Darkness Odyssey Part 1: Expose Your Feet To The Dry Lights

Commissioned by Japan Contemporary Dance Network (JCDN) and Premiered at Con Carino (Sapporo, Japan) in 2016

Performed by Mitsutake Kasai, Mina Nishimura, Kazuko Takemoto and Kota Yamazaki
Music Composed by Masahiro Sugaya
Costume Design by Kota Yamazaki

Photos: Akiko Tominaga

ABOUT

Darkness Odyssey is a series of dances inspired by the written words of French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, and butoh pioneer Tatsumi Hijikata’s notion of “dance of darkness”. This series explores the idea of the body as a black hole, which absorbs everything, even seemingly unrelated things equally.

Darkness Odyssey Part 1: Expose Your Feet to Dry Lights juxtaposes Yamazaki’s fragmental biographical tale around Tatsumi Hijikata and his schizophrenic journey as dance artist, with movements developed based on the idea of “body as black hole”.

Press

Interview video by JCDN [Japanese only]

Critical correspondence by Katusmi Sasaki and Ritsuko Mizuno [Japanese only]

Credits

The creation of this work was supported in part by residencies at Kinosaki International Arts Center (KIAC) and The Saison Foundation’s Morishita Studio through Japan Contemporary Dance Network (JCDN).

Other Presenting Partners: Dance Box (Kobe, Japan), IMAZ Hall (Fukuoka, Japan) and Asahi Square (Tokyo, Japan)