photo: Iida Kenki

On 11/5 I went to Komabara Agora Theater see the soiree show of "Mokutekichi (Destination)" by Okada Toshiki’s company Chelfitsch, who like Kudo Kankuro won one of this year’s Kishida Kunio Drama Awards. Set in the Kohoku New Town, a pioneering project of residential land development, "Mokutekichi" features a welter of humans and cats (or actors playing humans and thos playing cats). This article isn't meant to be a critique, so I won't introduce the story in detail, and if this made you curious I'd rather recommend to go to Komaba and see the piece by yourself (you have the chance to do so until 11/15).

To those who have witnessed a Chelfitsch show before I don't have to explain that their performances are highly unique. The dialogues the characters on stage exchange have a very "real" character. This is firstly because the language is so casual and colloquial that the dialogues presented as part of the drama aren't much different from the Japanese you hear on the street, and also because actors speak in the style of today’s youths, something like, "you know, Maeda-san, well, he’s, I mean, you know…" This drawn from life style is something Chelfitsch have in common with the likes of Potudo-ru.

However, while in the case of the latter even the acting is real, this is a part that Chelfitsch present in a rather unreal manner, again in two different senses of the word: first of all, although the dialogues are based on a (dramatic) script, the actors tend to talk past each other. The second point is that these lines are ofen delivered along with bizarre movements that aren't necessarily related to the story. Scratching and kicking and waving — all movements that aren't at all unusual, but Chelfitsch enlarge them to such extent that viewers gradually loose their orientation of what is real and what is not.

Both argueing on different planes and showing exaggerated movements cause laughter in the audience, but to create funny scenes is obviously not the playwright’s/director’s only aim. In a recent interview (with Norikoshi Takao for the December issue of "Theater Guide"), Okada explains, "I don't believe that movements are born out of the dialogues' meanings, and I'm actually trying to get rid of such 'movements with an attached meaning'. Involuntary movements that surprise even the actors themselves, like 'hey, did I just move?', is the kind of thing I'd like to show on stage."

photo: Iida Kenki

But now let me finally come to this time’s theme, the "problem of categorization". Okada entered this year’s "Toyota Choreographer Award" with a short piece entitled "Cooler (Air Conditioner)". The piece made it to the final judgement round, but was dropped in the end. Shortly after that, on July 11, Okada wrote in his Web log the following: I entered the Toyota Choreographer Award, but it seems like there’s a problem more substantial than the simple question of whether a piece receives an award or not. The judges apparently didn't consider my work "choreography", which is not only a disapproval of my work, but also a disapproval of those judges who voted for me (as a choreographer) until the final round. I'd really like the judges to fight that out."

Dance critic Muto Daisuke wrote in his Web log, "I heard that the head of the judgeing committee said, 'that’s not choreography', whereupon a comment appeared stating that that wasn't true, although this response was again based on hearsay as the author admitted. Okada himself, however, added from his own point of view, "at this point I'm considering myself judged as 'not a choreographer', and by saying 'I'd like the judges to fight that out' I mean that I'd like this to be an occasion to discuss what exactly IS 'choreography'. As we're talking about a talented creator of fictional works, I can't deny the presumption that both the entry at the Toyota Award and the comment are in fact the clever work of a trickster choking back a snicker. Anyway, up to now neither "fight" among the parties concerned nor "discussion" among those unconcerned seems to have occurred.

photo: Iida Kenki

It is of course not an easy task to draw a dividing line between dance and theatre as two separate forms of performing arts. Okada himself explained in an interview with Okano Hirofumi, "the only difference between dance and theatre I can see is that in theatre the insignificant dialogues of everyday life are being eventuated on some different level, while dance leaves everything as insignificant as it is." (laugh) This again is a provocative statement, and I really wish the Toyota judges gave just any comment, it something like "that’s not choreography" or "that’s a totally new form of choreography". Some experts says that "the unconscious body movements in the pieces of Chelfitsch hint at a quality the troupe shares with dance companies". In my opinion, works like "Cooler" or "Tissue", which was shown at "Azumabashi Dance Crossing", can't really be categorized as "dance", but it’s just unnatural and unfair that pieces as funny as these two (both the Toyota and Azumabashi audiences were creasing up laughing!), which the average viewer struggles to recognize as "dance" (as a result of which "Cooler" even failed to get the "Audience Prize"), are being sent home without any comment whatsoever.

"Fountain" (1917), which isn't more than a simple, readymade urinal with a fake sign, was first rejected when Marcel Duchamp wanted to show it in an exhibition. It was in fact the scandalous art of Duchamp that paved the way for the new form of expression we know as contemporary art. Chelfitsch (Okano Toshiki) still have to prove whether or not they can trigger a revolution in the dance world. What’s for sure is that boundaries are for being crossed. Where there’s no danger in crossing borders, there’s no pleasure, and no feel of accomplishment afterwards. I wish those experts who judge dance pieces did their jobs properly and defined a border for the artists to cross, as difficult as it may be.