The four panellists, DAISUKE MUTO, HELLY MINARTI, NANAKO NAKAJIMA, and IINA NAOTO, draw from past work and research to discuss the strategies and processes that allow for alternative ways of approaching and understanding bodily knowledge.
LHN: First of all, my name is How Ngean and I will be moderating this particular session. On my immediate left is Daisuke Muto (and then) from Japan, we have Helly Minarti from Indonesia, Nanako Nakajima (Indonesia) Japan / Germany and then I have, last but not least, Iina Naoto. We would just begin in the order from left to right and then I would like Muto-san to take it away please.
DM: Hello, everyone. My name is Daisuke Muto and I'm basically an independent dance critic but I'm also teaching at the University, especially dance history and theory. Recently, I started to choreograph, myself, and I'd like to talk about my recent research and viewpoint about Asian contemporary dance.
My presentation is titled, Intervenient Participation. My basic understanding of the contemporary art practice in Asia can be categorized into several types. I tentatively broke down like this. One thing, it's revisiting historical dance and repertory or collaboration between different agencies from different backgrounds of dance. And three, abstraction of the specific dance form to universalize that vernacular form. But from my observation, basically, they are always done within the dominant contemporary, what is called dominant contemporary dance institution, which is pre-supposing some specific type of literacy of modern art which is rooted in the modern wisdom invention without the regional community of folk dancing and practice.
So my question is, how to really go contemporary with other dances outside of the theatre, outside the contemporary dance community and but not only its forms or techniques or aesthetics but also the bodies of agencies and the functions of the dance in society or in the vernacular community. So for example, even in a controversial piece of contemporary dance, called Pitchet Klunchun and myself, is considered something like a dialogue between two different cultures.
One is Thai classical dance and another the French contemporary choreographer. But the ground they are standing on is designed in Western manner. I suppose the whole environment is Western. So its integration of something other from outside into the West. I suppose (???) even as it seems like.
So basically dance outside of the theatre, outside the contemporary dance world is diversely embodied. Not only professional artists but also by farmers, fishermen, business workers and all the kinds of ordinary people. Before, in some way integration into or on the stage into the contemporary dance project. So for example, I'd like to pick up one specific dance style on, which is called Shishiodori. This is a kind of deer dance which it can be found in many different parts of the world. But this type is belonging to the north eastern shore of Japanese archipelago- the area which was devastated by tsunami in 2011.
So I'm recently interested in this practice especially from a point of view of the engagement of the contemporary artists into the folk performing art context. So for example Shishiodori is not purely an art form or dance art form. And it is belonging to many different aspects of the human life. For example, it is of course, it is a kind of ritual. And the dear, it can be found in the forest in the mountain so it is part of the production coming from the forestry and other livelihood like fishermen and farmers and craftsmen of the wood. And also it is about also about the everyday socialization of youngsters and older men and kids and there's a men and women. So it is not only a pure art but also at the same time it is a kind of excuse to communicate with each other in the community. And it is also of course amusement and in some sense it's competitive activity, especially among young people. And this form is a quite strongly backed up there on cultural pride or identity. And this is a ritual to send people has been dead to the heaven and so this is ritual with its meaning of symbolizing the reproduction of the community. So it is belonging to many different layers and aspect of social lives. It is not purely an art form. So in this way, the traditional dance especially folk dance can be found in many different contexts and meanings. So it is not so much reasonable to picture the surface or form of dance style and to integrate within in the theater art. So this is also a part of the different activities. So how to engage this folk dance form in its four entity not only the shape, art form, aesthetics and technique.
So this is my question - so recently, I'm finding some new approaches from the contemporary dance artists to local folk dance practitioners. I juxtaposed the four examples. It is scattered in different parts of Japan but mainly they are conducted by the art organization which is working in contemporary dance field. They all sending the contemporary dancers and artists and choreographers into the folk dance community. Not to invite them to the theatre, but they are sending the artists into the community to do something in different manners. So I want to focus on one of them. We are going to go [unclear] to Tohuku in north-eastern shore. This project is conducted by the JCDN, the Japanese Contemporary Dance Network since 2013. In this project, Shishiodori deer dance is taught from the local master to the contemporary dance artist. And in the western part of Japan, near Kyoto, there is another example. This was a case of the local government sent the artists and gathered artist to send their community. And this community is almost disappearing because the population is decreasing quite radically. So this dance form is almost vanishing. So they are in trying to find some new solution and in this year, they fund the artist, to support them.
