Q&A with The Most Naked - Hannah Tasker-Poland ahead of Taranaki’s Right Royal Cabaret Festival

Hannah Tasker-Poland willl be The Most Naked during the Right Royal Cabaret Festival this month.

Hannah Tasker-Poland is set to be the ‘most naked’ performer audiences will see at this year’s Right Royal Cabaret Festival, with her show The Most Naked promising to combine cabaret, live music, dance, subversive theatre and even some political eroticism on the night. Editor Ilona Hanne caught up with Hannah to find out a bit more, including exactly what is meant by the term political eroticism.

You are certainly a dancer, but that word doesn’t really seem to fully capture what you do. Is there a better word than dancer?

I’ve gone back and forth a lot over the years thinking about this. You’re right, it’s not just dance, there is so much else involved, so I came up with the term ‘movement alchemist’ and have been using that. It’s dramatic, but I do love the drama! The word movement encompasses the dance and physical performance part of it while alchemist is more about the shape shifting ways movement allows us to present an idea, and to transport the audience to a different place - that is the alchemy of it.

When you say it’s not just dance that you do, you aren’t exaggerating. The list goes on and on, you are also a choreographer, a burlesque artist, a body paint and prosthetic artist, an actor, stunt performer, life model, producer and tutor. But perhaps an even more surprising job you can add to that list would be builder? How did you end up working on a building site - how did you even find the time to do that?

The time was easy - thanks to Covid-19 lockdowns. It was the second big lockdown, and I remember sitting at home thinking I just can’t do it again, staying at home, stuck and unable to do anything. A friend said they knew of a building site looking for workers and suggested I try it. I did and I actually really enjoyed it. There is something really rewarding in the creation side of it that appeals to me as a creator, you turn up and the plan is to build a fence, you get to work, and by the end of the day there is a fence. In dance, that creation side isn’t so immediate or obvious, and I did like the satisfaction from the building work, being able to look at something, I say I was part of building that. Plus being able to keep earning was good. As artists, we are always having to hustle to keep money coming in, so lockdowns were really financially hard.

That hustle you describe can often be a real hurdle for creatives can’t it? Having to hustle and push to get an art project going, but also be able to live in the meantime? What more can be done in that space?

I am so down for any type of universal income being introduced. New Zealand has some amazing creatives in arts, but it’s so hard. There isn’t the opportunity to fully devote yourself to something, so many dancers and performers are working in other industries and having to work a fulltime job and then get to practice for dance or a play and then putting in the hours in that too, it’s not sustainable. They don’t have time to look after their bodies, to care for their voice, to put in that self care or to have the energy you need in performing. We lose a lot of creatives to overseas and some kind of consistent funding for the arts could go a long way in ensuring New Zealand talent can stay here and thrive here.

Universal income is a political subject of course, and your show pre-publicity references ‘political eroticism’ as featuring in your performance. What exactly is meant by that term?

It’s another phrase I’ve come up with, like movement alchemist, to capture what I am doing on stage. It’s a phrase or tagline to capture the idea of how we view sex and in particular the female form over the years, and how that has been controlled in a way and the message or messages around that. It’s about challenging those stereotypes and challenging the audience to think about what nakedness is, and how does our society control that or put out certain messages about how we, particularly women and femmes present our bodies. The show explores that and looks at erotica, intimacy, the way we view the female form and how that has been done throughout history - where women’s bodies have been celebrated, lusted on but also covered up or treated as shameful. Look at sculptures and paintings over the years - the female form is literally put on a pedestal, but at the same time it is oppressed. All that, telling that story and using my own body to do so, that is political eroticism.

The show is all about your body, but it also uses a lot of live music. Why did you create the show with live music, wouldn’t it have been easier to use pre-recorded music?

Easy is never the answer in art! Working with Lucien Johnson, the composer of the music, and he also plays the music in the show, it is such a privilege. I can’t remember who first came up with the idea of him performing the music live on stage. We were talking about him composing the score, and then the idea came about that he would also play the saxophone, the piano on stage, and it really made sense. The whole show is set in a cabaret style, so having him play that role, the classic jazz or cabaret club saxophonist, just really adds to the atmosphere and takes the show to that next level. His music and composition really subverts it all, that musical cacophony he has built into it. Live music always ups the energy of a show.

So who should come to this show, and what should they expect?

I think anyone who is willing to be made to think, to look at things differently. You will laugh, there is a lot of humour in the show, but you will also maybe get a little bit moist. You will cry, you will maybe feel angry about things, or sad, but also get a sense of power, of that raw, guttural sense of self.

The Details

What: The Most Naked, part of the Right Royal Cabaret Festival

When: Saturday, June 24, 9pm

Where: Theatre Royal, TSB Showplace

Details: Tickets via Ticketek or www.rightroyal.co.nz