fluktor -|||- study - office - newsletter August 07, 2005

Taipei Times, Aug 05, 2005
Rave, rave, against the dying of the light with modern dance
By Ho Yi
[image] You Shao-xing attempts to push the limit of a dancer's body in her latest work. PHOTO COURTESY OF WHAT DANCE TEMPLEN

Modern dance pieces often take their cues from rave culture these days.

"I've made enquiries from ravers on numerous occasions and been amazed by the way they dance, with their body movements so free of restraint and with a touch of primitivism. I draw my inspiration from them and created this piece titled Crossing Fire (過火), a term taken from the Taiwanese ancient ritual of crossing fire that symbolizes purification," said director and choreographer You Shao-jing (游紹菁).

One of the best professional dancers in Taiwan, You is also the choreographer of White Dance Temple (白舞寺), which was founded in Ilan County, 2001. It fuses traditional art forms such as puppet theater and Taiwanese opera.

Crossing Fire is the company's first attempt to return to a more pure and absolute form of dance.

In a telephone interview, You said he deconstructed the body language of ravers and added layers of movement until there was a climax at the end.

"Crossing Fire is the most physically demanding and satisfying dancing experience a performer could ever have. The level of energy needed is unbelievable high," You said. "We have to let go of our mind and let our bodies take total control to probe deeply into a state of trance. It's a direct sensory experience. The audience won't understand the piece if they try to think," You said.

In an intimate setting the dancers bizarrely blend into projections of fast-moving Taiwanese urban landscapes in an attempt to convey the historical and cultural condition of modern life.

Crossing Fire is not meant to be about personal expression, You said, but intends to attain a collective state of oneness, as achieved in ancient rituals held during temple celebrations.

Crossing Fire will start on Aug. 10 in Ilan County, then tour in Taichung and conclude with two shows in Taipei. Tickets are NT$100 for shows in Ilan and Taichung; NT$300 for shows in Taipei, available at the door, or call (02) 2272 6899.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2005/08/05/2003266553

***************************

The Japan Times, Aug. 3, 2005
NOISM 'TRIPLE BILL'
New dimensions in dance
By NOBUKO TANAKA
Special to The Japan Times

Noism is a veritable supernova in the rapidly expanding universe of Japanese contemporary dance. It burst on the scene in 2004 as the residential company of the Niigata Ryutopia Theater, two years after its founder, 30-year-old Jo Kanamori, returned from Europe.
[image] In "Door Indoor," the opening program of the evening's three-part bill, Italian choreographer and dancer Alessio Silverstrin transports the audience into a misty cosmos of dim lighting and swirling colors, amid which seven dancers perform a fantastical abstraction from Bartok's opera, "Bluebeard's Castle."

Kanamori studied classical and modern ballet and improvisation for two years from age 17 in Lausanne, Switzerland, under the revered Maurice Bejart. He then joined the Netherlands Dance Theatre where, under the masterful and magnificent Jiri Kylian, he blossomed both as a dancer and an innovative choreographer.

Fortunately for Kanamori, the contemporary dance scene in Japan evolved a great deal during his absence. Thanks in part to a constant flow of tours by foreign troupes -- as well as a surge in popularity of hip-hop and street dance -- it has grown into a hugely popular art form attracting an ever wider audience to ever more major venues.

So, when Kanamori returned to found Noism and take up the reins as artistic director, Japan's contemporary dance Big Bang had already happened, and he was primed to become one of the brightest stars in a rapidly expanding universe.

The name of Kanamori's company -- pronounced "no-ism" -- conveys the meaning of "no restrictions," and as its latest staging at the Setagaya Public Theater in Sangenjyaya memorably demonstrated, the company -- in presenting a program titled "Triple Bill," with colorful works from three very different leading contemporary dance choreographers -- is amply living up to its name. The master dancer himself also proved why he is one of the most charismatic stars in the world of Japanese dance.

