Yamazaki: to make the invisible visible

Collaborators Kota Yamazaki (dance) and Cécile Pitois (set and concept) explore the evidence of things unseen in Rays of Space at Danspace Project. This new, hour-long work attempts to delve into the matter of energy, specifically the energy that passes to and from performer and audience.

Pitois' minimalist set--simply fanned-out rays of orange tape that span the wood floor--suggests a burst of energy directed towards the edge of the audience. Dancers deploy amid and along Pitois' energetic pathways, sometimes approaching the audience to dance a passage, like fish in a tank wriggling up to the glass to idly gaze at their keepers. Kathy Kaufmann's light design segments vignettes and creates a brooding and unpredictable atmosphere.

The piece begins with luxuriant and arresting quirkiness--bodies radically tilted, collapsible and springy; elbows, hips, necks and wrists taking atypically assertive, propulsive action that turns the rest of the body into a complacent go-along. The dancers move with impressive, pleasing agility and flow within Masahiro Sugaya's unobtrusive sound environment--a kind of white-noise background that could be natural or unnaturally devised to pacify both denizens and watchers.

The quintet of performers are a solid team, and Elena Demyanenko and Ildikó Tóth, in particular, are wonderfully absorbing. However, as Rays of Space spreads out in time, its repeated effects attenuate and begin to pall. The watcher's mind wanders to matters less poetic, such as: Why are we--the audience with our mounds of winter clothes--always crammed together while those five people have all that space to move around in? Who gets to choose which dancer wears which costume, particularly the ugly ones? Whatever happened to dances that lasted only as long as their creator's ideas warranted, instead of ballooning out to fill an hour or more?

Kota Yamazaki/Fluid hug-hug with Cécile Pitois will present two more evenings of Rays of Space at Danspace Project--tonight and Saturday at 8pm. Click here for more information and ticketing.