Hiroaki Umeda: While Going to a Condition und Holistic Strata
Tempel Tanzfestival 2011
Fri, November 18, 2011 8.30 pm CET, Performance
"Probably the most innovative contemporary choreographer from Japan seeks to plumb the genre-limits of dance". (KulturSPIEGEL 8/2011)
The figure clad in black appears unlit on stage, two-dimensionally like a shadow. On the rear wall behind a motionless biped a thick white bar repeatedly flits up and down, much like picture interference. The immobile entity twitches a little and begins turning the tips of its feet. In, out, right, left, always faster, its base begins sparking. The feet step a little further apart; the knee, the arms, and small waves flicker through the figure, which finally move away from the location. Japanese photographer, Hiroaki Umeda, who always dances his own pieces, has this increase occur very gradually in "While Going to a Condition" – something which, though predictable, makes things exciting and stimulating. What does this amount to? Is the uninterrupted alternation of image and sound a kind of motor which makes the body move? A violence? Does the chirping body prevail against the bombastic, machine-like appearance?
With Holistic Strata, Umeda transforms himself into a human screen, a dancing landscape. In the process he is perpetually bombarded by a shower of light. Umeda, mostly clothed in a pair of black pants and a black T-Shirt, seems to blur the distinctions between human and animal form with his calm movements. He both determines and tolerates the situation, victor and victim, quasi the lonely star of a "Star Wars Saga". After the show, visitors have the opportunity to take a refreshing bath in electron rain developed by Umeda!
The figure clad in black appears unlit on stage, two-dimensionally like a shadow. On the rear wall behind a motionless biped a thick white bar repeatedly flits up and down, much like picture interference. The immobile entity twitches a little and begins turning the tips of its feet. In, out, right, left, always faster, its base begins sparking. The feet step a little further apart; the knee, the arms, and small waves flicker through the figure, which finally move away from the location. Japanese photographer, Hiroaki Umeda, who always dances his own pieces, has this increase occur very gradually in "While Going to a Condition" – something which, though predictable, makes things exciting and stimulating. What does this amount to? Is the uninterrupted alternation of image and sound a kind of motor which makes the body move? A violence? Does the chirping body prevail against the bombastic, machine-like appearance?
With Holistic Strata, Umeda transforms himself into a human screen, a dancing landscape. In the process he is perpetually bombarded by a shower of light. Umeda, mostly clothed in a pair of black pants and a black T-Shirt, seems to blur the distinctions between human and animal form with his calm movements. He both determines and tolerates the situation, victor and victim, quasi the lonely star of a "Star Wars Saga". After the show, visitors have the opportunity to take a refreshing bath in electron rain developed by Umeda!
- Organization / Institution
- Kulturverein Tempel e.V.
- Partners
ZKM