Kusuhara Tatsuya: Appetizer (photo by Koike Chizu)

Sunday, June 17th 2007 in Asakusa. A crowd of young performance enthusiasts gathers at the Asahi Art Square. They are here for Mamuska Tokyo.

The Mamuska Night concept stems from Davide Terlingo (Italian), former head of the Daghdha Dance Company (Limerick, Ireland). The name "Mamuska" is borrowed from a dancing scene in "The Addams Family" movie (1991). Quoting Terlingo, the idea is to have a performance event that features "informality, low production costs and a choreographed environment". This time the Tokyo hub of the Mamuska Nights Network was hosted by Keikoba Cafe. Keikoba Cafe is a temporary open studio space for dance rehearsals run by Kusuhara Tatsuya and supported by Asahi Beer. It provides a space for artists to rehearse, and a casual atmosphere in which anybody could have a beer and get in direct touch with the artists.

Keikoba and Mamuska are a perfect match. Kusuhara joined forces with Dance and Media Japan director Iina Naoto to organize this second edition of Mamuska Tokyo. The event was open to submissions, from which the organizers finally selected 11 performance artists and groups. I would like to review two of them briefly.

Ogata Naoko (dance) + Zenzai Kazuya (music)

Photo by Koike Chizu

Ogata is teaching dance at a senior high school. Zenzai is a musician, performing as a solo artist or with his group Wangnin Bunmei.

For her dance performance, Ogata took her experience as a student and as a teacher of dance to her point of departure. Moving through a variety of styles, she reflected the interacting roles of student and teacher. Beginning with warm-up exercises, she went on to more and more complex movement repeating fragments over and over again — like in a dance class. Ogata’s dance embodied both, teacher and student. One could literally see the teacher’s impact on the student’s body who in turn tried hard to keep up with the increased difficulty required in the movement. Sometimes Ogata appeared to be confident and in full control of her body, at other times supposedly pushed far beyond her capabilities, eventually bending and falling. There was not one dominating the other, though. In fact Ogata showed compassion for both, the student and the teacher, and rejected a simple dichotomization.

Asked about how she experienced her performance, Ogata stated that she felt not only like dancing but was literally moved herself. Saying that this has never happened to her before she traced it back to the audience’s graciousness. And indeed, the audience was grateful for Ogata. She received a wholehearted ovation and a moment of honourable silence when the lights were turned on again. Ogata will perform next at Studio Goo, August 18 & 19.

Saito Fumi

Photo by Koike Chizu

"There is the gravity, but I want to draw!" This, Saito’s own statement, is probably the most suitable summary of her own performance. Equipped with a brush attached to a long stick, dressed in Kimono and standing high on a ladder she reached out to a screen which was mounted at a distance of three meters. The screen spanned the entire height of the space.

For two hours, beginning on the lower end and gradually moving upwards, Saito drew animals. The stick was long, and thus swung and vibrated. "I like difficult things" she said. With erratic, jittering lines Saito tried to get a hold on her motives. Slowly, step by step she tentatively worked on dogs and birds. As she drew her way along the neck of a sitting bird, the screen seemed to gradually escape her touch. Among others, Saito references Matthew Barney, who is driven by the notion of "resistance as a prerequisite for development and a vehicle for creativity". However, Saito put a smart twist to it. She finished with a flying bird that demonstrated escape from the arduous drawing restraints.

Photo by Sunaga Asako

Saito will perform next at the Pecha Kucha Night at Super Deluxe, June 27. There will also be a final performance at Keikoba Cafe on July 1st. The date for the third edition of Mamuska Tokyo is not decided yet, please check the Dance and Media Japan website for updates. DMJ’s Morphing - A house and clothes between a body will open on July 27 at the Reversible Destiny Lofts Mitaka (in memory of Helen Keller).