 The F/T Emerging Artists Program supports young artists/companies in presenting their independent performances. From autumn 2011 the program exceeds its frame providing a platform not only for works from Japan but also other from Asian countries. Among the works presented in the F/T 11 Emerging Artists Program the most challenging performance will win the F/T Award. Jury members of the F/T Award: Please click here for details regarding the award 18 companies were selected among the applicants from Japan. The second round will be conducted by screening of application material and interviews. Additionally, companies from other Asian companies will be selected. Finally ten companies / artists will gain the opportunity to present their works in the F/T 11 Emerging Artists Program Please click here for details about the F/T Emerging Artists Program.（English/Chinese/Korean） Tweet |
- e.g.MILK
- 空 (UTSUBO)
- Suiso Ogawa Company
- Kabenohana-Dan
- Kamome Machine
- Masato Kunieda × Natsuko Furutachi
- KUNIO
- Kenobi
- The end of company JIENSHA
- Taiyo Tochiaki
- Bird Park
- Pijin Neji
- Pure BANANA girls class
- Peachum Company
- FUKAIPRODUCEhagoromo
- Takuya Murakawa
- yuguresha yowaotoko-unit
- lolo
e.g.MILK (representative: Yuta Ishikawa)
The basic theme of my work is „time“. It is something that does not change, that is available to everybody on an average, equally. But, due to schemes like ‚country’, ‚thought’, ‚feeling’, ‚space’ and ‚memory’ it is twisted, operated and transformed.
From the present shape of Tokyo with its dizzy motion - a prominent emblem of entire Japan - I receive strong images and inspiration.
In my works I mainly deal with the verbalization of speed and slowness, the embodiment of time and the impersonation of things. By creating collages mixing up the feelings and memories of people and metaphors (objects), I gain a strong intentionality that connects the present, the future and the past. What do human beings want to see, where do they head to - questions that raise confusion and doubt. By making decisions, do we grasp something and bring back our memories? I believe, that by consciously adopting the principle of time that is continuously carving out the future, we can create a work that stimulates perception and thoughts, that is not just „interesting“, but makes something perceptible that lies under the surface.
空(UTSUBO) (representative: Kako Kishimoto)
The scenery: English-speakers who can also speak Japanese, Japanese people, who can speak English, Japanese people, whose mother tongue is not Japanese, and foreigners who consider Japanese their mother-tongue. Japanese people who apply a second language other than English and foreigners whose mother tongue is another than English. In this situation, it either happens, that oneself switches to the language of the other, or that the other switches to one’s own language. In the first case, the contents of the conversation are limited to how far oneself masters the respective language. The question is not, what I want to say but rather, what am I able to say. The conversation converges to the contents that are defined by the limited language ability. In the latter case, concern regarding the other person comes to the fore, one’s own Japanese becomes weird and mixed with English words. It occurs, that what one wanted to say and then really says, slightly drift apart. Both of these experiences arise a wide range of emotions like pleasure, difficulty, despair, sadness, aggression and many other emotions that you won’t experience, when you only speak in your native language. At the same time, also a variety of questions also comes up. What, to begin with, is ‚mother tongue’? Why do the gestures become so different when the mother tongue differs? Why does the line of what is to be considered ‚common sense’ not intertwine? Is the language problem really a problem of language?
UTSUBO consists of members from many different countries such as Poland, Korea, the US, Gambia, Iran, France, China, and the UK. While applying English as their common language, the participants are in search of a method of coexistence whilst not sharing a common native language.
Suiso Ogawa Company (representative: Suiso Ogawa)
I have been steadily thinking about ways how to create „dance“. For about four years, I have putting a method into practice that does not determine poses or movements, but sets up rules.
This method puts a setting into effect in which whoever can participate equally. Due to the will of the participants the rules can be changed or set up newly. By this it becomes possible that the attenders contribute intellectually and independent-mindedly to the “dance“ work.