So my interest is what can bring or what this kind of project can bring out and after the result were, the end product. So in this question I am quite interested in theory of legitimate peripheral participation and it is read from the Lave and Wenger. They are psychologists and theorists of education. So according to Lave and Wenger, participation is a way of the learning or contributing at the same time becoming a part of the large community of practice and they are still a newcomer but they are learning from the old timers and other member of the community. But it is not just absorbing the knowledge and techniques from the existing members of community. They are also contributing to the community itself. Just as a newcomer, he needs to learn and absorb the information and techniques but in that way, they are conducting the teachers teaching. You know, if you want to learn from someone, you need to ask someone to teach you. So this behaviour is also a kind of choreography. So in this way the newcomers are always functioning in the community of practice as a periphery. So this is a basic understanding of the Lave and Wenger theory. So this is the point that I want to emphasize. Recently, I myself joined this project. I learned drumming and dancing of the deer dancing. In one moment, a guy from the community, he was a middle-aged guy who took my hand to teach my drumming. So I was thinking about - I am learning from this guy and he is teaching me but I'm also guiding him to teach me. So the transmission is always interactive and especially the original member of the community is a born and grew up in the community, so they are normally accustomed to the rhythm and dance steps and the aesthetics, but I am coming from the outside so I am quite foreign to them so they need to invent a new way to transmit the knowledge information because I am not familiar with the rhythm and singing, accent anything. So they need to find some new how to transmit these nuances and accent and intonation and way of the you know move your body. So this is the my own engagement or my own intervention to the community. To go learning is making something new happen in the community. So in this way I can make two poles of the way to engage with the other dance forms. One is integration into the Western theatre art that is that also means expansion or one single monolithic global contemporaneity. Even though it is including differences but it is connected singly. And on the other hand there is a way of the participation. That participating makes something new happen, then that could be empowerment of diverse threads of dances. That isn't a single individual it's always multiple. So in this way I can I think I can formulate the new definition of contemporary dance. Contemporary is not single, contemporary is diverse. So in this way, I mean quite much interesting in this way to approaching other dances. I want to finish this point. Thank you very much.
LHN: Right succinct but clear and great, we will have a lot to talk about. I'll just quickly past the mic on to Helly.
HM: I tend to ramble, so I will read out and yeah for timekeeping and all. I think I will link, I'm happy that this, today, started with morning session. You know, if some of you followed that you note all these key words of my presentation today but yeah I just read out first.
So I'm going to talk about a very specific project that I did in 2014 and 2015 as a way of looking back. So it's reflecting on what I did and is a choreo lab that I co-organised back in Jakarta. So yeah. Somewhere along the line of Indonesian dance history of recent times, the body seems to disappear or if it seems to appear, it is likely detect from the historical narratives that inform its present. That set the dance community Indonesia really talked critically about history or body in history for that matter. Instead the word tradition is more often deployed to revert to the various local dance forms which nowadays are widely transmitted through sanggar or local community dance studio, commercial courses or through national academy level, that now offers the doctoral degree in choreography. Such transmission tend to rely on the rigorous training of mastering certain dance technique and vocabulary. Even at the academy level, the necessary discourse is basically absent. Thus, skipping the complex underlying historical references that form the meaning of the movement, which is the dance, the dancing and other related context. The rich varieties of a form tend to be formalized in rigid curriculum. Thus, erase in the process together with its accompanying critical observation. Choreographing too has become formulaic. For the final work at the end of their undergraduate or postgraduate master exam for example, young choreographers will ask to choose one of the five models of choreography. One is study-based, research-based, I don't know, second is a dramatic or story-based, the third one is dance-drama, which is referred to Indonesian particular forms, sendratari, invented in 1961, four pure dance running abstract and fifth comic dance.
In the first choreo lab, a program catering to facilitate the artistic process of young choreographers I co-devised in 2014, I tended to address this absence by inviting several speakers to interrupt, I would say, to articulate some aspects of other art forms aesthetics. I invited people from literature, film and theater to talk about one subject on each. But I soon realized that this method too is too verbal and detaches further these choreographers from bodily understanding of those knowledge, inherent in the movement of various traditions including the ones taken from non-Indonesian sources, that they also learned from these national arts colleges. So in the second and last choreo lab process-in-progress in 2015, it is in the picture, I corrected it by redesigning a program together with the two assigned so called mentor dramaturgs, from the early stage. The choreo lab itself as one of the Jakarta Arts Council programs was situated in continuum with the council's long tradition, since the late 1970s, which consistently pursued effort to first map the practices of young choreographers in order to further support the artistic process.
The Council itself is unlike any other council, definitely not what Ong Ken Seng described the other day. We are 25 independent artists, arts managers, activists who are selected to devise arts programs, given a limited small budget, for three years at a time. Members are changed every three years and one member can be selected to a maximum twice, so six years. And as independent curatorial collective, we work with the city government as their critical partners. In the second choreo lab, I deliberately engaged two distinct figures as mentors for this choreo lab, and none of them from a conventional dance education and that for practical reasons. These two figures are Suprapto Suryodarmo, a movement teacher / contemporary shaman, to quote some of his students, and visual artist Hanafi, who generously opened his studio in the leafy outskirts of Jakarta, as rehearsal space for many performing arts group, mainly theater collective. He also hosts them up to three months each time or not seldom also collaborates with them.
Hanafi's wife, Adinda, is practitioner of children theatre, whose cultural network brings people of various backgrounds to informally hang out in the studio, engaged in heated debate and yet taking place in such relaxed laid-back environment, with constant flow of tea, coffee and homemade snacks. So resident, so called resident artists are free to use both the indoor and outdoor spaces for movement rehearsal and are welcome to activate all corner possible. So the format of the choreo lab is it starts with a four day workshop in that studio where Hanafi and his family live where we all also stayed. We meaning the other mentors, participant choreographers and some of the organizing team. Hanafi’s home/studio is also a hub for the young artists and thinkers to hang out and the workshop opens up also to this flow of regular individuals of the place. So the setting was somehow carefully designed but remain open to absorb the organic life of the space itself, embracing the community that already co-inhabit the space.
