March 18, 2005 -

OTTAWA -- Min Tanaka brings his unique energy and performance style to the Studio of the NAC from Thursday March 31 to Saturday April 2, 2005 at 20:00. Min Tanaka’s radical contribution to dance is beyond classification. As an internationally renowned teacher, performer and choreographer, Tanaka continues to expand his range of collaborations in opera, theatre, film, music, visual arts, multimedia installation, and dance. Min Tanaka has danced in theatres, museums, streets, fields, gardens, and rooftops around the world, and has collaborated with numerous artists and musicians, ranging from Meredith Monk, Milford Graves, Derek Bailey, and Cecil Taylor to Yoko Ono and Susan Sontag.

Performances of In love with the locus at the NAC are co-presented by Présences du Japon 2004-2005, an event conceived and presented by Jocelyne Montpetit . Please be advised: there is nudity in this production.

Min Tanaka’s influence is felt in many facets of Asian contemporary dance. His original works gaze unflinchingly at the terrifying, the despairing, and the absurd. Obsessed with time, catastrophe and the body, Tanaka’s choreography suspends moments in time and spins corporeal emotion. He dramatically frees the body from functionalism and conventional aesthetics, exploring the meaning of movement and the human form through improvisation.

Born in 1945, Min Tanaka grew up in suburban Tokyo, where he studied modern dance and performed in several productions. In the early 1970s, he began to dance independently, developing his original movement forms while participating in both solo and group performances; these were often in the nude, taking place in urban as well as natural settings. In 1985, Tanaka founded Body Weather Farm, a cooperative environment for dancers and artists who raise crops and animals, exploring the origins of dance through farming life. There are now two additional farms, one in Daitocho on the Pacific Coast and the other in Shikishima, facing Mt. Fuji. This farming village also houses the vast video and film collection of Dance Resources on Earth, a project Tanaka started in 1996 to establish a field museum for international folk and artistic dance resources. Tanaka is also founder and director of Tokason, a multinational dance group established in February 2000 to pursue the essence of Butoh.

With his lifetime contract to perform annually at the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York City, viewers can witness the constantly evolving forms and emotions in Tanaka’s dance over time. Between 1982 and 1986, he worked closely with Tatsumi Hijikata, founder and powerful guiding spirit of Butoh, the contemporary dance tradition which originated in post-WWII Japan. Butoh is an avant-garde dance form combining dance, theatre, improvisation, traditional Japanese performing arts traditions, and German Expressionism. It derives its power from the individual dancer in a mental and physical sense, relying not on a set choreography, but rather on individual improvisation and on the directing of energy from his surroundings to the audience.

“Becoming alert, sensitized, and transmigrating through the history of life as a whole in this very existence is what [Tanaka] tries to achieve through dance.”

Tanaka explains his philosophy of dance by saying “Working on the stage feels like being in a garden. Usually, there is an assumption that dancers will loyally obey what a choreographer tells them to do. But somewhere in the back of my mind I am waiting for them to disrupt my choreography. I have a feeling that dance originally was something like that. Of course, as a kind of contract, we agree in the making process that you come next, then you come after him, and so on. Yet it is fine with me that, in any given moment, a dancer might decompose the given choreography if she or he had a viable, authentic reason to do so. The place, the stage, should be freer than it has been defined conventionally. It may even be more anarchic. What is crucial, however, is that the change or deviation has to come from integrity on the part of the performer. It wouldn’t work if it’s done as a deliberate trick or tactic. … It is not my way to start meditations form the cosmic side; I prefer any topic starting from this side and extending to cosmic distance. Even though it is often said that the universe exists out there, it’s not so simple to physically acknowledge its presence.”

Min Tanaka performs in the Studio of the National Arts Centre on Thursday March 31, Friday April 1, and Saturday April 2, 2005 at 20:00. Tickets are $22.50, and $12.25 for students (upon presentation of a valid student ID card). Tickets are available at the NAC Box Office (in person) and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at (613) 755-1111; Ticketmaster may also be accessed through the NAC’s website at www.nac-cna.ca.  Last-minute tickets (subject to availability) for full-time students are $9.50 at the Live Rush Centre in the NAC Foyer after 18:00 on the day of performance only, upon presentation of a valid ‘Live Rush’ card. Groups of 20 or more save up to 20% off regular priced tickets; for reservations, call (613) 947-7000 x384 or toll free 1-866-850-2787, x384 or e-mail grp@nac-cna.ca.

Photos for all dance events can be viewed and downloaded at www.nac-cna.ca/media/

Information:
Gerald Morris
Marketing and Media Relations,
NAC Dance Department
(613) 947-7000, ext. 249
gmorris@nac-cna.ca