The dance that unfolds its expression via the intermediary rules creates a common relation through the movements of the participants and communication due to movements. This inheres the power to turn dance into a medium that becomes related to society. On the other hand, one can also say, that the dance unfolding through the rules set in between, cannot take shape without communication. When people of different backgrounds, countries and sexes refer to the same rules, they re-consider their individual values through their physical perception.
To give the movements of human beings rules and define them as dance, can also lead to a new awareness of the diverse modes that the body initially incorporates.
I am creating rules for movements, in dialogue with various people, and wish to appeal to the ambiguity of the body aiming at a society that tends to uphold uniform values.
Kabenohana-Dan (representative: Takeshi Mizunuma)
Our main topic is the search of a new form of the narrative. Whatever shape, when a unfolding a ‚story’, the necessity of determining a form is, for better or worse, a problem of expression that contemporary stage works have to refer to in general. We want to put this problem forward for discussion - what forms the trademark of our company.
Up to now, we have been occupying ourselves with time and space on different levels – unroll the time flow from the reverse side, or let the actors perform different personalities simultaneously. By this kind of transfers we are tracing the appreciation of expression. We usually stick to extraordinary settings apart from everyday-life and the reality we are familiar with. We consider the creation of a maximum of oddness whilst leaving the stage plain and relying on the physical and oral presence of actors, who reflect the strength of the roots of theatre, our special feature.
For the future we also plan to continue our theatrical engagement with subjects of classical literature (Shinobu Orikuchi, Dostoyevsky) in order to – in our own way - perceive the inheritance of our predecessors in and discover in it universality as well as actuality.
Kamome Machine (representative: Yuta Hagiwara)
Shouldn’t the physicalness of theatre, dance and performing arts be an extension of the physicalness in everyday-life? Not in terms of “naturalness“, I rather mean, that we should insist on ‚realness’ to the greatest possible extent. Therefore a new perception of – in the first place the phases of the body and - all the elements the body is being based on (theatre building, here and now, the audience, the acting, history etc.) is necessary. By this, something so delicate that we almost don’t get aware of it, might become visible, something that could be named „the moved body“. Will it be possible to discover this kind of body by questioning all those conditions we unconsciously set as premises in performing arts and society today? In other words, I want to explore once again what are the factors that bind us, that “move” us. By piling up this kind of exploratory work on the body, an inspection of the ‚human’, ‚contemporary’ body in ‚Tokyo’ arises.
Masato Kunieda × Natsuko Furutachi (representative:natsukofurutachi)
Recently, in contemporary dance, works that are aiming at a simple type of amusement or a superficial impact are widespread. For the most part they are lacking a demand towards the body as such. What interests us, is to find out, how the body changes due to stimulations from the inside and the outside and - through the elimination of a narrative structure – the attempt to explore movements that undergo this changes.
An issue we deal with lately is the question, how to generate movements that before accomplishment, turn to the next stage, instead of using forms and phrases that are already complete. Another theme is the search for possibilities to find ways to work apart from the duo constellation. While we are concerned with these topics, we have to be aware of the fact, that our works are not understood any more by an ‚ordinary’ audience. Especially in contemporary dance the market is fairly narrow, the number of performances is, compared to theatre, small and the audience is limited. Due to this situation the opportunities for the audiences to experience different types of works are quite restricted. Therefore a way of production is required that does not capture the audiences with pure amusement, but makes the audiences participate physically and reflect together with the performers. To increase this kind of opportunities, it is also necessary, that the ‚artist body’ gets involved with local, regional matters. We have think about concepts of what we can do now, in order to vitalize the market
KUNIO (representative: Kunio Sugihara)
For me, the world that is depicted by what we call the ‚small theatre scene’ is, in the true sense of the word, too ‚small’. Needless to say, that due to the increasing distribution of the Internet and the diversification of values, the sphere of our everyday-life seems narrow and small. But I feel, that there is a gap between the frame that the ‚small theatre’ depicts, and the scale of the world we actually live in. Haven’t they been disconnected somewhere?