Wraithlike in the penumbra
When the ebony curtain rose on the first piece in the triptych, "Door Indoor" by the Italian choreographer / dancer Alessio Silverstrin, the audience were at once transported into a misty cosmos of dim lighting playing off gray walls broken only by a bold gray swath of curtain hanging from the ceiling. Then, as the colors seemed to swirl slowly and dimly before our eyes, seven dancers in tank tops and short tights burst forth in a blur of movement, dancing wraithlike in the penumbra as the sounds of a storm gave way to the intense opera music of "Bluebeard's Castle" by Bela Bartok.
[image] A scene from Ryohei Kondo's "The Life as a Dog," which rounded off a memorable evening.

As all this was almost surreally overlaid at times by the indistinct narrations of a Japanese female voice, the sounds of book pages turning and occasional exclamations from the dancers, it soon became clear that the 20-minute program was to feature no clear story-line. Instead, what Silverstrin served up was a fantastical abstraction from Bartok's opera in which the seventh bride of Bluebeard sought to find the "real" man behind the mysterious monster she had married, who had killed her six predecessors.

So it was that the dancers -- five men and two women -- jumped into each others' arms, performed short pas de deux, and crawled and leapt with ceaseless energy, their bodies never more than blurred outlines in the swirling grayness on a stage that quickly became a marvelous illusionary world into which the audience was mesmerically drawn.

Then, after a short break to perhaps give us time to come back to earth, we were spun off once again into the outer reaches of sensation with the second program, "Last Pie," a dance trip of historic delight by Ikuyo Kuroda, founder of the all-women Batik company.

As the piece opened to the deep, primitive sounds of recorded taiko drumming with live acoustic guitar further intensifying the rhythm, all present at once felt something very special in the atmosphere, even before the ebony curtain rose again to reveal guitarist Jiro Matsumoto playing atop a ceiling-high black iron tower to the right of the stage, while a spotlight to the left picked out Kanamori, clad only in a black ethnic-style skirt.

From then on, as Matsumoto's fingertips provided an almost flamenco, gypsy-like backing, Kanamori turned and stepped at high speed on the spot, his long arms swirling gracefully and his body stretching freely and elastically as he continued to dance for the next 40 minutes in the highest gear.

Only occasionally slowing a little with the music, or collapsing for a split second onto the floor, he was like a man possessed -- or, for those who know the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale "The Red Shoes," like the heroine who dances until she falls down dead from exhaustion. Here, though, it isn't Kanamori -- the veritable incarnation of dance -- who dies, but the other four dancers who come out together in gorgeous black and orange ethnic costumes,and, one after the other, expire as they try in vain to approach this seeming spirit.

Soon, though, we see these four reincarnated as they return to the stage in a troupe of 11, who fill the right-hand side of the stage with motion as they seem to reach out toward Kanamori, only to be thwarted by what seems like a force field he creates with his unending movements. Finally, exhausted, the 11 all slow down and collapse in heaps on the stage, while only a sudden blackout ends Kanamori's virtuoso stint stage left.

That could have been the end, but instead, in an epic piece of theater, the lights come back up and the 11 revive and walk up the tower in line, while Kanamori dances even faster than before to a sublime climax that's reached as the lights again black out just before the first in line reaches the top of the tower.
[image] In the second program of the evening, "Last Pie" by Ikuyo Kuroda, Jo Kanamori, the Noism company's founder, spins the audience off into the outer reaches of sensation with an extraordinarily intense, 40-minute dance on the spot that overpowers other dancers who try to approach him to the extent that they expire.

What an extraordinarily intense 40 minutes that was -- but a period so pure and astonishing that it seemed to go in a flash. Five curtain calls followed, and I am sure every one in the audience felt as I did, that here we had been witness to something miraculous -- truly, a work of genius.

Patience rewarded
A hard act to follow, as they say -- but wittily, after such huge excitement, the last tableau in the trio, "The Life as a Dog," started with the voice of its choreographer, Ryohei Kondo, who is also the founder of the all-male Condors troupe, coming over the speakers saying: "Thank you for being patient and staying on for our final program after that. We will start now, so please be a bit more patient, I hope you'll enjoy this short piece to relax to. So, let's go!"

