Lick, floor. Photo：Hiroyasu Daidou
Lick, floor. Photo：Hiroyasu Daidou
Lick, floor. Photo：Hiroyasu Daidou
Hiroaki Kumagai, who creates, directs, and choreographs works he calls “dance theater,” has staged a number of works whose narratives unfold through spoken lines of unique sensibility, and distinctive choreography. In this ambitious work Kumagai expands his creative range to date by incorporating art and lighting into the story and with dancers of intense physicality.
Story
At some point, people have stopped thinking – or maybe they have become afraid to think. Perhaps they could no longer afford to be caring or listen to the opinions and feelings of others any more than necessary. Eight people gather in a glass room created by these human hearts. Every day they get to know who they are through the words of other people, feeling happy and sad by turns. One man who can’t adapt to this life heads towards his own sugarcoated “truth.”
Performers
Naoko Matsuda, Sahanji Harada, Yu Okamoto, Noriko Higashide, Yusuke Hara, Yukari Inaba, Kuuya Fukushima, Hiroaki Kumagai
Odoru Kumagai Hiroaki Company
Began creative activities under the name Odoru Kumagai Hiroaki Company in 2015.
In stage works adept at portraying scenes in a movie-like way, performers speaking lines begin to sway, their movements eventually becoming a fervent “dance”; at times they express the emotional entanglement between humans, and the next moment they start to walk and speak without missing a beat. A song like a hum gradually turns into music that drives the scene, and when the music ends dialogue starts up that seems to throw out topics to the audience. Using movements far from everyday life, and through the scattering of lines to steer the eyes of the audience, Kumagai has established the “dance theater” genre, in which scenes are treated with an almost cinematic change of angle.
OWLSPOT THEATRE, Toshima City, Tokyo