Of course it is natural that we derive our themes from the spheres that we ourselves are familiar with and in creating theatre works lies a sincere und straightforward attitude. But is this enough? Can the theatrical world that is portrayed by these works go beyond the view of an individual? Can it create connections to a sphere of a wider scale? For me personally, this question leads to drama texts that are considered ‚masterworks’. As a director I want to seek direct confrontation with these works. This is, what I regard as important for me now.
Kenobi (representative: Yoshiro Hatori)
Our activities focus the idea of a theatre that involves aspects of everyday-life, the theme of ‚de-facto living together’. We started to consider that ‚living together’ considerably means to maintain the option of negotiation. We make neither the beginning/end end of things, nor incidents our subject, but the terms under which continuation becomes possible. In the 2009/2010 season we started to work on the purpose of ‚not killing the potential of people’ in the literal sense, and to draw a theatrical style from turning this wide-scale aim into continuous performance work. Currently, we want to explore why the issue of ‚living together’ constantly requires individual effort and why in general the persons involved have to make it subject to their endeavors? Considering these questions we address our current situation in which the categories belief, religion and virtue have become personal or individual issues. We think, that this evidently implicates a power structure that we want to problematize. We intend to create a structure that traces the subject of belief concretely.
One model of an organization that reflects these question is an NPO in Sapporo, that re-considers shapes of funeral ceremonies.
The end of company JIENSHA (representative: Honsuke Sakusha)
One of the things, that are considered unconditionally ‚right’, is to be ‚motivated’. Why, for example, when we apply for a part-time job, do we have to express the high extent of our motivation in the application form? If you are not motivated, kill yourself! Don’t the recruitment magazines for part-time jobs implicate that? This is what I suspect. Going one step further, one could say, that ‚being motivated’ is full of a temper of theatricality. What does this mean? Shogo Ota defines it in one of his books as follows: „We do not have lost theatricality, we are rather forced to be theatrical” This coercion of today’s world makes me angry. That suggests that there is more, but not so much.
Our company is targeting at this ‚something’ that is much and nothing at the same time. End of company is doing what ‚they’, you’ and ‚we’ have excluded, what we don’t see although we intend to see it. To deny this ‚motivation’, that is set unquestioningly ‚right’, to desperately deny a desperate self-abandonment, to strike back to the present that forces us to be motivated, we appear on stage without being motivated. Why? Just, not to commit suicide. Not to be made kill ourselves. That nobody compels us, who are not motivated, to suicide. To live, but without motivation. Just to live. People, who have no motivation, live without motivation. There is a story, but it is not very strong. This is, what we are doing.
Taiyo Tochiaki
I think, the certainty of existence, in other words ‚to be present’ itself is beautiful. To engage myself in choreographical works, that put up the theme of ‚existence’ means to return to an essential form of expression. The instant that gives birth to language and form lies just there.
From indivisibility and the body we can gain a common physical perception and a strong sense of reality. For me, dance and expression include the idea, to - through precise movements and form - come to an inner perception that is difficult to name and, on the other hand to come from a precise inner perception to movements that are difficult to name. Which means, not to spread the vital energy of dance but rather to create a cosmos in which nothing is missing in a space that looks as if just somebody is standing still persistently. When I started to develop a demand for this trail, I once again got aware of the fact that I am a Butoh dancer. I cannot create striking ideas, but I want to be aware of the issues our predecessors left to us and derive from them new possibilities of expression.
Bird Park (representative: Kaori Nishio)
Bird Park broaches topics like ‚family’, ‚physiological phenomena’, ‚the flow of time’ and ‚death’ - matters that human beings are confronted with inevitably. We try to shine a soft light on those things, that have fallen apart from the frame of what is considered ‚right’ in society, but undeniably exist. There is no affirmation or solution towards the impropriety of us, who have no choice than to exist apart from the frame of this ‚correctness/rightness’, but we can bear this helplessness, a burden that is too heavy for one alone, along with two, three or many people.
