Meet Elle Hong | Artist, Writer, & Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elle Hong and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elle, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Coming from an immigrant family, I have definitely felt pressure to be “successful,” without necessarily discerning what “success” means for me. The image, or performance, of successfulness is often equated with a career with high monetary output, or a career that fits into a normative definition of a good job. I spent a lot of time in my childhood trying to do a good job, trying to do the right things that would eventually get me a good job, but never stopped to ask if I was enjoying anything in a personally meaningful way. I danced on the side but always assumed that this would remain an extra curricular activity and never what I’d actually be doing for the rest of my life.

It really wasn’t until undergrad where it became clear to me that a creative career was something I wanted to seriously pursue. I went to Wesleyan University and was extremely fortunate to be mentored by Nicole Stanton and Katja Kolcio (two powerhouse dance professors and activists) and then visiting artist, Darrell Jones (renowned dance artist/my fairy godmother). These mentors continually pushed me to consider how, through the lens of dance, we could ask questions on existentialism, history, and the world-at-large. How do we move through the world? How does the world move through us? How do we want to continue moving through the world? At first these questions might seem a bit lofty, but I think these are some of the most important questions we need to be asking ourselves.

Dance, and more broadly–art, lets me ask big questions; it keeps me present and engaged with the world around me. Dance asks me to be attentive towards embodiment in a late-capitalist world that grows increasingly disembodied through labor’s choreographies, pushing me to consider ways we may find joy, freedom, strangeness, and difference through moving in new ways. I do this because I don’t want to be doing anything else. I am not saying that we as artists don’t do the things that will provide us with monetary stability to continue creating work in an anti-art world; rather, I believe that art opens a portal for conceiving a world beyond the one we have inherited.

Also, it is fun.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’ve come to a place where I recognize that dance is my form of direct action. We are conditioned from such a young age to be compliant: to sit still, to stay in line, to be good. Seeing dance in any setting is strange at first because we are forced to reckon with how much of our lives we relinquish movement autonomy. Additionally, as a trans dancer, I want for audiences to recognize how rare it is to witness trans dancers, or perhaps, recognize how little they know about transness/queerness in general. My experience of these identities should not come to stand in for anyone with like-identifiers, and I think that’s the point I’m trying to make. I make things that honor my difference, in order to (hopefully) create future space for others to do something similar. In viewing me awkwardly crawl across a floor, or convulse repeatedly while groaning, it opens up the possibility for others to give themselves permission to do the same, do something different, or do nothing at all. It opens up space for a queerer world.

I do not necessarily think my work is so much about trying to set myself apart from others. Rather, I think my work is trying to locate underlying common desires for pleasure, liberation, and self-obliteration – where the anxious desire to “think therefore I am” can melt away and turn into “being,” even if ephemerally.

It’s strange for me to take pride in my work. It is also strange for me to consider myself a professional at what I do. Perhaps the current challenge I am working on is self-confidence. I am a professional at what I do simply because I keep doing it with extreme tunnel-vision towards my modest goal of sharing my work with people. In a form where we literally show our bodies at our most vulnerable, to an audience of judgmental onlookers no less, I am most proud of being brave enough to continue. The main challenge, at least for me now, is managing feelings of internal versus external validation. Maybe a promotional trailer for my work doesn’t get as many “likes” or “views” as I desire, or, maybe a performance only attracts a small crowd, but who actually cares? Do you like your work? Do you like what you’re doing? Then keep doing it.

If it’s not fun, don’t do it.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I am an extreme homebody so this might not be the best question for me. I’m fortunate to be living equidistant between Cheesman and City Park. I like to sit in both and watch squirrels. I also really like the Denver Zoo! The capybara is majestic and they also have two new sloths!

For eating, I really like:
Ohana Grill in Edgewater (I am from Hawai`i, and this place definitely hits when I am homesick)
Jax, Super Star Asian Cuisine, Sushi Den, and Steuben’s in Denver
Tangerine and Bacco in Boulder

And of course, I love going to see exhibitions/shows to let my mind take a bath…if that makes sense. Denver Art Museum is really wonderful. I also am a fan of smaller galleries including Art Gym Denver, BRDG project, Union Hall, Redline, and PlatteForum. I am very fortunate to be friends with many Colorado visual/performing artists. I go to their shows whenever possible.

If you like antiquing (or window-shopping antiques), I like meandering SoBo, and The Brass Armadillo in Wheat Ridge.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to shoutout the actual village of folks who raised me and believed in me enough so that I may pursue whatever it is I am doing now. Immediately, my mother and father and my two sisters – I will never be able to say this enough: thank you.

Shoutout to Tim Dyke, my high school English mentor, who is still my friend to this day! It’s extremely rare, I think, for queer youth to be able to confide and trust in adults, let alone openly queer adults. Tim taught me how to write from a place of deep vulnerability: to say the ugly thing because someone might find comfort and solace amidst the ugly.

My dance mentors—Michelle Ellsworth, Darrell Jones, Katja Kolcio, Nicole Stanton, and Helanius J. Wilkins. These folks have been in the dance game for a significant amount of time, and they do what they do extremely well. They’ve taught me the importance of pushing past comfort, especially when your self-defeatist comfort stands in the way of actual growth. These folks have modeled for me how I would like to be as a future mentor: unconditionally encouraging, only intervening when your ideas involve recklessly endangering yourself/others.

My partner, Cipriano Ortega, who is a creative force in their own right. They literally build the instruments they play, which for me—someone who lacks any type of 3-D crafting skill—is sorcery. They have been my support through many of the performances I’ve created since moving to Colorado, taking on tasks from building me a transportable stage-on-wheels, to taking on DP/sound engineer capacities for dance films. Thank you.

A huge shoutout to Art Gym Denver, for awarding me my current residency, and providing me with space to create a new performance work.

And finally, shoutout to my friends, because you’re the only reason I really do any of this.

Website: https://ellehong.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/umamigoddess

Other: Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/ellehong SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/umamigoddess

Image Credits
Sandy Aldieri, Max Bernstein, Miguel DeLeon, Eric Coombs Esmail, Ella Israeli, Gretchen LaBorwit, Vik Padilla, Nikki A. Rae