My friend Elizabeth and I made a dance film! It features a wicked soundtrack, hot Hankyu train action, and the Kobe/Nishinomiya area. Please check it out:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3319335926889173716&hl=en
Monday, June 18, 2007
Friday, June 8, 2007
Bridge Project Workshop
The Bridge Porject is a two-week series of dance workshops held at the Kyoto Art Center. Each workshop spanned three or four days and was categorized as training, technique, or creation. When I asked someone about the bridge project, he pointed to morikawa-san's picture and said "he is good." Also, since I was extremely impressed by his piece at the gala performance, I chose to take Morikawa Hirokazu's workshop, four two-hour workshops held from June 4th- 7th.
Morikawa studied mime and circus in France, and then he returned to Osaka and danced with Monochrome Circus for five years. Recently, at the beginning of his sixth year with MC, he quit in order to pursue creating work on his own.
The space in the art center was a large wood floor with no mirrors and windows. The dance floor is like a pit, as it is lower than the entrances and must be reached by walking down steps. Songs by Radiohead, mostly from their OK Computer Album, were coming from a stereo.
We started with isolations, concentrating on how to move around different parts of the vertebrae. As we traveled from the tips of our heads to our tailbones, we specificied one vertebrae and experimented with how to move the surrounding area. For example, how would one move the section above the bone while keeping the section below it still? Also, how would one separate just that vertebrae from the rest of the body?
When we finished stretching, we were lying on our stomachs with our hands in front of our heads. From this position, Morikawa effortlessly pushed his hands into the floor, scooped his feet underneath his pelvis, and stood. He moved seamlessly from lying face down to standing upright. Afterwards, he gaves us a slightly teasing nod and then reversed the motion, back to the lying position. This meant that we were now supposed to try. We struggled, and clunkily heaved our bodies into standing and back to the floor again.
Morikawa can efficiently move his body in a way that makes the movement smooth, seamless, and organic, with no show of the effort. He remarked in class that he could not dance prettily, but his movement is the most elegant and sinuous that I have seen for quite some time.
The challenges continued. Can we roll across the floor seamlessly, as one piece, all body parts moving at same speed in unison? Could we insert a push-up into this roll, so that the body dips up and back down again as we roll? Could we crawl smoothly, with all body parts at one, steady speed?
After spending all of this time on the floor, he initiated an exercise from the standing position. 
He ushered us to a dry erase-board, where he drew a picture of a metaphorical pelvis (see graphic on the right). It is a sprinkler that shoots water our of each of the circular nozzles. He asked us to think about moving in each of the directions indicated- front, back, one side, other side, up and down. What would it be like to follow each direction in a committed way? Moving upward is kind of impossible, beyond standing up with a elongated spine. To explore that direction, he asked us to pretend that there is a bee on our nose, which then flies away quickly. We followed the bees, initiating from our noses, as they flew up into the air and changed directions quickly.
He ushered us to a dry erase-board, where he drew a picture of a metaphorical pelvis (see graphic on the right). It is a sprinkler that shoots water our of each of the circular nozzles. He asked us to think about moving in each of the directions indicated- front, back, one side, other side, up and down. What would it be like to follow each direction in a committed way? Moving upward is kind of impossible, beyond standing up with a elongated spine. To explore that direction, he asked us to pretend that there is a bee on our nose, which then flies away quickly. We followed the bees, initiating from our noses, as they flew up into the air and changed directions quickly.
He demonstrated that, when we walk, the pelvis moves kind of like a horse's gallop or an ocean wave. How could our walk have more ... commitment? More of a push forward, instead of a sloshing in the air. Something smoother, more seamless ... the two words that I use the most in describing his movement.
We took a water break and finished class with an amazing floor combination. Weight shifted from our entire bodies touching the floor, to our pelvis being lifted over our hands, to following the imaginary bee.
Morikawa talked to me a little afterwards, in a very relaxed way. I asked him about himself, and he told me, in the middle of which he remarked "eh, you pretty much understand what i am saying, don't you?" Sometimes class was difficult, because it was taught in Japanese. So, I probably have confused some of the verbal meanings. However, the body meanings were very clear, very inpsiring. The next few classes of the workshop were also amazing, adding variations to the material above, like using different points of to body for initiation in counterbalance, moving the spine like a chain, and so forth.
Morikawa talked to me a little afterwards, in a very relaxed way. I asked him about himself, and he told me, in the middle of which he remarked "eh, you pretty much understand what i am saying, don't you?" Sometimes class was difficult, because it was taught in Japanese. So, I probably have confused some of the verbal meanings. However, the body meanings were very clear, very inpsiring. The next few classes of the workshop were also amazing, adding variations to the material above, like using different points of to body for initiation in counterbalance, moving the spine like a chain, and so forth.
Morikawa's next performance is a collaboration with a film artist at the Shiga Performance Center for Creating of Art for Citizens on Sunday July 1st at 4:00 pm. The admission is free! For more details, visit www.shiga-bunshin.or.jp.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Gala Performance and Talk Session
Selenographica, Monochrome Circus, Morikawa-san, and j.a.m. dance theatre each performed a piece in a Gala performance at Kyoto Art Center, in order to kick off the Bridge Dance Project workshops.
The four pieces were all duets between a male and female dancer. Oddly, all of the pieces seemed to crescendo (or have a suspenseful/gasp sort of moment) when the two performers confronted each other directly in an embrace or stood closely and face-to-face. All of the pieces were interesting explorations of movement and sound, but the piece that grabbed the audience the most was Morikawa's "A room with chairs." The two performers had such connected energy that it was amazing. Their relationship felt very alive and real and interesting. During the talk session, Morikawa-san said that he created the piece through exploring interesting movement and interest in the body, rather than exploring a certain concept. Yet, through tight movement and relationship between the two performers, Morikawa-san's piece was the most conceptually coherent and striking, it seemed. Just not in a way that i can express in words at the moment.
It was a good feeling to see these four choreographers and be impressed by each one of them, because the last three (Morikawa, j.a.m., and Monochrome Circus) seem to be holding workshops and performances quite regulary in Kyoto and the Kansai area.
The four pieces were all duets between a male and female dancer. Oddly, all of the pieces seemed to crescendo (or have a suspenseful/gasp sort of moment) when the two performers confronted each other directly in an embrace or stood closely and face-to-face. All of the pieces were interesting explorations of movement and sound, but the piece that grabbed the audience the most was Morikawa's "A room with chairs." The two performers had such connected energy that it was amazing. Their relationship felt very alive and real and interesting. During the talk session, Morikawa-san said that he created the piece through exploring interesting movement and interest in the body, rather than exploring a certain concept. Yet, through tight movement and relationship between the two performers, Morikawa-san's piece was the most conceptually coherent and striking, it seemed. Just not in a way that i can express in words at the moment.
It was a good feeling to see these four choreographers and be impressed by each one of them, because the last three (Morikawa, j.a.m., and Monochrome Circus) seem to be holding workshops and performances quite regulary in Kyoto and the Kansai area.
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