Instead of pretending, not to see what is going on, we just look at the things existing. Those will for sure undergo changes. Whether it will advance into a good direction or a bad direction, we wish that it will change. (Kaori Nishio, head of Bird Park).
We feature a dramatic language that appeals to a physical perception of material that hands over a concrete physical impact to the spectators.
Furthermore we are occupying ourselves with a directorial style that questions the positioning of space, light, sound and the body in order to reach for a motion that is hidden deeply in their entrails and present them uncovered. Recently, we also have become interested in the reality of places different from where we are now, (Tokyo) and hope to make encounters with people whose sphere of life is different from ours. While involving with these topics, still we don’t want to forget playfulness and humor.
Pijin Neji
To make part-time work in a convenience store my subject or – to gather an audience in a real convenience store and display the part-time work there, I create pieces that exhibit the daily-life, we are familiar with. My activities aim at showing possible connotations of dance that are hidden in everyday-life. At the time, when I left the dance company, I was affiliated with previously and started to work as a choreographer myself, a movement was at its peak, which labeled a kind of works ‚contemporary dance’ that would before that not have been called ‚dance’, in order to show the possibility, to regard this works as ‚dance’ as too. But at the same time, when the label ‘contemporary dance’ was put on that movement, its function was fulfilled. The artists that formed this movement have now a feeling of uneasiness that locates between the label and their own works, some of them even have an aversion to the it.
Although this ‚contemporary dance’ is over – I want to discover new ways of creation that haven’t existing so far and include the possibility to name this ‚dance’. In the same way as Butoh, a genre that emerged from Japan had the strength to spread over the whole world, the artists who emerge from now on should consider all possibilities of dance to generate a movement of the same potential and brisance.
Pure BANANA girls class (representative: Toco Nikaido)
- by the way, Banana Gakuen are no authentic Otaku (maniacs)
- deal with the topic of malicious Otaku from a cold and distant point of view
- the Otaku in the audience are rather for culture than for idols
- sublimation of everybody’s complexes
- affirmation of an awkward past
- no interest in ordinary theatre !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- be fed up with the 2x8 count of ordinary theatre
- flesh, too much for one
- flesh living fast
- noise
Currently against:
- It is one of the realities in Japan, that everybody is more or less behaving like Otaku and want to hide their awkward part. That everybody is pretending something. Too much fleshfleshfleshfleshnoisefleshbeastfleshart fast living flesh
- Making the dark history of people a weapon with uniforms, in which anybody can perform a roleplay.
- but the destruction is not finished. If we let it out, we can finish with a good feeling. Won’t we feel relieved when we see people who have the same complexes like us?
- what we do is primitive
but linked to our present, that’s why we have to do it now.
Peachum Company (representative: Norishige Kawaguchi)
The form of theatre Peachum Company is aiming at, is a theatre combining the consciousness of a severe reality with exciting romanticism, applying a drama of the new present that makes actors and audience intensely share incidents. While the creator lays open his/her way of life and points of view, the spectators become involved into a relationship that allows consent or opposition towards the exhibited mindset. Through this process, creators and spectators can jointly discover a space, where they can define a new horizon of their mutual relationship and together continue the evaluation and practice of theatre.
Furthermore it is our goal to create works that demand to the greatest extent the essential possibilities of theatre, a theatrical space that is a celebration, at once repose of souls for the past life and a pre-festival for the world to come. At the moment, we are constantly continuing our work on the “urban theatre series” that is questioning views on Tokyo, the city where we are living. With this series we intend to discover a new way of connecting theatre to geographical space.
Due to this creational process, we try to answer the question if contemporary drama can have the same grade of intensity like classical drama through the words of every respective text, through the universality of the topic and a condense, poetic literary style. The spoken words that are like traces of other people and the living body of the actors form a tense relationship. The energy that emerges through the clash of these two elements forms the main principle of our work.
