The Orbiting Herd: Conan Amok’s “R/evolution(s)” Work-in-Progress Review
Conan Amok’s new work-in-progress “R/evolution(s),” which was performed on Saturday, March 29, 2025, served as an audition for the main performance that will eventually come. Through this showing, which was followed by a four-day workshop, Conan Amok was to select four dancers to be selected for the main performance out of 15 openly selected dancers.
In a very short production period of only five days, including the performance, the team was to create a group dance sufficient to invite an audience without sharing or accumulating methodologies or relationships among the team members in advance. The performance was made under extremely difficult conditions. As for the content of the creation, it seems that basically Amok showed the dancers a model of dance and asked them to follow it in order to share the choreography. The dancers’ gestures ranged from simple bodywork-like movements that could be mistaken for martial arts movements to those that were truly butoh, but in general they gave a strong impression of immediacy, clearly showing the disparity of each dancer’s body, appearance, habits, and body language.
Conan Amok / Creation workshop/audition for new work “R/evolution(s)
Amok is a dancer who has been a member of Dairakudakan for more than 10 years and studied under Akaji Maro, who has instilled the butoh method in his dancers. However, Amok is uncomfortable with the tendency to speak of butoh in spiritual terms, and would like to develop butoh in a more physical and immediate dimension. For this performance, Amok’s “Multi Layered Body,” as he calls it, was the butoh method, and it functioned as the concept of the performance. In the horizontal lettering itself, which seems to break away from the oriental and earthy smell associated with the word “butoh,” one can read a statement of Amok’s attitude toward dancing butoh as a contemporary practice with an eye on the global marketplace.
However, it was extremely difficult to detect the multi-layered nature of the body in the midst of the performance. Basically, the dances appeared to be based on the monocentric and stable posture of the body, and it was doubtful whether they could be called “Multi Layered Body. According to the details page of the performance, “Multi Layered Body” is “Amok’s unique butoh method that incorporates methods from phenomenology to change the way we see things and the temporality and spatiality of a work of art from sculpture,” but I would like to leave a note about the artist’s statement, I, for one, would like to see a more concrete and precise definition of “Multi Layered Body. If the effort to demystify butoh is required in order to break the one-way gaze of the West, it is desirable that the words exchanged during the production process be open to a clear and discrete shared horizon with others who have multiple gazes.
What I found in common with the gestures of “R/evolution(s)” were rather the following factors, for example Low center of gravity. Convulsions. Tension and release. Minute changes in posture, blurring. These factors lead to dynamic transformative gestures with the appearance that the subject is recomposed here and there in the body.
Conan Amok / Creation workshop/audition for new work “R/evolution(s)
The name “R/evolution(s)” implies not only “revolution” but also “revolutionary revolution. The body is caught up in the negotiation of other forces, as seen through the small vibrations and convulsive gestures, and as a result, a law-like movement is manifested on a macro scale. I suspect that one of the artist’s focuses this time was to express such a state using group dance. The bodies being handled in a physical manner are disparate individuals moving in small peristaltic movements, but they are formed into a whole as a massively circling herd. In this Work in Progress, which was a group dance with a large number of performers, I had the impression that the company was focusing on realizing such collective dynamism, but in this performance with a smaller number of performers, one of the highlights will be to see how the theme of “revolution” develops.
The heat of this work-in-progress reached its peak in the last scene. The dancers continued to dance as if they were puppets, as if they had given up control of their gestures to someone else, as if something had been unscrewed. In creating this scene, Amok had instructed the dancers to continue dancing until he gave the signal. When the dancers continue to dance without knowing when the end will come, a somewhat bare body, out of control, is revealed. In this respect, this scene embodied the characteristics of the work, in that through the nervously minute gestures of immediacy, an oddly shaped whole, in which a group of people, controlled by something else, stirred, became manifest.
Conan Amok / Creation workshop/audition for new work “R/evolution(s)
July 22, 2025
Sakuya Uemura
Mentor: Takao Norikoshi (writer and dance critic)
◆Profile
Sakuya Uemura
Critic, born December 22, 1998.
His past writings include “Yukio Shiba: Theory of Theatre Production,” “The Theatre is Under the Hand of the Theatre,” “The Pitfall of Questioning or the Age of Transparency,” etc. At PARA, he has taught “Reading Drucker: Creating Performances and Collectives” and “The Dramaturg, Today” (The Dramaturg, Today, published in the international magazine Sound Stage Screen, English, 2021). 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.
Takao Norikoshi
Writer and Yasagure dance critic. Representative of Japan Dance Plug Inc. Currently active as an advisor and juror for theaters, foundations, and festivals in Japan and abroad. He is the author of the book “How to See the Stage in its Entirety: An Illustrated Guide! An Introduction to Contemporary Dance” (Shinshokan), “A Thorough Guide to Contemporary Dance HYPER” (Sakuhinsha), “You don’t watch dance anyway, do you? (NTT Publishing), “Dance Bible” (Kawade Shobo Shinsha), “Dancing All Life: The Story of Saburo Nakagawa” (Shueisha), “Alice: The Story of Fumiko Kawabata, a genius dancer who charmed Broadway” (Kodansha), and many others.
She is currently writing a series of articles in “Buraabo” magazine. She is a mentor for the Dance Critics [Training to Dispatch] Program. She is the leader of the online “Dance Private School.
◆“Wings”: International Dance Project
by Dance Base Yokohama for Emerging Creators
Dance Base Yokohama (DaBY) has launched a new project, “Dance Base Yokohama International Dance Project “Wings”: International Dance Project by Dance Base Yokohama for Emerging Creators”.
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 an activity plan of about five years.
Fund for Strengthening the Foundations of Cultural and Artistic 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 for 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).
▶︎ Conan Amok, “R/evolution(s)”
