What to Hand Over to Children: A Review of Mariko Kakizaki’s “hopee

Dance Base Yokohama×Aichi Prefectural Art Theater×Menicon Theater Aoi Performing Arts Selection 2025 Festival Edition｜Mariko Kakizaki “hopee”
Aichi Prefectural Art Theater／©︎HATORI Naoshi

　Mariko Kakizaki’s ” hopee ” is a dance piece that counts children as its main audience. On the other hand, ” hopee ” does not seem, at least for the moment, to be so loudly proclaiming that it is a work for children in the title of the performance. At the Performing Arts Selection 2025 I attended at Aichi Prefectural Art Theater, children were lined up in the front of the seats, but the percentage of the audience with their parents was not so high. This may have been due in part to the showy nature of the performance, but even so, I suspect that ” hopee ” does not want to limit its audience to parents and children, while at the same time taking on the presence of children, who are often excluded from the theater.
　It may sound simple to put it into words, “to create a work that can be enjoyed by both children and adults,” but I think ” hopee ” faced this difficult issue by sincerely dealing with children. My impression of “sincere” comes from the fact that I did not find any intrusive image of children’s imagination, which is often seen in so-called “children’s” works. There is nothing explanatory in the expression, and the stage on which the various images unfold with dizzying speed seems to be built on trust in the viewer’s imagination. On top of that, ” hopee ” makes abundant use of elements that appeal to our primitive senses, such as bird flutes, the sounds of fire and water, and near-primitive lighting, in an attempt to stimulate our imaginations. The stage design, with its bright blue and yellow sheets stretching out into the air, reminiscent of the Ukrainian flag, is uncompromisingly sharp and stylish, while creating the impression of a joyful game.
　This kind of uncompromisingness extends to the content of the images presented. For example, there was the following scene. The lights were dimmed, the stage was darkened, and a strange and frightening sound that could have been an air raid alarm was heard, and a yellow light shone suspiciously on a screen at the back of the stage. The disturbing atmosphere induces the viewer to superimpose an image of war on the screen. Soon, Yuki Takahashi, one of the performers, slowly rolls out from the bottom of the screen. It is as if a being who should belong to the other side of the world has been born into this world beyond the thin membrane, or as if someone from another country has violated the boundary and come to this land to commit a violent act. Soon the alarming sound intensified, and Takahashi danced wildly and fiercely on the stage, which was lit by red lights reminiscent of a disaster.

　Or a balloon bursting. After the earlier scene, which evokes the ravages of war, the screen that had acted as a boundary between the two sides is removed, and the four performers begin to play with the balloons. It may seem a cheerful and endearing scene, signaling the end of strife and the arrival of peace, and the children in the audience must be delighted to see the balloons being generously popped, but it is hard to deny the violent nuance in the rapid bursting of the balloons. Here, peace is offered up as play, with violence inside. It should be noted, however, that the volume of the music is adjusted so loudly that the noise of the popping sound is relatively muted and does not make the children cry. A safe hand-off of violence, so to speak.
　As a dance piece with children as its audience, ” hopee ” has this kind of thoughtful consideration, but there is no compromise or forgiveness. It is a sincere effort to hand the children an image of the world they will face in the future, without turning away from its beauty and cruelty. It is precisely for this reason that this film is a work that will encourage many people to encounter the world anew, transcending the boundaries between children and adults.

　The axis that runs through the entire work is the drama of encounters and partings with different kinds of beings. The title of the work, “hopee,” is a name I took as the name of some kind of bird-like life, and the surprise of encountering the breadth and depth of the world through the presence of this flying being is the driving force of the work. Toward the end of the piece, hopee disappears into thin air, and Nagisa Yoshida calls out his name repeatedly. Then, Liel Fibak ‘s hopee walks up to us very slowly and quietly from the back of the stage. This is an ethereal scene reminiscent of a dreamlike Noh play, and is one of the highlights of this work.
　The curtain call was interspersed around the middle of the piece, which caught me by surprise.
After the four performers came together for the first time and danced in stylish unison, there was certainly enough voltage in the space to make it a climax, but it was still a bit early from the time I had heard about before the performance, and I was surprised to hear that the curtain call had been called at the end of the piece. However, the performers came forward and greeted the audience at a time much earlier than the performance time I had heard in advance. And immediately after that, the dancing continued as if nothing had happened. Even after the curtain call, Kakizaki invited the children on stage to continue dancing. It is a fact of life that new beginnings sprout after an end, and this seemed to be the essence of the hope that ” hopee ” was trying to hand over to the audience.

January 20, 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 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).

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

▶︎ Mariko Kakizaki , “hopee

▶︎ 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