Kats, a cast member of ‘Something to do, Someone to love, Something to look forward to’.

Naomi speaks about what she has been up to since October’s tour, what has stuck with her about the performances, how this piece has changed her as an artist and what you can expect when you see the performance.

After a successful premiere run in September and October last year, ilDance returns with an evening of two works 'BACK2BACK’ by directors and choreographers Israel Aloni & Lee Brummer.

'Schism’ and ‘Something to do, Someone to love, Something to look forward to’ are the productions featured in an April run with two dates in Östersund (13 and 15 April) at Estrad Norr and two dates in Stockholm (18 and 19 April) at Telefonfabriken.

Tickets for all four dates are available now. Get your tickets for Östersund here and for Stockholm here.

How has life treated you since the last BACK2BACK tour in October, what have you been up to?

Naomi Kats: I've been freelancing in Europe on the move between Tel Aviv and other cities in Europe, like Budapest, Belgium and now in Vienna, working and partly as a tourist. I've been traveling around Europe for a long time and I can't believe that it's April already.

I've been working as a producer for some productions in Tel Aviv, also, and now I'm also visiting the creator side within me, so it's really exciting. I didn't have the opportunity to perform again since the last tour in October, so I'm very much looking forward to being on stage again and revisiting the piece.

‘Something to do, Someone to love, Something to look forward to | Photo by Adey

Now that some time has passed since those last performances, what is your perspective on the work and what sticks out in your mind?

Naomi Kats: So personally, I think that the challenge with this piece was that my approach to performativity changed a lot. And when it comes to the mixture of text and movement, I think I reached a new stage with my performativity as a dancer and a creator.

It opened up a lot of blockages, when it comes to text or even telling the life story of someone else. I discovered a lot of similarities, between us as human beings by telling this story. I think I stayed with the feeling of freedom after performing and testing myself in this piece.

It truly opened a new bridge with my experience of how to approach a piece, how to live it, how to talk with other people and how to tell a story like this.

Do you feel like you’ve been able to take those lessons or discoveries with you in the work you’ve been doing recently?

Naomi Kats: Yeah, for sure. I am also now very curious to meet some other extra layers that I didn't understand before that exist in the piece that is waiting to be discovered, to understand the lines more, to understand the personas and the role.

And for a piece like this, when you know that you're going to be coming back to it soon. Do parts of the text or choreography float around in your mind sometimes? If so, are there particular parts that keep jumping back to you?

Naomi Kats: I think that the strongest part of the text is a bit I am still questioning how to perform it as it touches me very personally and deeply - the part about leaving home. I think I can relate and resonate with that very much.

I think that I can connect with Teuta, whose story we represent, a lot. And I'm still processing what they think it's like, a lifetime process of understanding what is the meaning of home? What is the meaning of being connected to someone? Is it like, material? Is it a place? Is it a person, even like the feeling of leaving your home, but being attached to it endlessly? Yeah, it's the strongest and most direct passage.

‘Something to do, Someone to love, Something to look forward to | Photo by Adey

Now that you're going to be touring a new place with it as well, Östersund, and then returning to Stockholm, what can you say to the new audience about people’s reactions during the first tour?

Naomi Kats: I think more and more I heard from people that as an audience, they feel like part of the story, no matter what. And it's I think it's the first time that I hear this kind of feedback from audience.

That's also the magic of telling the life story of the author, or the way that Lee wrote it to tell the story with the text combined with the movement. I think what touched the audience and I felt also from the inside as a performer, that they felt that they are really with us, they felt like they are telling and listening and being with us with their energy. Diving with us into that.

When it comes to working with text, as you said, you overcome a few barriers. What would be your recommendation for other dance artists who are maybe thinking about doing something where text and dance are combined because it feels like it can be a bit of a taboo subject in the dance world. What is your perspective now that you've experienced it?

Naomi Kats: I was one who said this in the past, I was one of them. I think it's really nice to discover this new tool in the toolbox of being a performer. And I think I discovered so much through understanding this other way of expressing yourself as a human being.

I can recommend that as a first step to kind of compare it to movement, actually, to take text and to compare it with a form of movement. The groove that I'm feeling in my body and I feel like I'm working with that, and I lived that for already all my life for 20 years since I started to dance. The same we use our vocals in the same we use our text, it's crazy to understand how we're using it.

I think it's a matter of awareness and coming from working with the body and being aware of the body, once you find this link with a text, it's magical, and that is the first step for me.

It seemed like you all really enjoyed sharing the experience with the cast of Schism and touring with both shows together. How much are you looking forward to getting back into that dynamic?

Naomi Kats: Wow, for sure. Very much. I think it's meant to be. Having the works BACK2BACK, sharing the space with Lee's piece coming together with Israel and the cast's energy, it feels like a family and I’m looking forward to getting back together.