So Suprapto Suryodarmo, one of the two senior mentor-dramaturgs invited to facilitate this program earnestly opened the informal introduction by asking these three young choreographers selected these following questions. He asked on the first day - when you choreograph, what is your intention? Is it to make a sesaji, literally means offering or sajian, which can be translated as presentation or thesis? The codeword of these 2 Indonesian words, sesaji and sajian is saji which either way connotes something with food as in the ritual and in the ritual offering and this is served to be consumed. This question set the dramaturgical tone of the choreo lab, at least for me, hinting the rapture from how tradition is being transmitted in modern Indonesia as reflected in the founding of this national arts college since the 1960's, from which these three young choreographers graduated. It was also an applied formulated question since at least two of the participant choreographers take certain rituals from their respective ethnicity as subject matter of their work. This is a very common approach taken by Indonesian choreographers anyway, but by the way. So these three choreographers were selected based on one particular work they created. This particular work is then used as a kind of specimen that they bring to the lab to be re-worked. Re-worked in a way like you know to be reinvestigated in a way. After four days of workshop, they go back to wherever they belong, given at least two months to work a company by dramaturgs they have agreed to work with. I use really this dramaturg but someone to really, and yeah, work with them, and yeah that’s another story.
So the dichotomy of this sesaji/offering of his sajian/presentation/dishes immediately is thrust into investigating the choreographic intend at the core of these young choreographers’ practice and at the same time, it highlights a changing approach and method in the transmission of the art form in the supra-structure, which is like a ritual, a guru – disciple (guru-shishya), into a westernized arts institution this national colleges adapt since the 1960s.
By starting this lab, process-in-progress, that I labelled process-in-progress, with questioning the intention of creating performances in the context of contemporary Indonesia, where our infrastructure is always lag behind from both the market and precipitated process of academisation of arts dance colleges. Now for example, those national arts colleges offer dance program up to the doctoral degree in choreography. So Suprapto’s reflective question put everything on to focus back to the cold problems of such ruptured transformation. Crucial and complex this question is articulated in such colloquial manner, so don't imagine you know like an investigative, like very rigid setting. In plain bus in Indonesia or Indonesian and yet subtly philosophical, highlighting the different realities of dance-making in today's Indonesia. So to describe who Suprapto is and his approach, let me quote one of his many students. I can't really formulated a quite you know, I think when I look at these phrases, it's you know, it's almost perfect. So I will quote one of Suprapto’s many students Alice Pitty, a British movement practitioner who wrote in 2005. “Suprapto Suryodarmo in this idiosyncratic figure in the field of Indonesian contemporary performing arts, difficult to define, even by his long-term colleagues. He seems to play the role of a maverick or shapeshifter, mercilessly breaking with the formality of tradition and yet deeply connected with the cultural heritage of his line and people. Usually known by his shortened name Prapto, he is a movement teacher from Central Java. Indeed movement is his main aesthetic vehicle as a performer rather than dance. However, the word movement can also mean a political movement cultural movement or simply the movement of life itself. His work as a teacher, performer and innovator is to explore how physical body movement is shape or inform by this deeper underlying forces of motion. Since movement by nature is never fix, working with Prapto can feel like diving into a sea of uncertainty and struggling to keep one's bearings amongst currents that are constantly changing. The ground rules are never certain because the ground itself is always moving. Movement is synonymous with change and change always contains an element of chaos. By allowing the “movement of life” to penetrate and channel itself through him, Prapto actually seems to embody the forces of chaos, a quality that is unusual and distinguish him as a shape-shifter. However, I do not mean that his life is disorganized or that his artistic work is chaotic. It is more that Prapto, just by being himself, acts as a stimulator or catalyst for the power of chaos to take effect. He uses his own body movement as a diagnostic tool, a barometer to sense what is evolving or trying to emerge in personal life or in the interaction between people of different culture or in the unconscious interplay between performance. As one student described his work, studying with Prapto is exploring the life beneath life.”
Bear with me for a bit.
It is precisely those unique qualities of Suprapto that I combine with Hanafi’s practice and personal approach working with young artists. Both are aware of their so called seniority and yet, they quickly casually shook and struck off the underlying generational gap and hierarchy by saying, “No. We don't want to guide you or anything. How can we? We just wish to be invited to disturb your process”. Disturb here is a not so apt translation for the word menganggu since in this context, it connotes the sense of playfulness, of a smart Joker than destroyer.
I would read the last pages by playing five videos simultaneously but without sound to describe my case studies.
Is my old laptop, is hang. I'm sorry I mean I go on. Anyway yeah sorry it's not working.
LHN: Maybe we can come back to it later.
HM: Yeah, maybe.
So in this presentation I wish to share one of those young choreographers’ work included in the choreo lab. It’s a work by Mohammed Hariyanto or shorten Hari, with his work Ghulur. The piece and his process is an ideal example to showcase dramaturgical process that transformed a work. So Hari came on board with the work first titled Ghulur that is based on particular local ritual from East Java. It's a mask dance form which is performed by people of Larangan Barma village in Sumenep, Madura Island, just east of Java and he interviewed two cultural figures from this community and was inspired by seeing, after seeing the work by one of them who recreated the form into a state's presentation. This is actually five of Hari’s research work and stage work part of this.
That is why I like to show it show them all yeah with you but I'm sorry this is not working.
