The Theatre Times: Now in its twelfth year, Adelaide’s OzAsia Festival is Australia’s only annual festival that focuses on contemporary work from Asia. Also programmed are works of performing and visual arts from anywhere in the world that reflect a deep and meaningful connection with Asian cultures. In this latter category was Vessel, perhaps the festival’s most breathtaking dance work this year, a collaboration between Belgian choreographer Damet Jalet, and Japanese sculptor Kohei Nawa.
2 comments:
The photos from the performance look amazing. The “set” of the piece, the sculpture created by artist Kohei Nawa is so minimalistic yet intricate and organic. I find it fascinating how the artist took inspiration from volcanoes and was able to transform it into something new, with a little resemblance to the volcanoes. I think the choreographer described Nawa’s style aesthetic perfectly - “a moving landscape”, “a portrait of organicity made with inorganic material”. The materials used for Nawa’s sculptures are also interesting. It makes me think of our Basic Design class, specifically the shoe project, where we had to transform materials and use them to our advantage. With this piece, I didn’t think foam could be used to represent something so organic when the material itself is so plasticy and man made (and so bad for the environment…). The choreography from the pictures also looks beautiful, but frightening at the same time. The long limbs of the dancers and the lack of heads helps build up the organic nature of the performance. One thing that I am curious though is what are the artists trying to say? They connected to each other’s discipline through earthquakes but is there a larger meaning behind it? Anyhow, even if there isn’t meant to be more, it’s still an amazing piece of art!
I wish there was a video that accompanied this article. This dance pieces sounds amazing and captivating. I have become much more interested in dance over the past few years, and these sort of avante garde esque movement pieces really catch my eye. I think that I personally am more drawn to watching and interpreting vague and nontraditional movement and making my own connections to emotions rather than watching dancers reenact a story on stage – which is interesting for me to think about as a theatre maker but that is a discussion for myself at another time.
I want to know how this sculpture turned scenery and stage was constructed. The treatment on the platform does look like ceramic, but then it also oozes that foam that the dancers interact with. Plus, the floor is so reflective,it looks like a mirror. I would love to see a behind the scenes video of how this setup was built and operates during a performance.
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