関かおり

Marmont

* Organization names and affiliations are as was written when the choreographers were awarded.

［Performance Appearance］

Premiered on December 15, 2010 at space-EDGE /70min (short version 20min)

July 2012 Toyota Choreography Award 20min (short version) at SETAGAYA PUBLIC THEATRE
Performers Iwabuchi / Yu Goto / Yui Yabuki / Kaori Seki　
December 2010 at space-EDGE

［About the work］

The title “Marmont” was created by combining the Estonian words “Maa” (ground) and “Mutt” (mole).

［Creation process］

How are the animals (besides the human beings) using the five senses in their lives? How are all the parts of the body developed, and how do they function? How do the human beings react when they lose the parts of their body functions? With these questions in mind, Seki had done a research on the Homunculus dolls and functions of brains , in order to start to choreograph. Using different forms from how the humans normally use their bodies for communication, the choreography will allow the audience to imagine freely and to reflect purely on the movements such as touching or smelling.

The concept of the three aromas used in the piece:
1. The aroma of the realm of the work / 2. The aroma of living things 3. The aroma leading to contact with memory (nostalgia)

［Text of image］

Blur the borderlines and receive with every part of the body
Aromas, tactile feelings, confirm them all with the entire body from under the skin Never to lose sight even in pitch dark when the eyeballs drop
Lovers or families may feel they completely empathize seeing the same scenery at the same time, yet, they never will feel exactly the same way on every detail.
Even in an embrace the partner’s eyes may be set upon the television screen.
Even then, one wishes to melt together into one. dissolving the flesh of the partner. And there are moments
when one might be seized by the illusion of being caressed by the presence of a partner who is no longer nearby. Aromas, too, are felt differently by each person, each imagining a different world, recalling different sceneries.
What a person thinks will differ completely depending on the time and experiences the person has come through. And that makes things interesting.
Aromas can draw out memories, reviving the memory of the air or scenery of a given moment. I hope the audience will mobilize their five senses to extract memories embedded somewhere in their bodies and savor what
is transpiring right in front of their eyes.

［Recommendation］

Kaori Seki, one of the most interesting creators of today, reminds one of clione. Often called the “fairy of drift ice” because of its appearance, when it preys on food its splits open the part that looks like its head and eats voraciously. Seki’s face, under the bobbed hair, looks like that of a young girl. Having practiced ballet from childhood her movements are proper and well controlled. At a glance everything looks quite normal. But as time passes one begins to feel something is wrong. Before one realizes the movements have turned insect-like, or the whole body seems to be covered in slime. She slips out of the normal safety zone, and the audience suddenly realizes they are left standing in a daze in the middle of an unknown world. Seki has an exceptional ability to “create a world,” and the audience cannot help but keep on watching, curious to know the entirety of that world. The work this time, I have heard, will make use of aromas. It will be quite interesting to see how Seki will prey on something invisible.
Takao Norikoshi (Dance critic)

［Critical comments］

On the bright cream-colored floor, dancers appear with the costumes in skin color. When the performance started,
sweet scent of nuts had lightly reached my nose. It might have been just me, but it seemed that this delicate stimulation had always touched my five senses as well as the vision, throughout the performance. Like sculptures, standing bold on the bright floor, the dancers represent themselves with very unique presence; however, there is something more noteworthy. For example, in the earlier scene where two female dancers had appeared. When one had stretched her leg out softly, another had stormed up to the back of this leg with her cheek. Her cheek had run,
touching the calf to the toe. At this point, the focus of this performance became clear to me. Seki’s choreography on this scene is not only unique as movements. It functions perfectly as a trigger to stimulate the senses of audience. There was another scene where one was laid on her back and another had moved her by intertwining their chins, which made me restless on my chin. Dance should be creation of movements and its further improvement, but it should also be the trial towards the body for both dancers and audience. In this aspect, Seki stood out in this year’s Toyota Choreography Award. Her work resembled nothing else, and it was genuinely a dance performance.
Satoru Kimura (Dance critic ) artscape review July 2012

The aroma artist and slowly moving bodies vie against each other within the limited space. A powerful, dense sphere of dance, one in which energy is contained within oneself and molten instead of being vented.
I wish I could have kept on watching forever.
Takao Norikoshi (Dance Critic) Theater Guide, March 2011