Well the new interpretation of the ritual he saw incorporates storytelling of the origin of the Ghulur ritual, Hari decided to focus on the peculiar movement of the Ghulur, the peculiar movement of the Ghulur, performed in the ritual which is, which apparently means to roll your body on the ground as way of reconnecting the body and nature, acknowledging the soil of the human body as both organic as one feeds the other and vice versa. In the span of at least four years, Hari has created and recreated this piece for different occasions and contexts - the first one, the experimental group on the soil, an improvisational solo on one on the pendapa, Javanese tradition (on the right low right) in Solo near his old campus, a strictly choreographed group work on the stage that he submitted for his final postgraduate exam at the Indonesian Arts Institute (in left, low) and a solo commissioned by IDF in 2014 as part of this showcase too back is on the left, upper left. In the choreo lab, Hari’s year-long processes were unpacked in relations and reflection to the two of his peer choreographers. In between the exercises, discussion took place and this could last until late with Suprapto and Hanafi being present and closely engaged. Asking critical questions, sometimes philosophical such as where or what is stage for you or offering advises of different articulating their ideas, be it visually, technically or poetically. In this choreo lab edition, I decided to go with the flow. After our first meeting when I set my intention to design this lab in close collaboration with the two mentors, Hanafi came up with suggestion that to start to start this process by sending him to visit Suprapto in his home studio in Surakarta where they view the videos of three choreographers together and talk about it in relation to other things. We videotaped the conversations and then send it to the participant choreographers as something to prepare upon arrival, simply to set to set the mood. This various modes of reflection employed situated in an informal setting that effortlessly revisit the natural so-called Indonesian social rhythm of meeting, encountering and connecting proves to be inspiring for all involved not just the artists.
To conclude, to again quote Alice Pitty,” Traditional form is not the same as ancestral lineage though deceptively similar. The lineage does indeed emerge from within the form but only when the form is totally and fully embodied within the performer because then the real spirit of the work, literally and the ancestors’ spirits start to emerge and imbue the work with the life, fertility, potency and meaning. The performers themselves have to be the medium, the interface between the feasible form and the intangible spirit of the work. This is the fundamental training of an artist whether Indonesian or not. Without his complete embodiment there are empty spaces, space in the wind.” He quoted Suprapto about this space in the wind. This is Suprapto’s own term. “… and the spirit may well fill those empty spaces with chaos. Western influences may be welcomed into that training process and vice versa. So however the new influences also need to enter fully the ritual space, not just as free-floating costume, the exotic glamour of east or west but the influences or spirits need to be initiated and included into a new interplay of ancestral spirits that includes the western ones. The word influence like influenza comes from the wind and the wind is spirit, the original breath of life. Influence is a form of spirit (Highwater). The Western or non-Western influences need to be treated as seriously in the literal space as any other ancestral spirit because the interplay of spirits will create new dances, new rituals, not losing any of the past ancestors but simply emerging at the new level of complexity”. I have to confess that I'm very uncomfortable using, quoting this, but especially the phrase ancestral spirit, but I decided to confront myself. We did because I think this is what I referred to as that historical narratives in my boring academic terms but it's simply, I tried to how do you say it um I'm looking for answers, not a simplified answer why this rupture disrupture because in Indonesia we never talk about this rupture because when we talk about tradition in dance it's always about continuity. But I keep seeing this rupture emerging so that's why umm, and I think I like what Alice Pitty offered if you if you read his writing or her writing. Anyway I'm sorry that the video is not working but yeah, thank you.
NN: Hi, I’m Nanako Nakajima. First of all, thank you for inviting me to the session and to this conference. I appreciate. I want to say thank you to the team, How Ngean and also Centre 42 and organizations TPAM - thank you. And I'm also glad to be here in the sessions to share the ideas of dance dramaturgy together with the people here.
Okay. I am dance researcher and also dance dramaturg, and I have worked several projects - several dance project and also theatre project. And then this time, I would like to introduce one of the recent project that I have worked between Germany and Japan and that was done actually last year. So this piece is about group space. And yes, so this is the title of the piece is X/ Groove Space and then I will show some photos and video clips later after I introduce a little bit about the project.
Do you hear me? Because I'm not really, okay, let me know, if I speak to fast also. Okay, thank you.
So basically, I wrote the text so I read the text but please let me know. So with his performance series, Groove Space, a German choreographer, Sebastian Matthias explore the urban pulse of various cities in Europe and Jakarta. In 2016, with the title of X/ Groove Space, our team were searching for the mutual groove of Tokyo and Düsseldorf, which is the area called “Little Tokyo at the Rhine” in Germany. So it's a kind of like a Japanese, the big Japanese community in Europe in Düsseldorf. And our team examined the physical sensibilities people develop every day for the environment and investigate questions as to the relations of meeting, communications and participation that can be created in the public space as well as in the theatre, which tools, bodies and actions generate a community. So this piece X/ Groove Space - so X or crossing groove space - there's actually different ways of calling this title but there could be… let's say I call crossing or X/ Groove Space so this piece is created collectively with our team of collaborators - three Japanese visual artists with connections in Tokyo - Atsuhiro Ito, Masaru Iwai and Yoko Seyama And Masaru Iwai invites to a common experience as to the topic of cleaning and Yoko Seyama and Atsuhiro Ito intervened with rotating and sound making sculptures in the theatre space. From the beginning of this process, I have supported this creation process as dramaturg. And next to Sebastian's seven dancers involved in the production, more than a dozen Düsseldorf and Tokyo residents are a crucial part of the development of the project. And this piece was co-produced by tanzhaus nrw, Festival/Tokyo and other theaters.
What specific temperaments and physical perceptions are shared in the grooves of Tokyo and Düsseldorf?
