{"id":4450,"date":"2020-02-19T17:52:43","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T08:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realtokyo.co.jp\/_sys2024\/en\/?p=4450"},"modified":"2020-02-19T22:52:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T13:52:47","slug":"yuki-aoki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realtokyo.co.jp\/en\/interview\/yuki-aoki\/","title":{"rendered":"Professional dancers and homeless people: real bodies connected through dance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Interview with dancer\/choreographer Yuki Aoki (head of Newcomer H Sokerissa!) commemorating the release of the documentary movie \u201cThe Dancing Homeless\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Newcomer H Sokerissa! (below abbreviated \u201cSokerissa!\u201d), a dance company whose members have all experienced life on the street, has been operating for 15 years since its formation in 2005 by dancer\/choreographer Yuki Aoki. Coming to movie theaters on March 7 will be the documentary movie \u201cThe Dancing Homeless\u201d (direction & photography by Wataru Miura), which portrays the protagonists\u2019 individual lifestyles, and their dance that is sincere yet at the same time also somewhat humorous and pathetic. While the Olympic Games are just around the corner, and people promote the importance of diversity, the situation on Tokyo\u2019s streets is anything but rosy for social minorities. Here we see a bunch of \u201cgentlemen\u201d who have been living under such circumstances, and now put their bodies and souls into their dance, captured and raised to an unusual kind of position in a film that is neither a serious dance movie nor a plain documentary about homeless people. I met Aoki to talk to him about his thoughts and feelings during his work dancing and filming with the \u201cgentlemen,\u201d about the work of Sokerissa!, and about the present and the future of the \u201cgentlemen\u201d as well as Aoki himself.<\/p>\n

Learning about their backgrounds for the first time<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u30fcStarting with the solo dance scene that opens the movie, the movie captures the vibrant character of the dancers\u2019 movements and their bodies in a truly impressive way. On the other hand, quite obviously considering that this is a documentary, a large part of the movie is dedicated to descriptions of the personal histories and daily lives of the protagonists that have all experienced life on the street. I think that witnessing their dance is something that may cause viewers to watch the movie with some kind of preconception. Was that an issue for you and the dancers during the filming?<\/p>\n

Aoki: We talked a lot with the director as to how to avoid making it a woeful story about homeless people. For myself, the actual \u201cdance\u201d is the most important element in our connection, so on a daily basis I rarely talk to them about their backgrounds. During the making of the movie, it happened that I heard stories regarding their backgrounds that I\u2019d never heard before.<\/p>\n

But for the general public that\u2019s certainly something that people who watch the movie want to know, and also regarding the balance of the movie as a whole, I understand the director\u2019s decision to cover these things as well. I think the outcome is a movie that was edited based on a proper understanding of the protagonists\u2019 personalities, and divided up while steering clear of silly egalitarianism.
\nMr. Hirakawa, a dancer I\u2019ve been working with for a long time, plays a palliative kind of role in the scenes that especially focus on his own funny habits, and Mr. Nishi, who initially aspired to a career as a dancer but eventually dropped out, shows some really solid dancing skills. It appears to me that the director was quite aware of these things during the shooting.<\/p>\n

\u30fcWhat were your thoughts when you watched the finished movie?<\/p>\n

Aoki: I\u2019ve been working with the gentlemen for quite a while already, and all kinds of things that we do including the dancing has become totally natural for us, so frankly speaking, even when I watched the finished movie, I couldn\u2019t really imagine how other people might react to it. For me personally, it\u2019s a movie that I could watch time and again, because I just can\u2019t stop thinking that these gentlemen show some pretty cool dancing.<\/p>\n

\"\u00a9Tokyo<\/p>\n

\u00a9Tokyo Video Center<\/p>\n

As long as there is trust, people can go their own ways<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u30fcThere is a scene in the movie where you are asked about the way you run Sokerissa!, and you reply by asking whether the rules of society are alright as they are. The style of Sokerissa! is very unique in that you totally respect the dancers\u2019 discretion and lifestyles, and not tie them to any rules. But on the other hand, the management of an organization certainly also involves a lot of difficulties. What kind of attitude do you assume when you approach the members for the creation of a piece?<\/p>\n

