#comtemporary dance

The work was meticulously crafted down to the smallest details. It was so perfectly completed. too completed that I began to wonder if it even allows the dancers a range of expression. The series of beautiful landscapes in the work, paradoxically made it static as a contemporary dance performance. If that is the case, then could the same expression be achieved through different artistic mediums such as installations, video works, or even photography? Why, then, is it necessary to present this on the live stage?

The key to answering the question is Papaioannou's consistent use of ‘sudden spatial transformations’ in his work. When the audience caught off guard, the space that had been there suddenly transformed into a figure beyond the realm of the imagination. Once there was a scene once that looked like a Renaissance painting, a woman standing with a glass of champagne in her hand at the centre of a fountain. Then, suddenly, a giant bull appeared controlled by several performers. An overflowing cube of objects rolled in from the back of the stage and quickly filled the space. Finally, a water surface emerged from under the floor and swallowed the entire stage. The scene faded out, a new overlapping scene appeared, and then the scene changed again. Like this, the space never stopped transforming and continuously evolved. The essence of his work lies in this concept of an ever-changing space itself and the aesthetic appeal of each scene is just a side effect of it. Instead of a grand narrative or dancer's physical movements, Papaioannou used the spectacle itself to evoke the audience's emotional responses, drawing them into the unfolding phenomenon.

What was missing this time for me was that it was not a spectacle involving the audience. The audience was merely present in the space as an outsiders, sitting in their seats and witnessing the spectacle. It lacked the connection between the stage and the audience, which caused the sense of alienation that I described at first of this text However, now I think about it, Papaioannou must have been aware of the integration between the stage and the audience, considering the audience a constituent element of his spectacle. This was clearly shown at the beginning of the work—a spotlight floating on the stage wall eventually began to move and, like the light from a lighthouse, slowly made its way around the auditorium. The light reflected the faces of every audience, who watched the performance with bated breath.

幻(Maboroshi) "Phenomenon" - Yuri Yamamura (Japan)

The work choreographed and performed by a juggler Yuri Yamamura. The music was performed live by Azumi Piano, a pianist who trained in Germany. The breathtaking techniques, filled with the essence of the juggling art, were accompanied by the rain-like cascade of notes of the piano, creating a sense of exhilarating momentum. Yamamura wore fully black. In the dim-lit stage, the only things illuminated were his hands playing with the 24 white balls soaring through the air. The rapid movement left afterimages, and they layering up as a fantastic landscape in front of the audience's eyes. When the music becomes serene, the following scene appeared with a stark contrast. On the floor Yamamura gently gathered each scattered ball, carefully rearranging them. The mandala on the floor continued to transform, and the scenery slowly shifted into something purely abstract— from "a juggling performer with balls" to what could only be described as "a playful interaction between a man and something white, round, and soft." It was a mesmerizing journey where we can touch the different dimension of juggling art , guided by beautiful piano sound.

There was no room for food - Seo Jeong Bin (Korea)

Seo Jeong Bing from Korea initially she sits on the stage surrounded by plastic chairs. After rounding and arching her back several times as if awakening herself, she began gathering the chairs, stacking them in front of the light which illuminates the stage from the side. The light coming through the gaps between the chair legs created unexpected effect, like a dappled sunlight, casting organic shadows on her body. It was a beautiful spatial practice with minimum intervention, playing with everyday goods (which she mentioned the chairs were purchased at 1 dollar shop in Korea). The work, in fact, contains a concept of conveying an SOS from marine animals that mistakenly consume plastic waste discarded by humans. In addition to the representation of plastic chairs, Jeong Bing suddenly sat down on the floor and blew out a convenience store bag from her mouth like a bubble gum at the end of the performance, which she had been hiding there during the stage. While carrying a powerful message, the piece leaves room for interpretation, and it is poetically expressed as a beautiful dance within a space created from repurposed everyday objects.

Little Love - Rio Yamaguchi (Japan)

In "little love," choreographed and performed by Rio Yamaguchi, what stands out is her formidable expressiveness. Moving freely throughout the stage space, her awareness remains constantly focused on the audience. The fierce energy of her dance, reminiscent of a beast trapped in a cage, not only showcases her impressive physical abilities but also conveys a palpable sense of hunger and drive. The composition’s dynamic structure, which includes a deliberate moment of silence at the climax of the music, reflects the dancer's experience in showcases and battle-style performances, demonstrating her mastery of theatricality. There is a growing expectation that she will become a pioneer of contemporary dance that merges various backgrounds into a captivating presentation.

