A Look at Life: Ayaka Ono Akira Nakazawa Nakazawa Spacenotblank “Dance Work No. 3: Naoya Shiga’s “At the Castle”” Review

Dance Base Yokohama×Aichi Prefectural Art Theater×Menicon Theater Aoi Performing Arts Selection 2025 Festival Edition｜ “Dance Work No.3: Naoya Shiga “At the Castle”” Aichi Prefectural Art Theater／©︎HATORI Naoshi

　A dancer who stays on stage after she stops dancing and watches the dazzling dance unfolding around her. This is not the first time that [ Ayaka Ono Akira Nakazawa Nakazawa Spacenotblank Space Knot Blank ] has put a dancer on stage as a “spectator” of this kind. The method developed by Space Knot Blank, Physical Catharsis, was a zero-based experiment in the possibilities of developing gestures on stage, in which the act of “seeing” was presented as something that could be interpreted as dance in itself. However, in the new work “Dance Work No. 3: Naoya Shiga’s “At JONOZAKI,”” the behavior of the dancer as a spectator showed a more active nature of seeing.
　The reason for this can be attributed to the presence of Naoya Shiga’s “At Shiroyama,” which is also the title of the work. In this work, Shiga, who was seriously injured when he was hit by a train on the Yamanote Line, observed the death of small creatures such as bees, rats, and moles while he was recuperating in Kinosaki, Hyogo Prefecture, and recognized the contingency of life and death. It is a short story in which the narrator describes how he observes the contingency of life and death through the deaths of bees, rats, and other small creatures. In other words, the main thrust of the story is the narrator’s gaze on the climate and life of Jyonosaki.
　The statement by Ono and Nakazawa states that they were “inspired by the content of Naoya Shiga’s ‘At Kinosaki,’ the process and basis of writing the novel, and the context of the novelist’s stay ‘at Kinosaki’ and the act of transforming the events there into a creative work. The “context of the act of transforming events into creation” that inspired the writer was probably the trajectory of Shiga’s gaze toward Kinosaki. The gaze of the onstage audience toward the other dancers seemed to me to be that of someone who knows the contingency of life and death, someone who stands outside of life while discerning its finiteness. The gaze from the “outside” contained in the work irradiates the living gestures of the performers as being in tandem with death.
　I just wrote “living gestures,” but this term is not suitable for the conventional stage of [ Ayaka Ono Akira Nakazawa Spacenotblank ]. In fact, the physicality of the dancers in this work contrasts sharply with that seen in their previous dances.

　The movements produced by the physical catharsis method they have been experimenting with are characterized by their ruthlessly fast, unconnected (and unreadable) speed, and the dancers’ quick and steady execution of the movements without showing any signs of fatigue seemed somehow inhuman. The most recent work, “Rebirth” (original idea: Junnosuke Tada), performed in December2024, was based on the concept of “repeating a 30-minute story three times,” and in this performance, in which life and death are repeated without a clear beginning or end, the dancers were in an all-out simulation-like state. In this work, the dancers were presented as hyper-realistic zombie-like bodies passing through a simulation-like state.
　In this “Dance Work No. 3,” too, the dancers’ gestures are quick. However, there were traces of facial expressions and fatigue in the gestures. Furthermore, in this work, even eroticism, which [ Ayaka Ono Akira Nakazawa Nakazawa Spacenotblank ] has carefully avoided until now, was on display. It is an eroticism that is emitted by a body that is actually consumed and dying, a body that tries to hold on to the finiteness of life.

　In 2025, [ Ayaka Ono Akira Nakazawa Nakazawa Spacenotblank ] reached a major turning point. They began to use the word “work” in the titles of their dance productions, a word that they had dared not use in the past. Rather than presenting a complete stage, their dances up to that point had been oriented toward presenting a method of physical catharsis, a presentation of gestures accumulated through the same method in the rehearsal space. In physical catharsis, dancers’ gestures in the rehearsal space are inspired, influenced, and reflected upon each other, and through this process, gestures are generated independently.
　This physical catharsis was also used in “Dance Work No. 3. Therefore, it is not so much the method of production that has changed significantly, but rather the presentation and the physicality that supports it. What was presented in this work was an accumulation of gestures that the dancers passed through while spending time in Kinosaki. It is nothing but an accumulation. This self-evidentiality, that I once moved in this way and I am the only one who has lived in this way, is strengthened by the external gaze that frames it. In other words, the persuasiveness of the gesture of life that can only be this way, and the gaze that demonstrates it by being persuaded by this gesture, seemed to me to be the basis of the emotion toward the borderline between life and death in “Dance No. 3.

