Dance Triennale Tokyo 2012

Working in Switzerland since 2003, Heshiki creates his compositions in collaboration with musicians. In <KOKUU>, simple melodies curve time. A man sitting on the floor. His shoulders and stomach start to move as if creatures possessed of their own will. Soon dancers join, and the three dancers movements become like creatures wriggling in the dark. The stage becomes bright. Soft movements meet with the powerful unison of the three, creating flickers, drawing the audience in. Back to silence and dark, the dancers return to their starting points, in which we sense a “void” – expanding into the universe. (Shigeto Nuki, Dance Critic)

Born in 1971 in Okinawa, Japan. After working for various choreographers in Japan inlcuding Kim Itoh and the Glorious Future, Kuniko Kisanuki + néo, and Dance Theatre LUDENS, he moved to Europe in 1999 to work with Christian Bourigault, Amanda Miller and Arco Renz before establishing the company called serioushobbys together with other dancers, musicians and lighting designers. The company collaborates with different musicians according to the theme of the works, and usually incorporates live music in their dance performances.
www.hidetoheshiki.com

Choreography and Art direction : Hideto Heshiki

Composition : Sha
Dance : Hideto Heshiki, Masaharu Imazu, Keiichi Otsuka
Light and Stage : Fiona Zolg

Sound : Dominik Kessler

Costume arrangement : Nurya Egger

Video and Photos : Patricia von Ah

Production management : Sarah Maier / Fiona Zolg
Co-Production : Theaterhaus Gessnerallee Zürich
Supported by Stadt Zürich Kultur, Fachstelle Kultur Kanton Zürich, Pro Helvetia Schweizer Kulturstiftung, Migros Kulturprozent, Familien Vontobel Stiftung, ISSEY MIYAKE Zürich, Goodtraining
Special thanks to cinegrell, KOI Porductions Zurich, Niki Good
Co-producer : Theaterhaus Gessnerallee Zurich
Supported by : City of Zurich / Cultural Department, Canton of Zurich / Cultural Department, Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council, Migros Culture Percentage, Family Vontobel Foundation, ISSEY MIYAKE Zurich, Goodtraining

The head nods, the upper body collapses, then gazes up into the air. Okinawan ginta music plays. Movements which build into something which resembles like nothing so much as spinning soon become the departure point of a movement which fills the stage — formations by a well-trained ensemble, “Dramatic Volume”, not through any dance-like movements, but rather dance itself. In the solo by Maki Tabata, poses are achieved with a maximum economy. Like a cube sugar melting consistently, the perpetual melody of her body repeats vague poses and slowly crumbles, it fascinates, leaving the audience only hungry for more. (Shigeto Nuki, Dance Critic)

Maki Tabata started learning ballet at the age of three, but by the time she reached high school she began having doubts about dancing in toe shoes, and entered Toho Gakuen College of Drama and Music to search for other possibilities for expression. After many twists and turns, she finally began her career as a dancer, and toured throughout Japan with many different choreographers before starting making her own works in 2007. She received dual prizes in 2009, at the Yokohama Dance Collection R : the ‘Yokohama Prize for Brilliant Future’ and the ‘MASDANZA Prize’; and in the following year was selected as a finalist of the Toyota Choreography Award. She has toured not only in Japan but also in Spain, Holland, South Korea, Singapore, Berlin and Poland. Now with her own company Co.TABA-MAKI, she works extensively as choreographer on an international basis.
www.tabamaki.com

Choreography : Maki Tabata

Dancers : Mariko Kasuya, Ippei Shintaku, Maki Tabata

Music : degi
Lighting Design : Takehiko Maruyama

Costumes : Takeshi Nakamoto, Junko Takase

This work, being born from an exchange of viewpoints between collaborators in this dance troupe, is in a sense documentary. In <All things Young, Poor and Nameless> we find a common scene of a girl taping off sections of the floor next to a girl who is posing, others who are chatting… it is a scene of mutual indifference, which then takes on extraordinary turns. The stage heats up as Ravel’s <Boléro> plays. Even though combinations of dancers are rapidly switched, rather architecturally, the individual characteristics remain. This is a work reflecting the present, rather than a typical celebratory euphoria. (Shigeto Nuki, Dance Critic)

The 21st Century GEBA GEBA dance company was established in February 2011 by eight graduates from Obirin University including Anna Irite, Aki Tsujita, Daisuke Inoue, Chiaki Isa, Ai Totomi, Hideki Natori, Satomi Yajima, and Yu Kitagawa who, since graduation, have been carrying out separate search for their own styles of dance. In November last year, they took part in the “11th YOKO-LAB” with <WAKAKU-MAZUSHIKU-MUMEINARUMONO-NO-SUBETE (All Things Young, Poor and Nameless)>, and this year in April, presented its first original public performance <GEBA GEBA #01>. The group aims at exploring possibilities in the working style in which all the members work equally as choreographers and directors, reflecting their individual ideas and interests in every project.
http://gebageba-21.jugem.jp/

Choreography : 21st Century GEBA GEBA dance company

Dancers : Chiaki Isa, Daisuke Inoue, Anna Irite, Ai Tohtoumi, Satomi Yajima

Kawamura opens with an undefined presence. But once she starts to move, her body’s many fulcrum points – her chest, abdomen, and waist – seem to come uncoupled, presenting a lightness that defies gravity. Her basis is in hip hop. In <Ganbattandane, omae no naka deha (You did your best, considering what you’ve got)> (2012), a middle movement in which her four limbs move explosively, in the contrast to subtle ripples in her torso, transport the audience simultaneously to anxious tension and blissful release. In <Alphald> she builds her world from movement and musical expression, within spatial coordinates created by lighting. Expect unexpected stagings and surprise. (Shigeto Nuki, Dance Critic)

Born in 1990. Kawamura began street dance from the age of sixteen while she studied and finished the dance program at Japan Women’s College of Physical Education. In 2011 she won the Outstanding New Artist Prize at the Yokohama Dance Collection, and since then, has been presenting her works at venues in Japan and abroad including Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse, ZA-KOENJI Public Theatre, and Nakano RAFT in Japan, and also at the Seoul International Dance Festival, and Korean National University of Arts (K-Arts) in South Korea.

Choreography and Perofrmance : Kimiko Kawamura

Production Support : Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse Number 1 Space

Alphard ( Hya, Hydrae, Alpha Hydrae ) is the brightest star in the constellation Hydra.
The name Alphard is from the Arabic (al-fard), “the solitary one.” At apparent magnitude 1.98, it far outshines the lesser stars around it. Sextans and Crater, the other constellations nearest to Hydra, are made up of much fainter stars, making Alphard, gigantic, spectral class K3 II-III star, located light years from Earth, easy to identify.