Dance Base Yokohama Work in Progress Review｜Ayaka Ono Akira Nakazawa Nakazawa You Nakazawa Talks about Watching “Dance Work No.3: Naoya Shiga’s “At the Castle”” by Space Not Blank [part 1
On August 30 and 31, 2025, Dance Base Yokohama (DaBY) presented a work-in-progress of “Dance Work No. 3: Naoya Shiga’s “At the Castle”” by Ayaka Ono Akira Nakazawa Spacenotblank. This project is based on Naoya Shiga’s novel “At Kinosaki,” and was launched in May of the same year after a residency at the Kinosaki International Art Center. Inspired by what Shiga saw and wrote in Kinosaki, three dancers (Hokuto Kodama, Ayako Saito, and Sumi Tateyama) attempted to reweave the “continuity of images” with their bodies. The performance at DaBY is part of the international project “Wings,” and is positioned as a transit point toward the premiere at Aichi Prefectural Art Theater at the end of October.
This review is composed of the conversations that three members of “Zazie Zoo” – Tomoya Kimura, Musashi Tanno, and Tatsuma Nishizaki – had while walking from Komaba Todaimae to Shibuya, as well as the text they wrote later. The film is composed through the text written by each of them later. The recordings are not only of the works themselves, but also of their realities as spectators and the range of their viewpoints, recorded through their multiple voices. It is difficult to read all the way through, so please read it when you remember.
Ayaka Ono Akira Nakazawa Spacenotblank Dance Work No. 3: Naoya Shiga’s “At the Castle” Work in Progress
Ayaka Ono Akira Nakazawa Nakazawa Spacenotblank’s “Dance Work No. 3: Naoya Shiga’s “At the Castle”” Recorded conversation when I walked from Komaba Todaimae to Shibuya to see the work-in-progress.
Speakers: Tomoya Kimura, Musashi Tanno, Tatsuma Nishizaki (above, Zazi Zoo)
NISHIZAKI: May I start with your impressions, Musashi-san?
Tanno: Overall, …… made me want to move my body. Watching it.
Kimura: That’s very understandable.
NISHIZAKI: Maybe that’s the nature of the work-in-progress framework. There’s a sense of “I can participate,” isn’t there? It’s a nuance of the word.
Tanno: There is that. I think it was the nature of the place. There was the fact that people wanted to participate.
Kimura: I was also listening to the music. I was totally in the groove.
NISHIZAKI: The mmm song. That was great. The singer’s voice is good, too.
Tanno: It’s a relief to hear people’s voices.
NISHIZAKI: Regarding the location, the original idea for this piece was Naoya Shiga’s “At the Castle”. There is a space behind the stage like a counter, and you can see passersby walking by behind it. In other words, the scenery was borrowed from the stage. So, the moment the performance was over, I felt “Oh, I’m back. When the performance was over, the room became quiet. Then, from the back of the room, the voices of passersby, which I had not heard before, came into focus. I felt that the voices brought me back to Yokohama, where I had been transported to Kinosaki.
Tanno: I really felt that. From the last part where he is walking around in circles, …… maybe even before, I have the feeling that he came back. Including the way it ends.
Kimura: I also think, when I watch a production, that a performance is a kind of …… that takes us on a trip to Disneyland and other places. What is …… all over the world?
NISHIZAKI: It’s a Small World?
Kimura: Yes (laughs). But I think we can spend time like that. …… What else do you want to talk about, anonymity?
NISHIZAKI: Oh, maybe that’s because I’m not used to watching dance. …… In dance, you are watching the dancer’s body, the dancer itself, so to speak. But for some reason, I felt a strong sense of anonymity there. For example, if an actor in a small theater …… is particularly charming, you can really feel his/her personality no matter what role he/she is playing. I think it’s a kind of fame, but with dance, you can’t really tell. But what we are watching should be the dancer’s body, the dancer itself.
Tanno: I think technique is a big part of it. I think it is an obsession with form. There are beautiful pirouettes, for example. On the other hand, if someone from a street dance background dances contemporary dance, he or she is just that person.
NISHIZAKI: I see.
Ayaka Ono Akira Nakazawa Nakazawa Spacenotblank “Dance Work No. 3: “At the Castle” by Naoya Shiga” Work in Progress
Tanno: I felt that the stage this time was more like a contemporary performance using what is popular these days. So it seemed to me that the work was done in a casual manner, without any individuality. However, each of the three had their own attitude toward the work. Well, this may be because I am somewhat used to watching dance.
Kimura: For example, it’s very difficult to say, “I liked that part,” even during the time when we are talking like this.
Tanno: The dance?
Kimura: That’s right. If there was a story, you could say, “I liked that scene,” and so on. So, on the contrary, it is necessary to be active and leave words. Theater is something that can be done. Immediately after seeing a play.