In order to investigate this question, our team has criss-crossed between the two cities, researching and producing this dance work. In particular, we have focused on the Japanese community in Düsseldorf and the German community in Tokyo or international community in Tokyo, that is a double gaze from both the inside and outside. And based on this joint perspectives, the people who are minority in one city becomes the majority in the other and vice versa. In this way, we became able to rethink the following questions. How can we share a single space with people from different backgrounds? So title of this piece X or crossing came from our discussions with collaborators, which symbolizes a crossing actually a crossing on the street but also the idea of bleaching, bleaching two spaces and two different sensibilities.
Okay and during the creation process the team has done residency in both cities so that we can include both sensibilities and their deceptions models into our dramaturgy. For example, we have created questionnaires for the residents in both and these questions are like this. Imagine you come back to Düsseldorf or Tokyo from abroad. When do you feel the first time that you're back in the city? Or how does your body feel? Do you sit, stand, eat? What is around you? What colours, smells, sounds? How do you position your body in that space? Or have you ever felt pressured when you are in a very clean city? Do you feel a little too rigid to live there or not? And, what makes you feel clean or not clean in the city? So some of the questions actually about the feelings in the urban space but also the other questions are concerning cleaning or cleansing which is also the concept of this project, as I explained. We call the residents in Düsseldorf and Tokyo as the audience group and invited them to our rehearsals during the residency. Each time the team has showed a tryout or small performance, we have spent much time to discuss with the audience group and try to reflect their feedbacks into our dramaturgy. And through this process, specific sensibilities of the people in both cities are shared with artists and implemented in the piece. The dramaturgy for this dance work has developed across multiple layers. The dances and abstractions of the physical perception of pedestrians in both cities, producing multifocal choreography. The choreographer Sebastian and his dancers have already developed their way of abstracting movement and especially pedestrian movement observed in various cities and incorporated into their ballet trained, contemporary dance vacabularies.
So I show maybe this photo.
So basically the dancers spend so much time to explore the cities, every time they visited new cities and then they see, they observe the people's movement and they write down the kind of the patterns of the movement and options… this is also the process of abstractions and they also like named it as a kind of marshmellow or those like naming of the movement and combine them and deconstruct those modes of movement into the choreography.
So then we spent the time also actually that both cities in not only in Düsseldorf but also in Tokyo and this is a kind of - photos which shows the process of making the dance movement.
So I switch to the visual part of this piece. So I have already said that there are three visual artists in connection with Tokyo participating in the project. And one of them is Yoko Seyama and her kinetic sculptures, create spatial fluctuations that resonate mutually between dancers and audience. And along with the Optron live performances by Atsuhiro Ito and his light and sound installations.
So I show these two artists work, yes. This is the three sculptures created by Yoko Seyama. So this is actually that is how you say this is moving and then but it's not really like constantly moving because of the motors which is at the end of the sculptures and it goes down and then because of this weight, the sculpture starts turning and those kind of movement that we can really expect. So then three of them are sculptures by Yoko and then around this, this is the sound installation by Atsuhiro Ito. He's also a musician. So at the same time he created these sound installations and this light, how do you say it, limelight or flesh lights or attached to the speakers and then when it’s on, this makes the sound of speakers. I show you the video later. But Atsuhiro is also playing the music or playing them the sound during the show and he is, so his self-made device is called as Optron and by using the switch on and off, that makes the electricity and then this electricity makes sound, noise sound. So then he basically he praised this self-made device in order to make the music and make the sound to dancers. And the other visual artist, Masaru Iwai intervenes into the floor of the theatre space. In this first space of video he gazes down on the group and intervenes in what is happening on the stage. In this way, what is outside is drawn into the out space raising the following questions. By whom and for whom is the theatre space made? So during the research process of this project, I came to know Masaru who incorporates the juxtaposition of cleaning / trash into his artwork. Using a broad array of mediums, such as installation video and performance he makes a display of the desire, intrinsic to our daily lives to clean. And furthermore he shifts the focus by questioning that - christening that cyclical option. So basically there is no such thing as perfect cleansing. By the act of cleaning, a trash just transforms itself into other materials and still stays in our environment. So the trash doesn't go anywhere, just becomes a different things, different material. And Masaru has already created several video installations on this topic of cleansing or cleaning. In one video piece called Dancing Cleansing, he asked students at the elementary school to clean the school together and this collective act of cleaning culminates into the act of dancing. In addition, Masaru has been recently engaged regularly in decontamination process near the Fukushima nuclear power plant. He washes radioactive substances off buildings and streets in Fukushima Prefecture communities which we can call as the act of collective national cleaning. And Sebastian has an allergy to dust. So he brings his anti-death pillow when he travels. Not only that Sebastian has really a physical reaction to dust, Masaru’s approach is very much related to the idea of spatial groove in Japanese context. His practice of cleaning is described as Japanese take of Sebastian's idea of group in a club scene. Cleaning space is the act of shaping, changing and controlling space. And this act of cleaning evokes the collective cultural memories of school days for many for many Japanese people. In contrast to the club scenes, which is still [unclear] to some people in Japan this act of cleaning could produce groove space in Japanese context. Who is in charge of cleaning also reveals the social structure and political aspects of these two cities. In both Tokyo and Düsseldorf, Masaru employs one professional cleaner to do cleaning theater space before and during the show. Although Masaru does not look for professional cleaners with a specific background, these cleaners at both theaters happen to be immigrant workers. This is not the performance to represent the act of cleaning. Rather it is a social intervention to bring the different spatial and temporal awareness to the audience.
So I show you a video of the piece.
