Odori-Dawns-Dance
Residency 2015 – Sumita Town, Rikuzentakata Iwate and Morishita Studios Tokyo.
Morning to leave Iwate, near the Mizusawa-Esashi Station is snowy. I looked at the first snow this year, I remember Aomori. Then I slept in Shinkansen, arrived in winter of Tokyo, the blue sky. There was something, which I got in these nine days to my body.
It was a workshop of new project “Odori-Dawns-Dance” with Sioned today in Morishita studio.
A research of movement is carried out in the studio, we already meet a lot of people. Everybody has a different background, different hometown, and there is each life. The studio where various people gather is like one small world. The studio is built in a residential area of Morishita, there is a river, when I advance from here to the south, it continues Kiyosumishirakawa. The world in the studio leads to the outside world, connected to each person’s hometown and the way, which each person walked. I always dance and make my work while thinking so; I learned this from Sioned; the work which she makes is adjoining, there is a sense connected forever.
It is difficult to change information and memory that Sioned researched into some form, but rearranging follows, because there is the place called the studio; and we display it one by one, remember, choose and sort it again, and make a fresh start. It was such two weeks. I had the mysterious sense that nobody knew. I could not say well, but the word “for all that we stay together” came out for me. With Nobutaka Yoshida who is the leader of Kakinaizawa-shishi-odori (from Sumita-cho, Iwate). Nobu-san’s body had his time, totally different time appeared, I was surprised whether physical history, time, rhythm has changed the time of the place. I watched Sioned joined hands with one of the guest Sugawara-san (Minnano-ie from Rikuzentakata Iwate), and sang Rikuzentakata Ondo, the words that came out for me. “A small thing may change something” She who was born in Wales takes the hand of a woman born and raised in Rikuzentakata and sings; the place is Morishita of Tokyo. What is it?
As well as words, I want to cherish that which comes with my body, it is dance, and it was such a night.
Odori-Dawns-Dance – Rikuzentakata
Exchange meeting @ Yonezaki Community Centre. I was glad to be able to spend time with the people whom Sioned met through three years.
We introduced to people of Iwate, Tsugaru Te-Odori, that we learned through the Aomori Project, continued for eight years and tried the first collaboration with Hikami-Taiko. In addition, to dance Jangara-Nenbutu-Odori with Kei-san who came from Iwaki-shi, Fukushima, that was taken care of residency of the last year, the singing voice of Kei-san as wonderful as ever.
My debut of Shishi-Odori, I did my best of course there are a lot of reflection point and refinements, but it was like a miracle that I was able to beat the drum, dance, and I was in that place with everybody. Nobu-san, members, Sioned, thank you very much.
And the last, I discovered a dance for oneself when we danced in a ring together with the folk dance club Tomoshinokai, it is a moment I cannot forget.
We ate delicious rice ball, Thai dish which two artists from Thailand made, pork miso soup that we made all together and talked. I met a local woman Takiko-san, she used to work near my house in Tokyo. Talk became lively, I felt that such a chance and talking greatly affects future one’s viewpoint, dance and work.