NISHIZAKI: After going to a live music concert, the first thing that comes to mind is “it was good. It’s like the first thing people feel when they see something (laughs). For example, a band comes down from the stage during a live performance and sprays the audience with barley wine, and you look back and say, “I liked the part where they sprapped the alcohol on the audience. That would be a very theatrical scene, wouldn’t it? So when some kind of accident or dramatic scene occurs, it becomes easier to say it.
Tanno: I think you need to get used to watching this. In terms of impressions. For example, when a dancer goes to see a dance performance, he or she will make a quick copy of it. They would say, “I liked this part here. The angle of this leg is …….” It’s pretty exciting. I guess it’s easier for people who are used to dancing to copy. They remember the shape and so on. It’s burned into their eyes, so it’s easy for them to remember and put it into words.
Kimura: I feel like theater is no different. I guess that would be (laughs).
NISHIZAKI: Yes. Nishizaki: That’s right. The point is whether or not the events taking place there are easy for me to install. The same can certainly be said of theater (laughs).
Kimura: When I first saw a play, I could not understand the content at all. But you remember some things. How to describe that time. ……: The three different bodies I saw seemed clear to me. It was more than an indigenous body.
Tanno: In terms of installation, the moment when the water bottle is placed at the beginning and the way it ends are expressions that I like and have always wanted to do, so I know exactly what you are talking about. What do you pay attention to? I already have a language of how I want the dancers themselves to shine, and I think that’s why I was able to achieve such a temperature in the end after talking with Ono-san and Nakazawa-san. I liked the fact that they were not too obsessed with dancing even though they were doing a lot of dancing, and I thought that might be because they were creating with people who usually do theater.
Nishizaki: The relationship with the music is also subtle, in a good way. In a straightforward dance, the music and the body are in perfect synchronization, and in a stoic dance, the music is unnecessary, but in this case, the music is neither too much nor too little. I felt a sense of balance there.
Kimura: Also, I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but there is the dancer’s body, and to extend it a little more, there is the space. I wondered where the dancers put their weight.
Tanno: I felt the diagonal line. Did you do that in terms of dance? Was it done as an aesthetics of arrangement in a karesansui style, or was it done as an aesthetics of human relationships in a theatrical way? But I felt it was good. ……Back to what Daruma said earlier about the sense of distance to the music. I was thinking that there was a groove or rhythm to the dance, and then the beat started to flow perfectly with it, isn’t that amazing? The mmmm who created the music in that way is amazing, the directors who designed it are amazing, and the dancers who created the groove as designed are amazing.
Kimura: I guess that is physical catharsis.
NISHIZAKI: I don’t know what physical catharsis is.
Tanno: I don’t get it either (laughs).
Kimura: Me too (laughs).
Tanno: Well, music and dancing are inseparable. In the end, it feels good to be in tune with the beat, so rather than messing things up, I feel like I’ve made a clear decision: “Let’s go with this for now. Like, “Let’s use the beat here,” or “Let’s move away from the beat here. I guess I felt it was a good distance because the next moment I’m already involved with the music in something else.
Kimura: I wonder how they are making it. The methodology is the same.
NISHIZAKI: The way they are made.
Tanno: One thing I thought, the last scene, I say “scene,” but I thought it was so theatrical. Two people are walking, one keeps dancing, they stop walking, and one dances all the way to the end. …… I felt it was theater.
Kimura: Yeah, I was watching it thinking it would end that way too. I thought it might be good to have something that could end more quickly.
Tanno: Poof?
Kimura: For example, you’re moving along, like this, you’re on ……, and all of a sudden you’re like, “It’s over.
NISHIZAKI: It was like an end-roll, and that combined with the end of the film gave it a sense of an ending.
Kimura: Recently, that is not so much the case.
Tanno: Really? I liked it a lot. I wanted to end it like that.
Ayaka Ono Akira Nakazawa Nakazawa Spacenotblank “Dance Work No. 3: “At the Castle” by Naoya Shiga” Work in Progress
Nishizaki: This time, there was a lot of text projected on the projector, but I thought it was very cinematic. At the end of the performance, there was a lingering feeling of a movie, just like the end roll. Don’t you ever feel like you’re watching a movie when you watch a dance performance?
Tanno: Film-like, huh?
Nishizaki: For example, while the mmm music is playing, a man and a woman are just walking along between the pillars, and I can see the cut of the camera.
Tanno: Indeed. It doesn’t seem to me that you are insisting that just walking is dancing.
Kimura: Oh, yes.
Tanno: We didn’t have that kind of weird reopening. When I took a break, I took a break. I was watching the film thinking that there must be another way to solve the problem of walking that I have not yet been able to articulate, that is, a way to solve the problem of walking and dancing. Perhaps it is a cinematic point of view. It is not a theatrical solution. It is theatrical when you start saying, “What does it mean to walk?” (laughs).
Kimura: Yeah, I think it might have become a little clearer. You said it has a cinematic feel.