So at the beginning of the piece, it's just with the cleaners cleaning. So when you enter this the theatre… so when you enter the [unclear] of the theaters there's one person cleaning on the floor.
[Video]
And Masaru is also documenting the process of this creation process. So that the older, the temporal span is documented, videotaped, archived from the beginning of the piece and also from the beginning of the process.
[Video]
Maybe I skip a little bit towards the middle. So dancers are showing many choreographies, but in the middle of the piece, there's a part of intervention.
[Video]
Just wrap up, just sentences. So then it's basically the way which we feel and perceive a public space is constructed in both cities and culturally. And simultaneously, the avant space is influenced by various people who live in the different communities. The actual performance X/ Groove Space is created out of these temporal connections between two specially divided places, which is Düsseldorf and Tokyo.
Thank you.
IN: Hello I am Iina Naoto. Today I would like to talk about dramaturgy, about a piece called about Kazuo Ohno. This is a solo performance piece by Takao Kawaguchi. He’s right there. I would like to talk about the concept. This is the piece about copying - kancopy, Kancopy means to copy completely, a butoh master’s dance called Kazuo Ohno to the very simple concept. I would like you to see this a movie by Takuo Kawaguchi which he can copy Ohno Kazuo.
[Video]
There are 12 scenes in all. All 12 scenes are kancopy of Ohno Kazuo’s dance and the sound too. I would like you to see the real, the original.
[Video]
That was the original.
What we are copying here are his performances from 1977, 81 and 84. We brought up video of his dances. They were all directed by Hijikata Tastumi. It has been said that Kazuo Ohno does improvise butoh but when we saw the videos from different times, we learned that he partly planned his moves. The important thing about this performance is that we kancopy everything. It’s a cache copy, it’s a kancopy of this cache performance too. So to find this word, kancopy to find the word to represent the piece it’s a very important concept itself. The same thing when you copy your favourite musician, your favourite guitarist. So when you try to kancopy a musician, you don’t only kancopy his music but his style or how they talk. So this piece could be put as a piece that Kawaguchi Takao tries to be Ohno Kazuo. Well dancers, it’s a very important motive for dancers to be, try to be something else. Become, yes, become something else. It’s important for dancers. There’s a scene in the performance that we copy, a film called The Portrait of Mr O.This is a film that Ohno Kazuo took with the movie director Nagano Chiaki. It was made by only two people. It is a film from 1969.
[Video]
It’s a strange film. This is the first scene about the performance of Kazuo Ohno. I will show you the scene.
[Video]
This scene is not a kancopy. So, what we are copying here is the essence or the concept that of the original movie. We are trying to discover what he is trying to do from the original movie. So this movie, it’s 70 mins long but we don’t know what he is trying to do and that’s the important part. So Kawaguchi Takao is copying the fact that it’s hard to understand. So when the Kawaguchi Takao is come in, the audience almost ignores him. So nobody thinks he is Kawaguchi Takao. Everybody thinks it’s just that somebody is in the wrong place. They try to ignore him and that is very important too. So that is the way that Ohno Kazuo is seen back in his days. So we’re trying to copy, not just his moves but the person, his history in this performance piece, as part of the dramaturgy.
This is Ohno Kazuo puppet. This man controlling this puppet is Ohno Kazuo’s son, Ohno Yoshito. He’s also a butoh dancer. In this scene, his son is controlling him, is copying his father. So copying the choreography of his father using his father’s puppet. So comparing these two performances, I have to put into words what is the difference between these two and the same parts too. So watch this movie over and over again. One thing we realised what is not the same. So Ohno Kazuo sometimes destroys this object but he also tries to maintain the object. He places the object so that it is maintained in a way. Takao Kawaguchi tends to be disruptive. So this scene is the scene about Kawaguchi Takao becoming Ohno Kazuo, so that’s ok. I try verbalise, to put in words what Kawaguchi Takao is trying to do. One of my main roles as the dramaturg is to stand by the concept at all cost, always refer to the concept. But I don’t want to shut out Kawaguchi Takao’s instinctive ideas and have to pay attention to them too. So when we get this idea, we go back to the concept itself and sometimes change the concept too. We go back and forth. I am a dramaturg in this performance but I try to be a marginal person. So by being marginal, not being inside of something. I maintain myself as a dramaturg. So with Kawaguchi Takao, I don’t have discussions at rehearsals but we talk in bars and cafes or by texting to each other. The piece, the performance name is about Kazuo Ohno but what I try to think of is about Kawaguchi Takao. Thank is all, thank you.
LHN: Thank you. Thank you very much all four speakers. Before we, before I open up comments questions or before I invite comments and questions from the floor, I just want to quickly perhaps do a, trace some kind of big picture for us to think about and also give a little bit of time for the floor to percolate some questions.
