For Kokoro Dance, collaboration with artists across genres is a creative wellspring
Partnering with musicians, visual artists, and other dancers has led to wildly inventive works—and expanded imaginations
In celebration of Kokoro Dance’s collaboration with Jonathan Baldock, CGP London hosted Kokoro for a series of special performances and partnerships across London. Kokoro founders Barbara Bourget and Jay Hirabayashi performed a site specific performance, ( ) (pronounced ‘brackets’), on July 7 and 8, 2017.
Kokoro Dance has made a name for itself around the world for its striking butoh-based performances. Founded by Barbara Bourget and Jay Hirabayashi in 1986, the company has developed its international standing not only by creating is own experimental, exploratory works but also by collaborating with various artists across genres, including musicians, visual artists, and other dancers. |
“For us, there’s no shortage of things to explore,” Hirabayashi says.
City on the Edge. Photo by Yvon Ouellet
Forging into collaborative artistic practices, one of the most ambitious projects in Kokoro’s early stages was City on the Edge. In 1990, Hirabayashi directed the month-long performance installation on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery involving 70 artists, including musicians, dancers, actors, visual artists, and poets.
City on the Edge was about creating art in a noisy urban environment and asking questions about how artists could create when working in close proximity to one another in a public space.
“We were challenged to adapt our art making to constantly changing conditions, Hirabayashi says, pointing to unexpected interruptions like protesters setting up a camp of tents during the Oka Crisis, a convention of real-estate agents coming through with a pipe and drum band for a photo op, and the City of Vancouver, temporarily, shutting down the project because they did not have a building permit to erect their four-storey scaffolding structure.
It was an unforgettable experience that has had lasting benefits. “We were introduced to many artists who became life-long friends and collaborators,” Hirabayashi says.
Book of Love. Head pieces and costumes by Jonathan Baldock. Photo by Chris Randle
Other collaborations have reinforced the positive effects that come from combining talents. Kokoro has partnered with visual artists such as Leslie Poole, Richard Tetrault, Thomas Anfield, Duncan Wilson, Susan Madsen and Jonathan Baldock. Time and again, both parties ended up inspiring each other, expanding their imaginations and manifesting in new creative expression.
Consider Encounters with the Goddess. For this 1995 piece, Poole built a large frame that was hung on stage. “When we stepped through it, metaphorically, we stepped into his imagination,” Hirabayashi says. “He painted our faces and costumes so we became characters in his own dream world.”
The first collaboration between Kokoro Dance and Baldock was in the latter’s exhibition at the Apartment Gallery in Vancouver in 2014.
“They [Barbara and Jay] created a fantastic improvised performance in direct response to the work that transfixed the audience on the night of the opening,” Baldock says. “As a visual artist, the opportunity to collaborate with performance artists who can manipulate their bodies as a language to communicate with the audience is rare. It is the opportunity to make my work living.”
Their collaborative work continued. Baldock created the set and costumes for Kokoro’s 2015 Book of Love. His costumes challenged Hirabayashi and Bourget to adapt their choreography.
“For example, he created head pieces that were made from woven wicker tree branches like upside-down baskets that obscured our vision and our balance,” Hirabayashi says. “He made costumes with very long sleeves that extended several feet past our fingers. Both of these elements radically changed not only how we moved, but how we looked when we were dancing.
“Working with visual artists, particularly those who are more abstract in their artistic approach, gives us strong images to work with and stimulates our imaginations,” he adds. “Working with these visual artists dramatically changed our choreography in ways we could not have imagined had we not collaborated with them.”
Kokoro Dance and the VSO. Photo by Chris Randle
Kokoro Dance’s collaboration with the Vancouver Symphony might be the best example of how creativity is needed the most when unexpected circumstances arise.
In 2004, both organizations were mistakenly double-booked for the same weekend at the Roundhouse. To salvage the situation, the Roundhouse suggested that the VSO invite Kokoro to dance to their music. They liked the idea.
The two groups got together for a new full-evening production of dance and chamber music. The collaboration was so successful that the co-productions were continued in 2007, 2009 and 2011, becoming a featured attraction of the annual Vancouver International Dance Festival.
“It was an interesting challenge initially,” says Hirabayashi. “The symphony usually picks music that is different from the stuff they do at the Orpheum—more adventurous music, lots of compositions from modern composers. We’ve learned in each collaboration what things work and which don’t.”
Hirabayashi, who is also the VIDF’s Co-producer with his life-partner, Barbara Bourget, notes that the collaboration is an opportunity for both musicians and dancers to use technology to enhance live performances.
“There’s a conversation that takes place between musicians and dancers that you just don’t get when it’s a recording,” he says. “It keeps the dance alive.”
This post was sponsored by Kokoro Dance.