Aoki: As for myself, I\u2019m not thinking much about such things as what each of these gentlemen may be doing in the future. If they continue living on the street, I\u2019m fine with that. As soon as there\u2019s some kind of vision of \u201chow things should work out for them in the future,\u201d I think the performance will get kind of loose. If we take dance as a \u201cvehicle to a possible future,\u201d it will always become a gentle, or rather, dull kind of art. That\u2019s not what dance is about. Sometimes it hurts, and there are situations in which dancers need to express something that causes them great pain. However there\u2019s of course also a lot of love in that.<\/p>\n

What I treasure more than anything else is trust. People create rules out of mistrust. There are more and more rules, and the result of that is a society of rules as we have it today. Just because we\u2019re living in times like these, I think that trust is an immensely important thing. As long as there is trust, people will always somehow manage to go their own ways.<\/p>\n

Mr. Nishi, for example, explains that he is living on the street because it\u2019s the only way for him to be himself (that statement is also included in the trailer), and I understand that very well. He has been living his life without making any choice of his own, which is also how his family are seeing it, and he eventually got fed up with that and deliberately chose to live on the street. His current lifestyle allows him to make any choice by himself, and there\u2019s a firm \u201cindividuality\u201d that is at work here. As a matter of fact, I believe that this could be a strong message to all those people out there who have lost their \u201cindividuality\u201d and run around without knowing what they really want. So what I\u2019d like to encourage these people to do is live their own lives, and if they fall, get up again and make a new start, and I\u2019ll be happy to just be there and move ahead with them.<\/p>\n

\u30fcIs it true that it happened several times in the past that a central member of your team didn\u2019t show up for a performance?<\/p>\n

Aoki: That\u2019s right. It was quite a shock at first, but then I realized that I can jump in and dance whenever someone\u2019s missing, and now the thought that we might have to make it work that way is part of our preparations right from the start. We incorporate such processes in a way that it\u2019s all visible also to the audience. It\u2019s actually a rather important part of our work, and I hope that people will understand this as one aspect that makes our company so unique and interesting.<\/p>\n

\"\u00a9Tokyo<\/p>\n

\u00a9Tokyo Video Center<\/p>\n

Real dance potential in real bodies<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u30fcYou come from a rather commercial background yourself, with quite some experience doing choreographies for backing dancers and famous artists. Where did that idea, that making an about-turn and working with homeless people would result in some exciting dance, come from?<\/p>\n

Aoki: When you\u2019re involved with dance, you always look at the properly trained, well-shaped bodies of dancers. With these gentlemen, it\u2019s completely different. Their bodies are totally real and connected to life. They are primitive bodies so to speak, and I was convinced that they must be bursting with energy when they dance.<\/p>\n

People who sleep outside know things like fear and cold, and as they wake up with birds singing around them, they develop a kind of sensibility that is closely connected to nature. I, on the other hand, am living in a comfortable environment where I can easily switch on the light, and I don\u2019t have to worry about anything when I go to bed at night, but it appears to me that such kind of lifestyle paralyzes your senses in that respect. I feel that a body and senses that have been exposed to harsh environments are things that are necessary not only for me personally, but for today\u2019s human society at large.<\/p>\n

\u30fcThe movie itself can also be understood as a discourse on cities in general, from the viewpoint of the streets of Tokyo. There are millions living in functional and comfortable ways, but there are also those that stick out from the masses, whereas the exposed primitive aspects of their lifestyles are again part of what defines big city life. Both extremes normally just exist alongside one another without mixing, so was it important for you as someone who knows the \u201ccomfortable life in Tokyo\u201d to mix with these people?<\/p>\n