Tanno: Also, the choreography, …… the choreography, or the movements, there was some kind of strange, constant density. It was at a high level. A constant sense of tension. There is no sense of security, but there is always the possibility of falling, but the amazingness of the dancers who keep that constant.
Kimura: I was wondering how I can get a certain sense of tension, a sensory word, to spring up at such a time of density. I wonder if that sense of springing, which I cannot control, is an accident or happening.
Nishizaki: On a different note, I thought it was very nice that you referred to Dance Base Yokohama as “daveyoko.
Tanno: Really? I don’t want to (laughs) I don’t want to (laughs)
Nishizaki: That place is kind of trendy, isn’t it (laughs).
Kimura: Wouldn’t it be easier for you to come yourself if I said so?
NISHIZAKI: Oh, maybe.
Kimura: I don’t want to be one of those things, but …….
Nishizaki: I feel that there is a high threshold.
Kimura: You feel it.
Tanno: There was a billboard next to it.
NISHIZAKI: I guess it’s fine if you can jump into a place like that without hesitation. But I feel something strange about it. Yesterday I went to a space or commercial complex in Omotesando for a preliminary inspection for an exhibition. …… made me wonder who I was supposed to be creating for there.
Kimura: I wonder what …… physical catharsis is.
Tanno: What is catharsis? I don’t really know the definition.
NISHIZAKI: The catharsis is the part where the release is achieved.
Tanno: Then, you have to maintain a uniform tension that may cause you to fall. You should keep holding on to the tension and endure without any expectation of falling. ……
Nishizaki: The cinematic ending at the end may be cathartic. It’s like you can see the way out.
Tanno: That’s sort of a leading line, I guess you could say.
Nishizaki: That’s why I think it’s okay if it’s over in a flash. On the other hand, it might make me feel like I’m back. It’s like being suddenly transported back from Kinosaki to Bashamichi.
Ayaka Ono Akira Nakazawa Nakazawa Spacenotblank “Dance Work No. 3: “At the Castle” by Naoya Shiga” Work in Progress
Tanno: I wonder what it was about handing out candy.
Kimura: That candy distribution, I think it is one of the best candy distribution.
Tanno: The candy-dispensing community (laughter).
Kimura: The smartness of it. I liked the way he was doing it in a casual way, so I ate it right away (laughs).
Nishizaki: I guess that’s about it. Shall I write down the rest for each of you?
(Recorded conversation on August 31, 2025, when he walked from Komaba Todaimae to Shibuya)
▶︎Click here for the second part (reviews by Tomoya Kimura, Musashi Tanno, and Tatsuma Nishizaki ).
◆Profile
Zazi Zoo
Occurred in the late summer of 2022. A theater team and network with “play” at the core of its philosophy. It began as a shared house for a few Tama Art students, and has continued its activities while having fun changing into the clothes they wanted to wear at the time. Currently, they have two bases, one in Nippori, Tokyo and the other in Yokohama.
Actors, playwrights, directors, stage designers, dancers, choreographers, producers, costume designers, lighting designers, sound designers, NEETs, contemporary artists, university faculty, band members, working people, ding-dong men, rappers, freeters, visual artists, designers, high school students, critics, magicians, painters, swimmers, DJs, and many more. The number of members is expanding.
Zazie Zoo has a “project team” aspect that engages in practical creation and a “network” aspect that creates connections between artists, but the boundaries between the two are vague and ever-changing. Therefore, each member must ask himself the question, “Do I belong to Zazie Zoo or not? In other words, Zazie Zoo is a cultural bathing place created by a paradoxical group form in which the center and the outer edges are thrillingly intermingled.
You,
me,
everyone is Zazi Zoo.
Representative
Agaristi Python
Web site: https: //zazizoo.com/
Tomoya Kimura
Producer/space curator/writer. Co-chairman of Zazi Zoo and representative of Temporary Company. born in 1999 in Kanagawa Prefecture. He runs the multifaceted space “The Cityy” in Nakamura-cho, Yokohama. Crossing theater, placemaking, and editing, he is designing a new relationship between the city and theater.
Musashi Tanno
was born in 1996 in Tokyo, Japan. He was a competitive swimmer from a young age and grew up mainly in the water. After graduating from high school, he moved to land, where he learned the joy of hearing sound and the pleasure of his feet touching the ground, and began to be involved in performing and screening arts. 2025, he is still doing what he can do in various places, starting with what he does not synchronize with what he does.
Tatsuya Nishizaki
was born in 2001 in Hyogo, Japan. Graduate student at Tokyo University of the Arts. Ninth term of the Kuma Foundation. Writes screenplays for Zazie Zoo. I also play drums. I sometimes design flyers. I also draw manga. Recently, I’ve been making video works. I do everything!
▶︎ Ayaka Ono Akira Nakazawa Nakazawa Spacenotblank “Dance Work No. 3: “At the Castle” by Naoya Shiga