Where "Door Indoor" was abstract, and "Last Pie" intense and powerful, "The Life as a Dog" came as a comical, colorful and joyful conclusion to the evening. Set to various kinds of music, from Japanese pop and Latin to Disney animation tunes, the 12 dancers in cheerful, candy-colored costumes clap their hands, speak short lines, form human letters and throughout move playfully around in a series of group sketches in which they take on different dogs' characters before a backdrop upon which a simple, childlike animation of a dog is projected.

Though the show drew lots of laughs from the audience, and the dancers made their work look easy, in actual fact the dog show on stage -- with its bullies and wheedlers, faithful pooches and spoiled toys -- afforded an insightful look at human society, while in their beautifully controlled group movements and the eye-opening quality of the solo turns, Noism's dancers here again lived up to their rapidly growing reputation.

And, amazingly, they did show that it's possible to follow even the most spellbinding of stagings and send the audience out into the night sated with a three-part spectacle in which -- despite its contrasts -- there was not one weak link.

The next production by "Noism" will start Nov. 25 at their home ground, the Niigata Ryutopia Arts Center, then tour to Toyama, Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo and Sendai. For more details, call Ryutopia at (025) 224-5521, or visit www.ryutopia.or.jp

Jo Kanamori's next project, 'noEmadEicEproject 2,' runs Aug. 10-13 at Meguro Persimmon Hall, a 7-minute walk from Toritsudaigaku Station on the Toyoko Line. For more details, call Art Sphere at (03) 5460-9999, or visit www.tennoz.co.jp

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?ft20050803a3.htm

__________________

with kind regards,

Matthias Arnold
(Art-Eastasia list)

http://www.chinaresource.org
http://www.fluktor.de

__________________________________________

An archive of this list as well as an subscribe/unsubscribe facility is
available at:
http://listserv.uni-heidelberg.de/archives/art-eastasia.html
For postings earlier than 2005-02-23 please go to:
http://www.fluktor.de/study/office/newsletter.htm


	August 07, 2005: [achtung! kunst] modern dance : You Shaoxing: Crossing Fire - Jo Kanamori: Noism