January 17, 2026
Sakuya Uemura
Mentor: Mari Takeda

◆Profile

Sakuya Uemura

Critic, born December 22, 1998. He is the president of Tokyo Much more. Born and lives in Chiba Prefecture. Space Not Blank preservation record.
Past writings include “Yukio Shiba: Theory of Theatre Production,” “Under the Hand of the Theatre” (on the website “The Strongest Theory of Theatre-ing”), “The Pitfall of Questions or the Age of Transparency” (on the official website of Space Not Blank), etc. “Reading Drucker to Create Performances and Groups” and “The Dramaturg, Today” were published at PARA. Participated in “The Dramaturg, Today” (published in the international magazine Sound Stage Screen, English, 2021) at PARA, and participated in the first phase of DaBY ProLab’s “Dance Critics [Training → Dispatch] Program” by Takao Norikoshi. Participated in “Spring Forward” and was dispatched to Darmstadt (Germany), the host city, for Spring Forward coverage.

Mari Takeda

Dance critic, based in the late 1990s on the dance review magazine “Dance Work” edited and published by Roku Hasegawa and the quarterly “Dancert”; moved to the Kansai region in 2000 and has continued to cover and write mainly about contemporary dance. Contributed to Mainichi Shimbun Osaka edition, “Theater Arts”, “Act”, other web media, theater and festival websites, etc. In 2019, navigated the “Appreciation & Review Lecture” organized by Aichi Prefectural Art Theater, and has been in charge intermittently since then. He is a member of the International Association of Theatre Critics.

◆Dance Base Yokohama International Dance Project “Wings”for the next generation of world-class creators

Dance Base Yokohama (DaBY) has launched a new project, “Dance Base Yokohama International Dance Project “Wings” for the next generation of creators who want to spread their wings to the world.
The project aims to increase the international presence of Japanese creators, nurture leading Japanese artists, producers, dramaturges and critics, and create opportunities for overseas performances and further revivals of their works.

The project is named “Wings,” and the 12 creators will experience the process of planning, creation, premiere, overseas presentation, and re-staging of their works through a series of training programs including dialogues with mentors and instructors, overseas visits, and presentations at trade fairs. The 12 creators experience the process of planning, creation, first performance, overseas presentation, and re-staging.
In addition to these activities, the project expresses the desire to create an environment in which DaBY can make a leap forward internationally, and to broaden the scope of creators’ activities.
This project is one of the three projects* selected by the Agency for Cultural Affairs under the “Dance Division” of the Creator/Artist Development Program of the Fund for Strengthening the Foundations of Cultural and Artistic Activities (*), with flexible and continuous support over three years based on a five-year activity plan.

Fund for Strengthening the Foundations of Cultural andArtistic Activities
The Fund for Strengthening the Foundations of Cultural and Artistic Activities has been established at the Japan Arts Council to implement projects for fostering creators and artists and adding value to cultural facilities through subsidies provided by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in its supplementary budget for fiscal 2023.
The Fund supports the challenge and development of the next generation of creators and artists, and provides flexible, multi-year support for strengthening the functions of cultural facilities that serve as venues for their activities and activities.
*Other recipients are the New National Theatre Foundation and the Japan Performing Arts Foundation (Tokyo Ballet Company).

▶︎ Iwaki Alios×Dance Base Yokohama×Aichi Prefectural Art Theater Performing Arts Selection in Iwaki

▶︎ Ayaka Ono Akira Nakazawa Nakazawa Spacenotblank “Dance Work No. 3: “At the Castle” by Naoya Shiga

▶︎ Dance Base Yokohama International Dance Project “Wings” for the next generation of creators who want to spread their wings to the world Dance Base Yokohama International Dance Project “Wings