New Work (Untitled) - Ayane Nakagawa

The last piece of the selection, a new work by Ayane Nakagawa, who received the "Odoru. Akita" Award last year, left a special resonance. Dressed in a T-shirt with disheveled hair, she roamed the silent stage. While her movements seemed to hint at messages related to sexuality, what struck me most was the introduction to the preceding work. Using an entire waltz by J. Strauss, she sat on a chair, shaking her body vigorously as if she were trembling from deep within, unable to stop despite her own will. In this moment, she exposed herself in a way that seemed to plead that this was all she had in her current state. Before I could even comprehend it, my heart was already shaken by her raw vulnerability.

Jap/Vanese - Reisa Shimojima and Moh Hariyanto

On the second day of the festival, the special program featured "Jap/Vanese," performed by Rei Shimojima and Mo Harriant in collaboration with the Fujisato Town Kamikawa Local Performing Arts Preservation Society. This project was born from the interactions that Shimojima and her collaborators had during their stay in Fujisato Town for the production.

To begin, two traditional performing arts from Fujisato Town, in which Shimojima and her team received instruction, were showcased by the local preservation society members. The lion dance, characterized by steps synchronized with the powerful rhythms of drums, and the horse dance, where participants strike their armor like a musical instrument, overwhelmed the audience with their powerful expressions that engaged both sight and sound simultaneously. These performances are traditionally presented during the annual shrine festival in September, with rehearsals starting about two weeks before the event. One performer’s comment after the show left an impression: “The movements have been ingrained in my body since childhood, but I’ve never thought of them as dance.” This sensation of bodily expression before it becomes dance is linked to the subsequent performance of "Jap/Vanese."

"Jap/Vanese" was created during a workshop held in Singapore last year and has been refined since June through the "Odoru. Akita" artist residency. The piece draws from Shimojima's roots in Yosakoi dance and Mo’s Indonesian background, with various sources of inspiration, including their training in Fujisato Town, intricately intertwined without descending into chaos. The steps synchronized with the beats of electronic music, along with the sound of their bodies striking and their tongues clicking, evoke elements of Fujisato's dances while presenting them as original movements born from reinterpretation. Shimojima explained that instead of directly incorporating specific movements, they established the work from the shared festival spirit flowing beneath both her and Mo's experiences in Fujisato Town. With Mo wrapping gamelan balls around her waist and Shimojima waving hand-held naruko, the exhilaration created by their wild dancing radiated throughout the space, transforming into an emotional experience of witnessing a new world that lingered in the venue even after the performance ended.

Another artist, Annabel Dubilier, who was also a finalist in the selection performance, was supposed to participate in the festival. Despite her desperate attempts to find a flight to Japan under the current circumstances, she ultimately could not make it. “Loneliness, isolation, and the anxiety of not being able to foresee the future. I can’t find words to express these feelings…” On the final day, when she was supposed to perform her piece "FICTIONS," Mitsuta Yamakawa read her message aloud to the audience with a trembling voice.

In her place, Shimojima and Mo stepped up to perform *"Jap/Vanese" once again, presenting it with an entirely different resonance than the previous day. Although this is a duo piece, the performers never physically touch one another during the performance. This is partly due to Mo’s Islamic beliefs and can be seen as their response to the question of how to handle their distinct personalities. The boundary of light cast on the floor by the lighting divides the stage space in two. The two dancers perform as if they are struggling against each other across this divide, yet their competing energies somehow create a harmonious landscape. The differences are certainly present. Acceptance of this reality is where the approach begins, and it embodies the essence of what the term "coexistence" signifies.

At the end of the piece, the stage wall splits in two, revealing a large horse’s tail hanging from the ceiling. Surrounded by red light, the gentle swaying of the horse's tail behind Shimojima and Mo seems to encapsulate all the emotions imbued in the work, nodding in agreement.

To the end

The subtitle given to this year's festival presented by Director Yamakawa was "Your arts adventure awaits." As the phrase suggests, it was a three-day journey filled with unexpected encounters with emotions buried deep within oneself, stirred by each work presented.

Along his passion, Mr. Yamakawa also shared his concerns and difficulty of holding the festival. Due to its northern location and cold weather, the outdoor events are only possible to be hold in the summer, which means they can lose the opportunity to attract the public for the festival in other seasons. Second concern is that with few public transportation options, it is difficult for young people to even attend the performances on evening, as they don’t have a car and have to ask their parents to drive to the place. The locality of the festival, which is a part of attractive aspect of it, also brings those dilemma to organizers. Nevertheless, the special program on the second day was lively, filled with local people who had likely come to support the local performer who presented for the collaboration with "Jap/Vanese". It felt like a very natural form of cultural exchange between the citizens and festival members. It was a remarkable example of making a way for the festival’s reach to grow even further in the future.

