FIRST TOUCH

Format: Dance + Video projection
Performer: Maharu Maeno, Yuni Hong Charpe, Shuntaro Yoshida (+ possibly plants, stones, water, moss...)
Place: Honolulu, Nantes


The project's objective is to create a choreography by extending the subject of human dance to the natural environment. The choreographic approach of urban ecology methodically inspires the project. This approach is rooted in the principle of improvisation and experiments with different forms of using the city itself as a working space. We are particularly interested in the "dances" of other species (bacteria, moss, plants, animals). As Donna Haraway says; The order is reknitted: human beings are with and of the earth, and the biotic and abiotic powers of this earth are the main story*; we are exploring ways to incorporate the « dances » of other species.
Our project is to create dance scores (instructions) that will allow us to interrogate the dancing body and experience the expansion of the non-human physical senses. We will publish these activities in an edition FIRST TOUCH, and we will show possible activations of the scores on stage. From these scores, we make attempts to approach non-anthropocentric dance.
For example, the attached video shows two types of trial movements. The first one corresponds to a human imitating a plant or an animal, and the second is a human intervening by manipulating and moving them. When humans conform to the actions of non-humans, they are subordinate to the temporal axis of the latter. On the other hand, when humans manipulate non-humans, we become aware of the speed at which we humans execute the movements.
On stage, we try to show the movement and time of the non-humans that disrupt the temporal axis of the humans by bringing them into contact. FIRST TOUCH is a piece that slowly covers a theater by moss and entangles a non-human choreography.
The actions grow on the stage like lichen. Les lichens, qui ne sont ni des plantes, ni des animaux, ni un, obligent à repenser les règles de la distribution des identités**. Based on this idea, three performers create performances while associated with various identities such as cactus, vegetable, cat, moss, sloth, driftwood, and stone to express on stage a « small resistance » to anthropocentrism.
* Donna J. Haraway, Staying with the trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, Duke University Press, 2016, p.55
** Vincent Zonca, LICHENS pour une résistance minimale, préface d'Emanuele Coccia, Le Pommier, 2021, p.5

Supported by Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)