An Artist in the Making - An Interview with Larissa Horobec Conducted by Sarah Kennedy

     

    Larissa Horobec is a Vancouver-based dance artist currently in her third year of dance at Simon Fraser University, one of the well known schools for a career in the Contemporary Arts. Before attending SFU, Larissa obtained her BFA from Capilano University majoring in Theatre Performance. Her dance career began when she was three years old where she grew up in the competitive world, often spending long weekends in glamorous hair and makeup performing on stage before a group of judges. At the same time, she was also a competitive figure skater specializing in free skate. She has spent most of her life performing and perfecting her artistry. Larissa is excited to be pursuing a career in the arts as she looks forward to the coming years.

Photographed by Sarah England

What inspired you to pursue a career in the arts?

My story is not as exciting as others and it's a very common one. My mother was a dancer and skater as well as my older sister who graduated from the dance program at SFU a couple of years ago. I wanted to follow in her footsteps but I was never pressured to do so. I always wanted to pursue a career in the arts. It just happened to become the classic story of wanting to be like your older sister. 

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Larissa hopes to graduate at the end of this semester and has two career paths in mind. She either wants to go into the world of broadcasting and journalism or travel in ice shows for the next couple of years through Cruise Lines or Disney on Ice. 

Both of those careers are very different from each other, what made you choose them?

As you know, I went to school for theatre before attending SFU so I’ve always been interested in performing. I want to perform while my body is still young and be able to have the experience of travelling for different shows and being on tour. Eventually, when my body can no longer take it and I’m looking for a stable job, I want to move to broadcasting and journalism. I see broadcasting as a performance in itself and have always enjoyed watching the news. I became interested in broadcasting through interviews I would do as a figure skater. I enjoyed listening to what the interviewer was going to ask me and eventually I wanted to be the person conducting the interview. 

Photographed by Danielle Earl 

How has the pandemic shifted your artistic practice in positive and/or negative ways?

Larissa is mindful of how her work is critiqued. Of course, she is learning to fix this but she found this would often hinder her movement. However, with the pandemic imposing many restrictions she’s been able to be free and less judgemental of herself, which is a positive outcome. In terms of negatives, she misses the energy and kinship you can often find in the studio. She is unable to connect with dancers in the same way she would in the studio now that she is dancing alone at home.

 In the last week, Larissa had the opportunity to dance in the studio with some dancers but with limitations. She found that being in the environment was useful but everyone was having a hard time acting like themselves. Everyone was still adapting to the new normal in the studios which required dancers to wear masks and stay six ft apart. So in a sense, she preferred to be dancing at home where her house had become her comfort zone. 

Do you think the pandemic has allowed you to become more creative in your work?

If you asked me this a couple of months ago I would have said no, but honestly, I believe yes now, because there's more of a process because of the restrictions. This has opened up so many more possibilities that I believe I would never have thought of or come across if we weren't under these circumstances. 

If the pandemic had never existed, would your creative practice have changed? If so, how?

Larissa said she doesn’t believe her creative practice would have changed that much if it wasn’t for the pandemic. This is mainly because the pandemic has been such a life-changing experience and has greatly affected the dance scene making many live performances impossible. She has found more creativity and opportunities in her practice. For example, being able to create a dance film. This was a big shift in mediums that she wouldn’t have experienced if it wasn’t for the pandemic. 

With the pandemic restricting live performances and many artists moving to film as a new performance platform, do you think dance is still considered dance or has it shifted mediums too much, and turned into film?

I haven't watched many dance films. Most of them being commercial dance films. I found the way they were edited and what they showcased took away from the dancing so surprisingly, I wasn't a huge fan of them. However, it could be that I wasn’t watching the right films. When we took our composition class those films were made during the pandemic and the filming didn’t take away from the dancing. Perhaps because live performances are being restricted, people are so desperate to make sure that the movement isn't lost on film that they're focussing on it more than ever because there are few live settings. 

Photographed by Greg Ehlers in 2019 Dance Rep show