You recently participated in the "KITA!! Japanese Artists Meet Indonesia" exhibition in Indonesia, and you also supported the "Art Rules Kyoto 2008" event with performances by the likes of Douglas Gordon, so it seems to be another busy years for the Kinokos. What was your impression of these two events?

 

The people in Indonesia came to see our show quite curiously and open-mindedly. Of the Kyoto event I mainly remember scenes of Gordon dancing naked or dressed in a kimono - when we weren't drinking together… (laughs)

 

When I heard about your trope first you were mainly performing in Tokyo only, and it was only in 2001 that you began to perform abroad and establish an international reputation for yourself. Did that shift cause any change in your attitude?

 

Yes, definitely. Looking at the results, 2001 was a good time to go abroad. Up to that point there was some kind of uncertainty and we weren't really knowing where we were heading. It was actually in 2000 with "Frill (mini)", when the dancers and myself began to see a direction we thought we should follow. It was great that we were then able to show that piece to people who didn't speak our language. Even if the schedule was tight, there was a certain feeling, telling us that "we were doing the Kinoko dance." That was how we established the style of creating our pieces and taking them around the world.

 

Back when you first launched the company, you were all art students, and what you were doing didn't even have something to do with what you were learning at school. I heard anecdotes of you being called "poison mushrooms" from the school officials who considered you to be "dangerous elements". (laughs) What looks at first rather cute is in fact charged with a punkish kind of attitude, and I wonder how you're handling this today. Would you say you've grown up, grown quieter in a way?

 

We started by practicing in the school’s corridors, always making sure that the guards didn't catch us. We really did a lot of fighting at the time, also among the members. When staying overnight at someone’s house and talking until late, things necessarily heat up. The dancers weren't shy to throw such comments as, "Naa, that’s rubbish!" at me for my choreography suggestions. They keep quoting that as a joke today, but they were totally serious back then. The pieces that emerged out of that we're currently reviewing on video in preparation for the next performances, and watching that freewheeling stuff I often ask myself if it was really okay that way! (laughs) Just because I wanted to sing some Flipper’s Guitar songs I called some friends and had them do the chorus part…

 

I wish I'd seen that! (laughs)

 

From "collecting" to "constructing"

 

Are there any dancers you were particularly watching or inspired by back when you put the Strange Kinokos together?

 

I was quite impressed by what Teshigawara Saburo and Kurosawa Mika were doing at the time. They made me realize that there was more in Japan than just butoh, and encouraged me to follow the way they were leading. But the troupe as a whole is a motley collection of individuals that all picked up what they enjoyed most about theatre, live music, club culture and campus life.

 

Have you seen Michael Clarke’s performance at PARCO Theater in 1990? That was the first time I worked with a dance company.

 

I was totally amazed that something as cool as that was possible with Lou Reed’s songs and other favorites of mine that are totally different from music that was specially written for dance pieces! And then I just thought I'd try it myself… (laughs) We're actually using music from very different genres - from classical music to Japanese nagauta, and the sho sound known from traditional Gagaku music just sends me tripping whenever I hear it.

 

You're pretty much a downtown Tokyo kind of girl, with that "playing cool is uncool" kind of attitude you know. Your performances are heavily charged with that, which is what I personally find the most interesting part of your works. Generally, however, "girly" would have to be the expression to describe the Kinoko style I guess.

 

We're not doing that "girly" thing on purpose though…

 

And you're not really moving like average girls anyway… I'd say you have your very own, inimitable way of walking and crawling on all fours. It’s perhaps a bit similar to Trisha Brown and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (Rosas).

 

It happened that I trashed an idea because the dancers pointed out that it was obviously stolen from some other choreographer, but nowadays we're doing pretty well in our own little universe. One could say that we've probably shifted from "collecting" to "constructing".

 

Theatre and everyday crossing over

 

How do you create your pieces?

 

First of all, it’s not necessarily all following my own ideas. "Lift", for example, consists largely of parts that we all made together. As far as I am concerned, there are always ideas of songs and situations spooking around in my mind that I feel like dancing to, which is how the majority of our pieces came into being. The first idea that ultimately produced "Touching your face while you sleep" was the idea to dance surrounded by cloth. We're performing a lot at venues other than theatres, so it often happens that we get inspiration from particular places.
There is the idea that it has to be possible to stage performances at various places because dance is supposed to be something rather closely linked to everyday life, and simultaneously there is the desire to invite people to come and see a piece that we've modeled carefully around the assumption of a specific theatre. I'd like to do both, and I'd also love to try and take a piece made based on either one method and present it in the style of the other.

 

For your next performance, "StrangeKinoko Encyclopedia", you recruited four new members, including for the first time a male dancer. I'm looking forward to seeing the new lineup of nine performers!

 

The new members range from girlish boys to boyish girls. That irregularity of the members' characters is one of the original Kinoko features, and while it’s good that things are gradually falling into place over the years, it’s just as interesting to see how it all keeps transforming. The next show will be some kind of "best of" with an additional new piece. Even the old pieces will come across refreshed with the new lineup.

 

I'm definitely looking forward to see the result! Finally, your image of Tokyo in a nutshell please.

 

The place where I was born and raised; my hometown where I always want to return after traveling abroad. Maybe that’s actually more about my house than about Tokyo though… (laughs)