Maria Tarokh: Grant Winner

You beautifully described your heritage to us, how would you say your British-Iranian background has influenced your artistic vision and the stories you choose to tell through your work?

My heritage runs through everything I do – it’s part of me – and I strive for all of the work I create to be true. So, it influences me heavily. It’s impossible for me to escape it! It’s not only having mixed heritage though, it’s also how you were brought up. I was brought up in an immigrant family and that has influenced all of my work but particularly Crown. When we were creating Crown I was thinking a lot about how we as humans want to see ourselves represented on stage and how that changes if you have experienced displacement.

One of my priorities in my work is to tell stories that are not being told and that are not being told through a female perspective. There are so many stories that deserve to have a platform but are not prioritised, I want to help tell those stories.

Your dance career spans ballet, contemporary, and Classical Persian dance. How do you integrate these very diverse forms of movement into your performances?

I think when you are a dance artist, your training informs almost everything you do. Because it is memory that is held physically within the body, so you draw on that when you are teaching or creating or performing. It’s like a physical dictionary that is unique to every dancer. So in that way, those forms are integrated deeply into my personal practice, they’re part of my identity as a dancer.

However, integrating them into a performance consciously requires quite a lot of thought, research and trial and error. With Crown I was striving for the mix of dance forms to be complimentary. I didn’t want one to outshine the other, or to fuse them to the point where you can’t see where one ends and the other begins. One of the reasons for that approach was the fact that classical Persian dance is very rarely performed in the UK, so in bringing a new dance genre to new audiences, I wanted to make sure it was respected and given space to breathe.

How did you discover dance? What drew you to it in the first place?

It’s the place where I feel the most free and myself. Nothing compares to it! I couldn’t live without it. I started dancing when I was literally a baby, my grandma would take me to grandparent & baby ballet classes! And the rest was history, I was completely addicted!

You’ve worked extensively with refugees and asylum seekers. Can you describe a particular project or experience that profoundly impacted you and reinforced your belief in the transformative power of the arts?

Many years ago I was a volunteer visitor for Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group – an organisation that supports people in immigration detention centres. I would go into the centre on a weekly basis and just sit with a detainee. Sometimes we chatted, sometimes we sat in silence. Those people were always in crisis and having a really, really difficult time – separated from their families and communities and held in a prison. I remember being so affected by their emotions. When they were happy, it was so powerful! When they were upset or depressed, it was devastating. They taught me a lot about resilience and the power of optimism – I owe a lot of how I approach my work to them.

Since then, I have worked with many people who have been refugees and asylum seekers and what always warms my heart is how much working with theatre or movement can change someone’s life. The arts really does have that power. When you do something you think you could never do – that is incredibly powerful. When you perform something on stage and you’re part of a show, you form strong bonds and you’re part of something that suddenly feels bigger than you – that can transform someone’s confidence.

Your performance CROWN focuses on stories of the diaspora and displacement. What inspired you to create this project, and how has it evolved over the years?

My father was heavily influential in the creation of CROWN – I don’t think he realises that though! When I was growing up, I really sensed his frustration at how migrant communities were depicted on stage and screen. 9 times out of 10 it was as victims. He always wanted to see himself as thriving because he worked really hard for that and he wanted me to thrive too (just like any other Father!). So, I wanted to create a piece that showed power, strength and joy but that told the story of a journey, and the different stages of emotion we experience on that journey. In a way, CROWN is also a love letter to female migrants, I wanted to show them as shining stars – they give so much to the world and they are so often overlooked.

CROWN really evolved a lot over the past 3 years, many things changed, what has influenced it the most has been the team. It was really a co-creation process and it continues to be a big collaboration between music, dance and sound – for me that’s what makes it so special. We all approach the themes of displacement and identity from different perspectives and all of that creative energy goes into what you see on stage – I think that’s why it’s powerful.

Who are your biggest influences? Artistic or otherwise.

Classical ballet has been a huge influence on me as a dancer, I grew up with it and was pretty obsessed with it for a long time.

I think artists who use multiple genre’s have always inspired me, dance artists such as Seeta Patel, Ceyda Tanc, Sonia Sabri and Iranian artists such as Helia Bandeh and Aisan Hoss.

And I am very interested in other female directors and their practices – such as Sofia Coppola and Celine Song. I am really interested in how they create a world with their stories and how they use this to help actors get into character. I try to do this in my own work – to create spaces where we can fully embody the story.

You currently live in Totnes, Devon. To what extent, if any, does this part of the world affect your art?

I feel very lucky to live in this part of the world. I travel a lot for work so coming back to Devon is amazing as it helps me decompress and reflect. I do a lot of hiking which helps me to clear my head and dream.

With my producer hat on I do a lot of production of community arts, so I am connected into the arts community in Devon and that really feeds me creatively!

Where is your sanctuary? (Either real or imagined)

The beach! Or walking the coast path.

What are your hopes for the future? (Both artistic and otherwise)

My hope for the future is that arts become fully recognised in the UK as a professional practice and are therefore properly funded. The current system isn’t working and many artists are struggling because of it. The arts is crucial for society to survive and flourish – we don’t go a day without consuming it! So I hope that the way we are funded can improve so that there is more access to funding and support. The arts need to be properly subsidised, they can’t be approached in the same way you would a business.

I also hope that the anti-immigration rhetoric in the UK can at some point draw to a close. It is dangerous and inhumane. Migration is a necessary part of life – it always has been and it always will be. It’s time to embrace it.

Finally, could you share with us how you found the process of working with The Responsa Foundation?

I have found the process of working with The Responsa Foundation very refreshing. I really appreciated how interested the team was in our project and the support they offered. It was nice to interact with a founder who was really invested in the project. It helped to talk challenges through with the team and they were flexible in terms of changes to timeframes and content – which is necessary when working with migrant communities!

I came across the Foundation through an online search and was really interested in the types of artistic projects they were funding – I could tell they were different. I am really grateful for all of their support.