INTERVIEW: Japanese Noh-inspired dance returns to NYC after sold-out run
Photo: Earlier this year, New Yorkers had the chance to see the premiere of You Took a Part of Me by Karole Armitage of Armitage Gone! Dance, with dancers Megumi Eda, Cristian Laverde Koenig and Sierra French, at Japan Society. Photo courtesy of Julie Lemberger / Provided by press rep with permission.
Renowned choreographer Karole Armitage, artistic director of Armitage Gone! Dance, will bring her latest dance, You Took a Part of Me, to New York Live Arts for an encore presentation, Oct. 23-26. The piece is inspired by Japanese Noh theater and first premiered at Japan Society in April. Those performances sold out, so the return of Armitage’s work is highly anticipated.
Armitage’s choreography is based on the 11th-century novel The Tale of Genji. In this updated and transformed adaptation, a woman revisits her past, which is situated in a dreamlike state of time and memory. Three dancers — portraying the ghostly woman, her double and her lover — perform the heart of the piece, while a fourth dancer plays the part of the transformer.
Everything from the setting to the calligraphy-like movements of the dancers’ arms is meant to evoke the Noh spirit.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Armitage about her choreographic work. As a dancer, she performed in George Balanchine’s Grand Théâtre de Genève Company and in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. She has been represented on Broadway with Hair and Passing Strange. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What can audiences expect from You Took a Part of Me?
You Took a Part of Me takes place on installation that has an eerie new kind of LEDs that casts a fog-like, uncanny light so that you enter a dream world. The show has elements of performance art; radical changes of hair and costume performed live in front of the audience’s eyes; intense, calligraphic dance and a marvelous commissioned score by Reiko Yamada that captures 15th century Japanese ritual theater in the form of a 21st century minimalist score.
You Took a Part of Me is a voyage into the life of the mind. It explores eroticism and its repercussions. Ultimately woman finds her power.
Were you surprised by the positive response and sold-out audiences at the Japan Society?
I was delighted. You Took a Part of Me casts a spell on people. We could feel it in rehearsal. The dancers and creative team felt the power of the ideas. It raised our consciousness to a high level. Everyone met the challenge by going further than they ever had before.
What do you like about the art form of Japanese Noh?
I first saw Noh when performing in Tokyo with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in the ’70s. I love that it takes you into a trance. I love that it doesn’t tell you what to think or feel. I love that it gives you a profound experience. I love the rigor and austerity. I love the ferocious concentration and the fact that it explores the mental life of a character. I love that nothing is literal, but that everything is present.
How challenging is this piece from the dancers’ perspective?
Very. It demands a very high level of athleticism and precise control while appearing natural and spontaneous. It demands a great deal of each dancer’s inner life; it demands exposure of the self and tremendous concentration.
When did you realize the life of a dancer was a life for you?
I loved to move from a very young age, and I saw Balanchine’s ballets. The life force, expressivity and glamour struck a deep nerve.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
You Took a Part of Me, choreographed by Karole Armitage, will play New York Live Arts, Oct. 23-26. Click here for more information and tickets.