The entire panel was on the broad umbrella or on a broad topic of dance dramaturgy. They've included body memory and movement. What was interesting was that there were quite a few threads of discussions and talking points that could be quite well linked up to actually this morning's discussion. One being, and it started off Daisuke-san on pedagogy and transmission. The idea of teaching, we were talking a lot about teaching this morning and what does it mean when we have some sort of an authoritative figure especially in the kinds of artistic and cultural practices in Asia. But more than that I think Daisuke-san brought up the point about learning also and how does that insinuate itself into the creation of contemporary dance. That's quite an interesting way of looking at contemporary dance. And then from this transmission, we go on to even Helly’s presentation where again the notions of the Guru and the disciple, sort of hierarchy, is subverted in a very playful way and at the same time even though this pedagogy or system has been turned on its head, there is still some sort of a mentorship at play as she mentioned, even though in this looser sense of the word where the mentorship includes opening of home, opening up of literally a geographical and mental space for these dancers to actually develop and grow in their own way. And to actually state that these mentors will not give guidance, which was verbalized, right? From this kind of transmission of non-advice to transmission of the different kinds of gestures in Takao Kawaguchi’s work you know, literally it was a transmission of gestures or rather what was termed - migration of gestures, the migration of gestures from actually Kazuo Ohno’s body to the film and from the film to a Kawaguchi Takao’s body. So there were many kinds of movements that were happening and when we go into movement we go into then Nanako’s paper where the movement literally is migratory nature, right? We were talking about looking at communities from Little Tokyo in Düsseldorf yes and then to look at Tokyo again. And this migration, migratory patterns form communities and then from these communities we are looking again at movements, physical movements of these communities which brings us back to then these notions of what constitute a community which then adds on to what Daisuke-san was talking about extra daily and daily activities which were all part of the papers actually in different ways. The extra daily coming up with the notion of conceptualizing folk dance with its very strong linkages to the community, to the way of the lives of the people in that community, geography, farming, culture. And then to Helly’s paper again, idea of a culture community where the extra daily or rather the daily life of every day doing becomes a part of an artistic practice that is permeated through the work they do in that little residency they did, right? An in Nanako it was quite obvious the work itself. Half of it was daily activity daily behaviour, daily movements that were then made into the extra daily performances or the extra daily activity and movements and gestures- the sweeping, the cleaning, the walking, yeah? And last of all, looking at debris and dust. The cleaning and Takao’s playing with what looks like detritus and rubbish. So they're quite a few strands that were looking out here and for me like I said the biggest ones seem to be this idea of transmission, migration, movement, mobility of these sort of choreographic gestures, if you like. And then also what constitute a community? How do we now constitute the choreographic community, the community at large, the cultural community and on a bigger scale the global community? Yeah?
On that note I would like to invite comments or questions on the floor. Please wait for the mic to be passed to you because we are trying to record this session. Yes, I think you should say. Would anybody like a translation in Japanese for the Q&A session or is everyone comfortable?
Okay, a show of hands. One over there - no question? You have a question? Yeah that’s what I am saying. You have a question right or a comment? could we please wait for the mic.
Zihan: Yeah my name is Zihan. I'm from Singapore. I'm curious about the last piece that was covered. And you know one of the things is that we have Takao-san here, so I’m curious to ask what's the relationship between the dramaturg and artists, specifically in this case. Perhaps yeah both of you will be able to provide some information on the contextual information about the impossibility of re-enactment is provided to the audience or when the audience is coming into the space - are they just enjoying it or appreciating it as just a piece without this contextual information? And whose responsibility is it to provide or to spark these conversations? Is it dramaturg or the dance artist, in this particular situation?
LHN: Yeah so as Naoto-san came with his own interpreter. If Takao-san would like to start us off, that's fine too.
Takao: Well, I have heard a reaction from the audience who have watched my show saying that no matter whether they have seen the original butoh master or not, they have fun watching my thing. And the way we start the show, when with my helmet and blue poncho/ cape/ tarp, they actually because I start on the street and when they start coming to the theatre, they arriving to the theathre, I am already there so that they may have witnessed me doing something, you know. Lying on the ground or being a weirdo. So they they may think that and they encounter that part without any contextualization. And we like that. And we don't really give context, any context at that point. And then well they may have read or heard or watched the Kazuo Ohno so they may have some context of what I will be doing but the introduction into the piece is totally out of context.
For the rest of the show? So from the rubbish that I play with, I put them all, put the rubbish on my body and dress up. And from that point, the show starts. I guide the audience from the foyer into the theatre and - and which is the reference to the Kazuo Ohno’s La Argentina. So he plays with the rubbish in the film for ten years and then at the end of that 10 year/ decade in 1977, he creates La Argentina and he becomes Argentina out of that. He rises up a rubbish. So I reenact that process and I wear the rubbish and go into the theatre - to become, to start, to initiate, the complete copy of his dance. And then, well, often we have an exhibition, some exhibits in the foyer, posters or artifacts from the original, Kazuo Ohno, in the foyer. So if they arrive in time then they may be able to read or see some of the materials and if not, I think we give enough context already without giving it in so obvious way.
IN: In the first scene, the audience’s opinion was split into two. So the first half, they don’t want to see this extending to 100minutes. That’s only in the first 30 mins. When we start to copy the audience’s concentration, they start to concentrate. So when that happens, the audience thinks ok, so we’ll watch this till the end. So that’s what we were trying to do. To make them disappointed at the first half hour but provide what they want in the later half.
LHN: Great any other questions for the other panellists? I actually have a question for Daisuke-san. In terms of your research into looking at these kinds of artists. Before that, again, I just want me a comment about your use of the term intervenient participation suggesting an intervention, you know, going into almost an interruption. So that part to me is interesting because it seems that you're suggesting that these artists from outside the community going in to learn a new choreography or new art form suggests there is an interruption to the community, to that particular folk community. Could you say a few things about that?
