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©julietteBibasse
« I think I am more a visual person, as well as a dance person. But light is the most important because for dance, if you don’t have light, you cannot see dance. For me, lighting is a big part of the choreography. I got interested in how to choreographe lighting for my dance. Designing light is totally part of the choreography. »

Interview made by Juliette Bibasse during LEV festival 2018.

Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your background?
My name is Hiroaki Umeda, I am a Japanese choreographer and dancer as well as a visual artist.
I studied photography at the University but I did not enjoy it very much so I started to explore other art forms. When started to study dance, I also learned about computers.
And here we are now.
 
You have been doing that for many years now
Yes, about twenty years, you can say that it is kind of « old in this world ».
 
Do you see yourself more like a sound or visual person, which is the first thing in your mind?
I think I am more a visual person, as well as a dance person. But light is the most important because for dance, if you don’t have light, you cannot see dance. For me, lighting is a big part of the choreography.
I got interested in how to choreographe lighting for my dance. Designing light is totally part of the choreography.
 
It is rare that the same person is making the choreography, the sound, the visuals and also being the performer, is this the only way for you?
Sometimes I work with other people of course. 
I am not the type of dancer and choreographer who needs always his own body on the stage but I think that for my art, the specific things I know I can do with my body is special. I am not saying that I am special but the way I move or do what I do is unique, a way to express myself. If one day a robot could dance exactly like me, I would not dance. But for now, I cannot find anyone or any object who can do exactly what I do, not yet.
 
Can you tell us about your workflow, when you create is it first light, or sound, …?
At first, I have an image in my mind, not visual but an image of the space and the tensions in the space.
My art is about physical sensations so I have a strong image of that. Then I start to research and test my materials, experiment : visuals, dances, …
It’s a mix, pieces by pieces. But for practical reasons, when I compose, I work first on the sound, mostly because of the way my tools work: the sound first and then everything comes together.
 
Do you feel that sounds are telling the stories, is it abstract or saying something?
I don’t want to express any story or meanings, I want to share physical sensations with the audience, from start to the end. I don’t have narrative but more a storyboard of the physical sensations I am expressing.
 
What is your relationship with your body, is it a tool, a medium?
My body is just a material constituant of the piece, dance is not the main thing as you have sound and light. It is really 1/3 dance, 1/3 sound, 1/3 light. So my body is just one part.
 
What do you think about more and more projects with dance + projections and maybe looking very similar?
Of course sometimes I am a little bit tired of this kind of things but as I said, I do not compare my work because dance is not the most important thing.
I also do visual installations and other types of projects. Dance is not always necessary, it should be consider as a special thing in media art.
 
Can we talk about a trend of dance + visual art, and sometimes people creating these projects do not work with choreographers?
Yes I do see a trend of people in technologies wanting to use dance, before that, maybe 15 years ago, it was the other way around, dance wanted to use technology. The balance is different today : technology is now so advanced compared to dance being an « old art », that at the end what maybe missing is a physical strength in the piece (maybe to compensate the advance of technology), dance becomes a « slave » of the digital aspects of a project. In my projects, I try to find a balance, an equality.
 
Do you have some inspirations or references you would like to share?
I am not a specialist in anything so I wouldn’t share « great masters ».
But in terms of inspirations, at the moment I am very interested by how we can connect different type of things, different scales.
This is very abstract, for example the piece you saw, Intensional Particle, is focusing on the stream of movements and tensions in the body expressed by dance and video. I am trying to find a universal language via different media. So how we could find some kind of universal language in art (via dance, video, sound) is my main interest.
As an example, I am researching on how nature is choreographed, like water or cells. Our body is also made of cells and water, so this can be choreographed. But also big things like the universe and how they have their own movement and interconnections. 
So connecting micro-macro.
 
Do you have a studio space where you work?
I would love to have a studio but I only have a small place as I live in Tokyo and it’s not easy.
But sometimes I think it also helps me in my work, I don’t want to have to much « objects » and stay minimal.
 
 

Publié par Juliette Bibasse

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