Danstereportation” Activity Report #1

From “The Physical Amusement Park in the City” to “Dance Teleportation

(Text: Taku Yoshida)

In this report, we will report irregularly on developments in the new project “Dance Teleportation” by Kota Yamazaki.
In this first installment, we report on how the new project came about and its current activities.

The site-specific performance “The Physical Amusement Park in the City,” for which Mr. Yamazaki is the choreographic director, was scheduled as one of the programs of “TRIAD DANCE DAYS,” an event to celebrate the opening of Dance Base Yokohama, but due to the effects of the new coronavirus However, it was cancelled on April 8 due to a new type of coronavirus.

In mid-April, Mr. Yamazaki, the collaborating performers, and DaBY discussed the possibility of continuing the project.
During the meeting via videoconference, the participants shared their thoughts on the current situation and exchanged opinions on topics such as “the difference between dance as a stage work and dance as a visual work” and “the need to weave the language of dance.

After the above meeting, it was decided to re-launch the project as a new project focusing on “dialogue,” which is being reevaluated in a life of continuous self-restraint from going out.
Here is Mr. Yamazaki’s statement, which was released on the DaBY website on April 26.

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The outbreak of the new coronavirus and the social changes that accompanied it have made it impossible for us to do most of the activities that we used to take for granted. We now spend far too much time at home, feeling suffocated with no place to go, as well as anxious about the future.

However, this situation has brought to light several things that were once almost forgotten or overlooked. One of them is “dialogue. Because we are in a situation where it is not possible to actually meet, we feel the presence of others more strongly. It is precisely because it is now that we can face them more carefully and sincerely, don’t you think?

Today, many people can only meet others on the Internet. And since such a situation is expected to continue, we artists must also explore the possibilities of creative activities on the Internet.

A site-specific dance performance in the Yokohama Bay Area, organized by Dance Base Yokohama, was scheduled for early May. Now that that performance is no longer possible, we would like to start a new “dialogue” as a step forward. How this will develop remains to be seen. But dance is ready for anything. I believe so. We will continue to search for new values and new horizons to expand through dance.

Kota Yamazaki

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This is how the creation project “Dance Teleportation” began.
(For more information on the project concept and process, see the ” ‘Dunster Reporting’ Statement.”)

The first process of creation, interviews by Mr. Yamazaki with 11 collaborating performers, began at the end of April and was completed in mid-May.
In the interview, we had a valuable dialogue among the artists about “the background of their activities as artists” and “what they are thinking under the new coronavirus epidemic.
Currently, Mr. Yamazaki is writing words for each performer, inspired by the interviews. Performers who receive the spelled words will attempt to respond through their creations.

In the next report, Ms. Yamazaki will report on her interviews with the collaborating performers.

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