Japan meets Germany in this exploration of identity
A STRUGGLE to process a painful life experience has inspired a spectacular OzAsia dance performance Andropolaroid 1.1 by Berlin-based Japanese choreographer and dancer Yui Kawaguchi.
A STRUGGLE to process a painful life experience has inspired a spectacular OzAsia dance performance by Berlin-based Japanese choreographer and dancer Yui Kawaguchi.
“In the time where I created this piece, my father was physically as well as psychologically very sick and my family had tough time,” she said.
“I had a lot of questions and thoughts in my mind, which were too complicated or fragile to speak about, but I simply needed to make them somehow visible to hold myself together.”
The result is a dazzling dance, light and sound installation called Andropolaroid 1.1, from “andro” (human) and “polaroid” (instant film and camera).
Kawaguchi said she was exploring her sense of identity and individuality as a human being, reflecting on her experience of immigrating from Japan to Germany.
In the search for “something universal” in her personal story, she came across the “Land effect” and felt inspired.
“Dr Land, the founder of Polaroid Camera, has shown that two beams of light of different colours are enough to lead the eye to perceive every colour of the spectrum, depending on their mixing ratio,” Kawaguchi said.
“I use in the piece two cultures (Japan/Germany) and two colours (red/white) as a contrast to represent the individuality, the indivisible fine interconnectedness of humans.”
Her husband Fabian Bleisch developed the incredible lighting for the set including 64 neon lamps that serve to create various landscapes of the star’s inner and outer world.
“Frames of pictures, a jungle of skyscrapers in Tokyo, people on a street, the synapse of neuron and so on,” Kawaguchi said.
“And I’m the only one living body on stage that interacts with them.”
Kawaguchi twirls, slides and curves her body to the rhythm of luminous flashes, pulsing electronic beats and softer sounds, with music and soundscapes created by Sibin Vassilev of Berlin.
For one scene in the show, Kawaguchi also developed the sound herself with using the “tactile score” method of Yasuhiro and Rieko Suzuki, before it was mixed by Vassilev.
Just beware, the show does come with an advisory warning, for those bothered by strobe lighting and haze effects.
SEE: Andropolaroid 1.1, Space Theatre, November 9 & 10, 8.15pm
TICKETS: ozasiafestival.com.au