	Taipei Times, Aug 05, 2005 Rave, rave, against the dying of the light with modern dance By Ho Yi [image] You Shao-xing attempts to push the limit of a dancer's body in her latest work. PHOTO COURTESY OF WHAT DANCE TEMPLEN Modern dance pieces often take their cues from rave culture these days. "I've made enquiries from ravers on numerous occasions and been amazed by the way they dance, with their body movements so free of restraint and with a touch of primitivism. I draw my inspiration from them and created this piece titled Crossing Fire (過火), a term taken from the Taiwanese ancient ritual of crossing fire that symbolizes purification," said director and choreographer You Shao-jing (游紹菁). One of the best professional dancers in Taiwan, You is also the choreographer of White Dance Temple (白舞寺), which was founded in Ilan County, 2001. It fuses traditional art forms such as puppet theater and Taiwanese opera. Crossing Fire is the company's first attempt to return to a more pure and absolute form of dance. In a telephone interview, You said he deconstructed the body language of ravers and added layers of movement until there was a climax at the end. "Crossing Fire is the most physically demanding and satisfying dancing experience a performer could ever have. The level of energy needed is unbelievable high," You said. "We have to let go of our mind and let our bodies take total control to probe deeply into a state of trance. It's a direct sensory experience. The audience won't understand the piece if they try to think," You said. In an intimate setting the dancers bizarrely blend into projections of fast-moving Taiwanese urban landscapes in an attempt to convey the historical and cultural condition of modern life. Crossing Fire is not meant to be about personal expression, You said, but intends to attain a collective state of oneness, as achieved in ancient rituals held during temple celebrations. Crossing Fire will start on Aug. 10 in Ilan County, then tour in Taichung and conclude with two shows in Taipei. Tickets are NT$100 for shows in Ilan and Taichung; NT$300 for shows in Taipei, available at the door, or call (02) 2272 6899. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2005/08/05/2003266553 *************************** The Japan Times, Aug. 3, 2005 NOISM 'TRIPLE BILL' New dimensions in dance By NOBUKO TANAKA Special to The Japan Times Noism is a veritable supernova in the rapidly expanding universe of Japanese contemporary dance. It burst on the scene in 2004 as the residential company of the Niigata Ryutopia Theater, two years after its founder, 30-year-old Jo Kanamori, returned from Europe. [image] In "Door Indoor," the opening program of the evening's three-part bill, Italian choreographer and dancer Alessio Silverstrin transports the audience into a misty cosmos of dim lighting and swirling colors, amid which seven dancers perform a fantastical abstraction from Bartok's opera, "Bluebeard's Castle." Kanamori studied classical and modern ballet and improvisation for two years from age 17 in Lausanne, Switzerland, under the revered Maurice Bejart. He then joined the Netherlands Dance Theatre where, under the masterful and magnificent Jiri Kylian, he blossomed both as a dancer and an innovative choreographer. Fortunately for Kanamori, the contemporary dance scene in Japan evolved a great deal during his absence. Thanks in part to a constant flow of tours by foreign troupes -- as well as a surge in popularity of hip-hop and street dance -- it has grown into a hugely popular art form attracting an ever wider audience to ever more major venues. So, when Kanamori returned to found Noism and take up the reins as artistic director, Japan's contemporary dance Big Bang had already happened, and he was primed to become one of the brightest stars in a rapidly expanding universe. The name of Kanamori's company -- pronounced "no-ism" -- conveys the meaning of "no restrictions," and as its latest staging at the Setagaya Public Theater in Sangenjyaya memorably demonstrated, the company -- in presenting a program titled "Triple Bill," with colorful works from three very different leading contemporary dance choreographers -- is amply living up to its name. The master dancer himself also proved why he is one of the most charismatic stars in the world of Japanese dance. Wraithlike in the penumbra When the ebony curtain rose on the first piece in the triptych, "Door Indoor" by the Italian choreographer / dancer Alessio Silverstrin, the audience were at once transported into a misty cosmos of dim lighting playing off gray walls broken only by a bold gray swath of curtain hanging from the ceiling. Then, as the colors seemed to swirl slowly and dimly before our eyes, seven dancers in tank tops and short tights burst forth in a blur of movement, dancing wraithlike in the penumbra as the sounds of a storm gave way to the intense opera music of "Bluebeard's Castle" by Bela Bartok. [image] A scene from Ryohei Kondo's "The Life as a Dog," which rounded off a memorable evening. As all this was almost surreally overlaid at times by the indistinct narrations of a Japanese female voice, the sounds of book pages turning and occasional exclamations from the dancers, it soon became clear that the 20-minute program was to feature no clear story-line. Instead, what Silverstrin served up was a fantastical abstraction from Bartok's opera in which the seventh bride of Bluebeard sought to find the "real" man behind the mysterious monster she had married, who had killed her six predecessors. So it was that the dancers -- five men and two women -- jumped into each others' arms, performed short pas de deux, and crawled and leapt with ceaseless energy, their bodies never more than blurred