Aoki: Absolutely. I wanted to mix with them, and I also wanted to highlight the contrast between professional dancers and people living on the street. I\u2019m constantly thinking about how to present those highly unique bodies with all their various uncertainties. The very fact that they are always just \u201cthemselves\u201d no matter where in the city they dance will surely be, let\u2019s say, inspiring for people in one way or another, and for the gentlemen themselves, this chance to inspire others is an extremely positive effect as well.<\/p>\n

Take them to India and dance together<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u30fcThe movie contains a lot of scenes from actual dance performances. Why is it that so many of these performances take place under the open sky?<\/p>\n

Aoki: When the shootings were scheduled, we happened to be in the middle of a tour dancing at outdoor locations across the city for about a year from 2017 (the \u201cTokyo Road Dance \u2018Daily Wilderness\u2019 tour\u201d). We did of course have opportunities to perform at venues with sound and lighting equipment, but other homeless people and members of the general public that normally don\u2019t watch dance rarely got the chance to come and see us at such venues, so we eventually decided to raise funds independently and do those outdoor performances.<\/p>\n

\u30fcSo performing outside wasn\u2019t imperative?<\/p>\n

Aoki: No. But for the gentlemen it is a rather real and familiar environment, so it naturally turns out more interesting. As a matter of course, there are passersby that don\u2019t even take notice, but there are also those who stand around and make a big noise. Also for myself, I feel that dancing in such kind of environment of all places is extremely important.<\/p>\n

\u30fcEach of the dancers seems to be doing his thing with great enthusiasm, even in the rain.<\/p>\n

Aoki: We filmed at 15 outdoor locations, and it actually rained quite often. When we started filming the final dance scene, the weather was fine, but right when the dance began, it suddenly started raining. That also happened during the opening scene. We did prefer fair weather of course, but as they all don\u2019t even mind rolling in the mud, none of them complained. Isn\u2019t that great!<\/p>\n

\u30fcPlease tell me about your future plans.<\/p>\n

Aoki: We already have some performances scheduled, and if we manage to get enough money together after that, we\u2019d like to go to the UK. There is a group called Streetwise Opera, who combine efforts in the realms of opera and support of homeless people, and the idea is to get together for collaborations and street performances. That\u2019s one thing, but even more than that, I\u2019d really love to take the gentlemen to a country with a lot of people that are even poorer than they are. Places in India or Africa for example. I\u2019ve made a very intense experience dancing in India in the past, and I\u2019d love to go there again with the gentlemen, dance with them, and see what all of us can get out of that emotionally.<\/p>\n

\"\u00a9Tokyo<\/p>\n

\u00a9Tokyo Video Center<\/p>\n

Yuki Aoki<\/strong>
\nDancer\/choreographer, born in Hyogo. Began to study jazz dance under Akemi Hirata in Tokyo in 1987. After working as a dancer in amusement parks and as a backing dancer for various stage celebrities, he witnessed the terrorist attacks in 2001 while studying in New York, which inspired him to review his own work as a dancer. In 2005, in cooperation with the Big Issue Japan Foundation, he summoned a group of homeless people, and established the dance group Newcomer H Sokerissa! Their language-based choreographies, and dance performances based on individual physical memories that are unique to each performer, enjoy a high reputation within rehabilitation programs for the socially weak, and also as an alternative approach to dance education. Aoki won a NEXTREAM21 Award in 2004, and is currently also president of Aokikaku.<\/p>\n

\"\u00a9Tokyo<\/p>\n

\u00a9Makoto Ando<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Interview with dancer\/choreographer Yuki Aoki (head of Newcomer H Sokerissa!) commemorating the release of the […]","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":4454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[82],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtokyo.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4450"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtokyo.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtokyo.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtokyo.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtokyo.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4450"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/realtokyo.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4471,"href":"https:\/\/realtokyo.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4450\/revisions\/4471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtokyo.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtokyo.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtokyo.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtokyo.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}