The contrast between the two performers was particularly striking in this duo piece. Kakizaki deconstructs and reassembles her body playing with the subtle movement of her joints, in which her background as a dancer trained in Gaga method must play a role. Her movements appear before us with mysterious depth sometimes like a wild animal, sometimes sensual. In contrast, Kuri focuses on practicing her body as a single cohesive unity. By repeatedly making dynamic movements as if throwing parts of her body into the air and gathering them back with precise control, she pulsates the mass of air contained within the space, pushing it outwards which gives a vibrant and bright touch on the stage.

In Japan, it’s said that one in five people are suffering from insomnia today. This piece stepped into a boundary between consciousness and unconsciousness which, because of its solitary nature, is rarely shared among the society. Once two dancers gently tracing the ambiguous outline and casting a radiance on the dark realm, it was no longer an anxious void but a beautiful and dreamlike doze.

Watched at Theater East, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre on21st October 2023

Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young from Kidd Pivot created this performance based on a Russian play called “Revizor” written by Nikolai Gogol in 1835. It is a story about a small town which corrupt Russian officials dominates. The officials get panicked by hearing the rumor that there will be an investigation held by government, thus they try to seek a favor to a man who arrives in town, by entertaining him as a guest and bribing. However, the man who is esteemed as an inspector, in actuality, just a lowly bureaucrat who happened to be passing by the town. He takes advantage of this misinterpretation and extorts the favor. It is only after he leaves the town that the real inspector arrives and the town officials finally realize their misjudgment.

The story carries on with the dancers on the stage who are disguised as the characters and lip-sync with voice-over lines which play loudly instead of music during the performance. The company dancers reveal their high physicality by inserting some dynamic movement while they act, however most of their movement is still more like gestures than dance since they are forced to adjust their physicality into the speed of dialogue. The idea that mixes dance and drama itself is not something innovative anymore, but what happens on this stage still has an extraordinary phenomenon where the words have a strong force to take away dancer’s ability and dominate the entire space. It is remarkable practice to see, however, it is also true that the way dancers move look quite cramped that is not not comfortable to see.

This sense of discomfort falls apart when the pre-recorded dialogue suddenly gets clogged like a broken cassette. The dancers stop their narrative-oriented move and start slow body isolation as if they are gradually transitioning into something different. The stage set which represents the context of the play is removed, and dancers take off their heavy costume and come back with ordinary dance wear. The duet danced by Ella Rothschild and Gregory Lau in this part was definitely one of the highlights of this work. They extend their limbs to the darkness as if they try to seek the further space out of their reach. They reach the state of off-balance where two bodies contain full of tension and right after that, they suddenly release, and extend their arms towards the space again, further and further... Following this spiral of dance, the audience’s sensibilities are also expended deeper and deeper. In the fully deconstructed stage, the dancer becomes the only element to define the space. What the audience sees in their eyes is no longer a small town of the play, but a microcosmos on the stage. In contrast to the storyline which contains full of ironic and helpless atmosphere, Pite and Young are able to describe the shape of hope through the dance.

Considering the structure of the work, it might be clearer to assemble all the story part in the first half so that the performance can have an epic finale with this dance part. However, somehow Pite and Young choose to “insert” the dance part in the flow of play.  As the dance part is coming to an end, the voice-over text changes into words which sound like a self-talk  and the dancer moves awkwardly as if the work were still on the production process. The reality of the world starts to blend in the stage and coexists with the fictional world. And at the very end of the dance part where only Gregory Lau is left on the entire stage, the voice saying” He is moved, he is moved...” is echoing over. The more dominant words become, the more intense he dances. As if he resists to be defined by the word, he rolls around the floor casting a strong eye to the audience.

When the dance and story appear alternately on the stage, like a twisted paper, the work expands its dimensions more and more. What is most experimental and challenging aspect of this work is to seek a border where these two principals antagonize by merging them in the transition moment, not by dividing them as completely different elements. Pite and Young determine not to cover or omit it even if there is massive contradiction and confusion lying down, rather to expose what is happening there and to show how it looks to the audience. Finally, it reveals an aspect in front of us as a huge brutal vortex, involving fiction and reality, stage and audience and whole space inside the theater. If that was the purpose of Pite and Young, perhaps they are the real “revisor” of this work.