outlines in the swirling grayness on a stage that quickly became a marvelous illusionary world into which the audience was mesmerically drawn. Then, after a short break to perhaps give us time to come back to earth, we were spun off once again into the outer reaches of sensation with the second program, "Last Pie," a dance trip of historic delight by Ikuyo Kuroda, founder of the all-women Batik company. As the piece opened to the deep, primitive sounds of recorded taiko drumming with live acoustic guitar further intensifying the rhythm, all present at once felt something very special in the atmosphere, even before the ebony curtain rose again to reveal guitarist Jiro Matsumoto playing atop a ceiling-high black iron tower to the right of the stage, while a spotlight to the left picked out Kanamori, clad only in a black ethnic-style skirt. From then on, as Matsumoto's fingertips provided an almost flamenco, gypsy-like backing, Kanamori turned and stepped at high speed on the spot, his long arms swirling gracefully and his body stretching freely and elastically as he continued to dance for the next 40 minutes in the highest gear. Only occasionally slowing a little with the music, or collapsing for a split second onto the floor, he was like a man possessed -- or, for those who know the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale "The Red Shoes," like the heroine who dances until she falls down dead from exhaustion. Here, though, it isn't Kanamori -- the veritable incarnation of dance -- who dies, but the other four dancers who come out together in gorgeous black and orange ethnic costumes,and, one after the other, expire as they try in vain to approach this seeming spirit. Soon, though, we see these four reincarnated as they return to the stage in a troupe of 11, who fill the right-hand side of the stage with motion as they seem to reach out toward Kanamori, only to be thwarted by what seems like a force field he creates with his unending movements. Finally, exhausted, the 11 all slow down and collapse in heaps on the stage, while only a sudden blackout ends Kanamori's virtuoso stint stage left. That could have been the end, but instead, in an epic piece of theater, the lights come back up and the 11 revive and walk up the tower in line, while Kanamori dances even faster than before to a sublime climax that's reached as the lights again black out just before the first in line reaches the top of the tower. [image] In the second program of the evening, "Last Pie" by Ikuyo Kuroda, Jo Kanamori, the Noism company's founder, spins the audience off into the outer reaches of sensation with an extraordinarily intense, 40-minute dance on the spot that overpowers other dancers who try to approach him to the extent that they expire. What an extraordinarily intense 40 minutes that was -- but a period so pure and astonishing that it seemed to go in a flash. Five curtain calls followed, and I am sure every one in the audience felt as I did, that here we had been witness to something miraculous -- truly, a work of genius. Patience rewarded A hard act to follow, as they say -- but wittily, after such huge excitement, the last tableau in the trio, "The Life as a Dog," started with the voice of its choreographer, Ryohei Kondo, who is also the founder of the all-male Condors troupe, coming over the speakers saying: "Thank you for being patient and staying on for our final program after that. We will start now, so please be a bit more patient, I hope you'll enjoy this short piece to relax to. So, let's go!" Where "Door Indoor" was abstract, and "Last Pie" intense and powerful, "The Life as a Dog" came as a comical, colorful and joyful conclusion to the evening. Set to various kinds of music, from Japanese pop and Latin to Disney animation tunes, the 12 dancers in cheerful, candy-colored costumes clap their hands, speak short lines, form human letters and throughout move playfully around in a series of group sketches in which they take on different dogs' characters before a backdrop upon which a simple, childlike animation of a dog is projected. Though the show drew lots of laughs from the audience, and the dancers made their work look easy, in actual fact the dog show on stage -- with its bullies and wheedlers, faithful pooches and spoiled toys -- afforded an insightful look at human society, while in their beautifully controlled group movements and the eye-opening quality of the solo turns, Noism's dancers here again lived up to their rapidly growing reputation. And, amazingly, they did show that it's possible to follow even the most spellbinding of stagings and send the audience out into the night sated with a three-part spectacle in which -- despite its contrasts -- there was not one weak link. The next production by "Noism" will start Nov. 25 at their home ground, the Niigata Ryutopia Arts Center, then tour to Toyama, Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo and Sendai. For more details, call Ryutopia at (025) 224-5521, or visit www.ryutopia.or.jp Jo Kanamori's next project, 'noEmadEicEproject 2,' runs Aug. 10-13 at Meguro Persimmon Hall, a 7-minute walk from Toritsudaigaku Station on the Toyoko Line. For more details, call Art Sphere at (03) 5460-9999, or visit www.tennoz.co.jp http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?ft20050803a3.htm __________________ with kind regards, Matthias Arnold (Art-Eastasia list) http://www.chinaresource.org http://www.fluktor.de __________________________________________ An archive of this list as well as an subscribe/unsubscribe facility is available at: http://listserv.uni-heidelberg.de/archives/art-eastasia.html For postings earlier than 2005-02-23 please go to: http://www.fluktor.de/study/office/newsletter.htm