FUKAIPRODUCEhagoromo (representative: Junko Fukai)
Our aim is to perform a 'theatre blues' that refers to the potential of theatre to display an essence of humanity that is difficult to exposure in our present-day world, between actors and spectators 'live'. We call our theatrical style 'myosical', relating to the word 'myo' (odd), which for us represents the idea of creating a theatre that implicates both, the peculiar world of music and dance, an eccentric oddity - as well as beauty that goes beyond verbal expression. The words the actors give voice to are also sounds, and the through the shapes of sound the meaning of words can turn into an infinite variety - sometimes the words even exceed the scope of meaning.
The emotions raised by creating such a sphere of words, that cannot be found in any dictionary, form a link to this essence of humanity and in turn represent the power, that words can have. We want to make sound a hymn of humanity in theatre that evolves through this transformation of words, mediated by the actor.
Nowadays, the pure energy of humans can only exist in the frame of fiction. To share this fiction 'live' with the audience, it is necessary to provide a space where noninvolved watching is impossible, where the overwhelming energy of liveness can unfold. We appeal to this vision of theatre as an intense space where a rich potential of expression is shared with the audience.
Takuya Murakawa
I am interested in 'labor'. First of all, I write about the relation between theatrical expression and labor. The reason, why I started to be interested in this theme derives from the current condition of my personal life - I asked myself, if I can gain labor from theatre. When I was involved with theatre so far, I never distinctly regarded this as ‘work’. The idea of ‘being at work’, I rather obtained from part-time jobs or other kinds of employment. It is not related to the fact if you receive payment or not. I still don’t have any clear definition, but the status of actors, who perform on stage, makes me consider the problem again. Namely, what actors do is 'work'.
In my pieces, I often involve people who do not have any acting career. Due to this, the question, for which purpose and in which way these people appear on stage, is always present. What for? Probably, everybody of them has his/her own motivation. It could be desire or relaxation, or just, that they were asked to take part. I want to present the performers on stage as laborers. I started to think, that I just wish to see the shape of people, who do 'labor', regardless of the individual thoughts of the actors. This is not only, because I want to gain 'work' from theatre, it is also, because I want to define theatrical expression in my own way.
yuguresha yowaotoko-unit (representative: Shintaro Murakami)
Recently, when we go to the theatre to see a performance, we cannot really confront with it. Why? For several reasons, or company could not stage a performance in a theatre building for quite a while. After the establishment of our group, for about three years, we held our performances at various places apart from theatre buildings - at a beach, a theatre lobby, a live house, in front of a conference room (while inside a conference was going on) etc. Since the last two years, it has become possible, to stage our performances in theatre buildings. But now, in reverse, we have developed a feeling of uneasiness towards the use of theatre buildings.
As we, in the past, performed in environments that did not provide any lighting or sound system, we thus started to pay attention to the characteristics of theatre buildings. For example, the history and society they involve, or just the face of the building owner, all these components raise our interest.
From the confrontation with these features for us arose a method of remodeling our theatrical language and theatrical form
In order to create something new, we do not stretch our branches upward and upward, but rather seek a vein by repeating sideward movements. Transforming the contents, we could not really confront with, when we saw other performances, into our own work, we thoroughly investigate the components of theatre that appeared vague to us so far, in order to purify them. When theatrical language and theatrical form are discussed on a worldwide level, we regard our stance in creating works that are close to the roots.
lolo (representative:Naoyuki Miura)
At the moment, when somebody falls in love with somebody, those two believe that it is fate and the same thing never happen again. But of course, that same incident recurs many times. It is one love in the middle of many. But nevertheless, again somebody falls in love with somebody and at this moment thinks, that it is fate. Anyway, we believe that somebody becoming fond of somebody, the repetition of that - and that he/she did not select anybody, but this special person is absolutely positive. That’s why Lolo is talking about love all the time. The things that are happening here today will happen somewhere else tomorrow and - also happened yesterday. And maybe won’t happen tomorrow. And maybe, they did not happen at all. But, now it is happening here. We are aiming at a theatre that, while the spectators are watching a performance, can let their imagination run free to the outside of the frame exhibited frame, means to imagine many alternative possibilities.