DM: The order, I'll say the organizations who are conducting those kind of projects are not really seriously interrupting the practice of the community dancing. They suggest the main opinion leaders in the region and they select some small communities who are willing to accept that offering or participation just because the population decreasing or some different kinds of crisis of the community maintenance. So I don't think it is an interruption. They are always very welcome especially, if it is only temporary. But I found out one single interesting case, it is about Sioned Huws and coming from the UK <interruption from LHN) Ya, deer dancing and she's running, since 2008 she'd quite frequently visit in Japan to learn different types of the folk dancing and since last year, she decided to stay in one single isolated village in the mountains and she has almost become a member of the community, and she owned the house already and yes, she is learning Japanese and trying to gradually become assimilated into the community and keeping the different relationship from the kids and old people and you know the people. And I talked with her and two hours two weeks ago about her conception of the involvement in the community and according to her she was not intending to do some choreography or she's not expecting any direct, final product from this residency. She just expecting something very subtle and maybe it's quite remote in the future but she is she looked satisfied by making very small ripple in the community. Maybe, you know, the outcome can be missed by her own observation but she does not care about that. But at least she's very new and foreign for the community I don't think she is not leading anything in the community. She is making something but maybe it's very difficult to observe from her side. But in this way she's doing something, she's making something new. So that is very interesting for me, compared to extracting some elements from the community dancing in the theatre stage.
LHN: I just want to, sorry, yeah. I want to quickly contextualize Sioned Huws, the dancer, dance artist whom Daisuke-san is talking about. She's from Wales and she started a residency in 2008 actually up in Aomori where she was there and it was again one of these as global flows would allow for an opportune residency which she didn't expect. And from there grew one project – Aomori Aomori and now this one, that we're talking about here Shishiodori, the deer dance is another project. With our Amori Amori there was a final product, there was a performance that has actually gained quite a lot of attention within and without Japan - in Japan and outside of Japan also. And so this I would say mark as a sort of a development for her where she is going into another community now where the work is about learning. Where the choreography literally is about choreographing some sort of learning as what you say where body to body transmission is not one way as much as the person is teaching you, you are guiding the person to teach you also and that to me is very interesting. Yes.
NN: Yes, somehow related to the things that you mentioned and then also I kind of switch to Helly’s project about the mentorships between the younger choreographers and senior dramaturgs, and then thinking about this community learning or learning of new communities is so much about experience and age. And then how new, or how old, can be also related to the how much experience you have in terms of dance or in terms of culture. And then, so that's also, I think very important in a social related- like socially related art field I would say or community dance or folk dance. And then coming back to Helly’s project in contemporary dance residency or kind of mentorship project, you also mentioned that the age, the younger artists and also like older dramaturgs. I'm also curious how these things happens and how this relationship could also relate it to the like educational institutions that we talked about before.
HM: Yes, it may sound from my presentation that is a too much more senior you know like speakers and artists, to be a mentor/ dramaturg for them but to me is like it's also you can also see it as one artists opening up his studio and his home. In fact that's what Hanafi does. I mean we're together like we were like 10 people me and my colleague, you know and someone who note the process. But in that space Hanafi could host, like did host as many as 30 I mean theater people is very famous for bringing a lot of their, theatre people in Indonesia. I mean, I call them congregation not artists because they tend to get along. So I think in in one way because Jakarta is very tricky I mean I have a very small budget and I know that, you know, it doesn't work if this lab happens in school again. I wanted, you know, they already had a lot from these schools and so I don't want to recreate or replicate that process again. I wanted something organic because I think that’s how to but I can't just implant like you know, like okay go somewhere and then, how do you say it, outside Jakarta, rent a bungalow, it’s beautiful but it's not the same. Because I think that space, that studio space has so much narratives. It is a creating space, is a space for creating arts so it's already like feels different. I mean in terms of atmosphere. And the second one what I like is also Hanafi proposal. Because the first one it was rush in last minute because like we we can't do it in a you know, I was looking for place so the first one was last minute but the second one, we had some time so I mean before we start deciding anything apart from selecting the artists, we invited Suprapto and Hanafi to sit down and then talk - how do we start? Hanafi proposed, “Okay, I mean the last one you guys spent in my in my studio. Why not I'm visiting Suprapto’s studio and house as well?” and then yeah.
LHN: Perhaps just to add. I'm also getting a sense that perhaps what you were aiming for was sort of a different kind of perspective on learning work as much as the formal schooling is very good as we talked about this morning that kind of residency that you're talking about also provides a different kind of learning experience and choreographic experience because you talked about how you know, in school they have five formats of exams and its formulaic to a certain degree. Here's a chance, we're in a different kind of environment, learning environment then these dancers and artists have to learn in different ways, outside a formal syllabus if you like yeah? You want to add to that?
NN: Because I also was inspired by Helly saying ancestor’s spirit and then somehow this ideas of ghosts or spirit, which is not really practical information that we can learn at school, more about the kind of ghosts in the air. And then somehow it also goes back to Iina-san’s presentation about Kazuo Ohno’s spirit is embodied by Takao-san or somehow Takao-san becomes Kazuo Ohno. So it's not about to dance as Kazuo Ohno but more like to become him. And somehow it's related to a kind of alternative way of learning bodily knowledge or transmissions of experience or dance forms, I think.
LHN: Thank you. Do we have any last questions or comments that you'd like to make? Great, in that case, please put your hands together for our four panellists. I would like to call this session to an end. Thank you very much and thank you very much for staying. Ah well this is the second last. We have one more panel to go, a very different one talking on intercultural and interdisciplinary dramaturgies that would start at 4. We hope to see you again. Thank you.