On 30 November Eszter Gál dancer, choreographer will talk to Hiroaki Umeda after the performance. Everybody is welcome!
Tokyo-based multidisciplinary artist Hiroaki Umeda is a performer, sound artist and lighting designer whose work is both minimal and radical, sublime and violent, and very much in touch with his contemporary Japanese roots. He is now recognized more as a visual artist rather than a choreographer, a mover rather than a dancer.
In Haptic beautiful bright hues shift and morph in relation to his fluid movements creating an exquisite visual and sonic experience. In 2. repulsion the choreographer places particular emphasis on impulses from hip hop. Originating with his general tendency to view the body as an ›object‹ that strives to eliminate prejudices – only illuminating the purely physical and functional potential of the body – Umeda sets off to find an intersection between the worlds of movement. In connection with contemporary dance he fathoms the possibilities of hip hop, questions its limitations, and simultaneously works with the special energy and the particularly distinct movement patterns of this genre.
These are works to be felt and experienced more than simply watched.
As part of our 200% dance series, on 5-6 October another famous Japanese dance collective, Sankai Juku will present their piece in Trafó. Those who buy tickets for the performances of Sankai Juku and Umeda Hiroaki alike will get 10% discount from both tickets!
Haptic
choreography: Hiroaki Umeda
dancer : Hiroaki Umeda
sound & lighting design: S20
production: S20
Théâtre de Nîmes – Festival d’Automne à Paris
special thanks to Hervé Villechenoux Festival d’Automne, at Maison des Arts Créteil, 2008
2. repulsion
choreography : Hiroaki Umeda
dancers : Kevin Mischel Guillaume Yvener Sofiane Tiet
sound & lighting design : S20
commissioned for / production : Théâtre de Suresnes Jean Vilar – Suresnes Cité Danse 2010
co-production : S20 & Maison de la Musique de Nanterre (France)
associate production : Quaternaire
BIOGRAPHY
Hiroaki Umeda was born in 1977 and currently lives and works in Tokyo.
He studied photography at the Nihon University in Japan and decided to start dancing at the age of 20. In 2000 Hiroaki Umeda founded his own company, S20, and started making his own pieces. One of his represented piece “while going to a condition” was presented at the Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales (France) and was hailed as “a visual and sensorial experience… The discovery of a young artist, both original and promising”.
Following that “Finore” (2003) was presented at FIND Festival (Canada),and “Duo” at Panorama dance festival (Brazil). After a residency at the Chaufferie (Philippe Decouflé’s rehearsal space), Hiroaki Umeda performed “Accumulated Layout” in 2007 at the Théâtre National de Chaillot, Paris. Those pieces have been presented at important festivals all over the world, such as Kunsten festival des arts (Belgium), at The Barbican Centre as part of London International Mime Festival (UK), Romeuropa festival (Rome) and Festival d’Automne (France), among others.
Since his first group piece project with Finnish dancers in 2008, he has started choreographing for other dancers, which will be his future ten-year project. Also he has started working on installations, sound and video pieces as an extension of his solo projects. Hiroaki Umeda is a pluridisciplinary artist: choreographer, dancer, sound, image and lighting designer. His work is both minimal and radical, subtle and violent, and is created to be “experienced”. He is now recognized more as a visual artist rather than a choreographer, a mover rather than a dancer.
