conversations in ten questions 34 : Ayako Takahashi
In this series of interviews we try to get to know the artists who were the artists of İstanbul Fringe Festival in 2022. Our first guest is Ayako Takahashi from Ayalis in Motion.
Ayse Draz, Art Unlimited Performing Arts Editor & Mehmet Kerem Ozel, Writer
The essence of performance for me is to connect the others; connect to myself, the fellow dancers, the audience, and the environment.
When I think about performing, I often focus on becoming transparent to minimize my ego. When we become transparent and minimize our ego, our bodies on stage can become simple vessels. The audience can come into our bodies and experience their own journey through our bodies and performances. I am not interested in conveying my messages so much, but I am hoping that the audience will experience themselves using (witnessing) our bodies.
Of course, I have my motivation and theme in each piece I create, however, forcing people to understand what I believe is not my thing. What I am interested in is that the people (whether my dancers or the audience) will feel something about themselves and truly experienced their own lives.
As we connect to our bodies, our life experiences—from traumatic events to joyous occasions—leave somatic scars, and reflect in our postures and physical expressions. Pythagorean Peas explores how we come to feel at home in our bodies, particularly when away from the physical place we call home. Investigating how to access feelings of comfort and safety wherever one may be, I hope to find and share kinesthetic manifestations of security and vulnerability that resonate across bodies from the dancers to the audience.
Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How?
I do of course believe in the transformative power of art.
My creation is often inspired by political issues or something around our world. However, my intention is not necessary to change the world directly. I do not mean to use dance as propaganda or something.
I imagine my work is like a spoon of sugar in the sea. If you add one spoon of sugar to the sea, it still tastes salty, you won’t feel any sweetness there. And it’s ok for me.
Some people notice something about me (us) and feel/think something. That is important.
They may get angry, happy, or sad... they don’t necessarily like what I do, but I want them to feel something.
My job as a choreographer is not to make a dance, is to make other people powerful.
My job is to awaken possibility in other people; my dancers or the audience members etc.
I have a definition of success. For me, it's very simple. It's not about wealth, fame and power. It's about how many shining eyes I have around me. If your eyes are shining, you know what you are doing. I am focusing on making my dancers' eyes shine and the audiences’. And I believe dance has the power to do so.
When you are working on a piece, what sources inspire you? Do dreams play a role in your works?
Everything in my life influences (inspires) my creation; sea breeze, a glass of red wine, a black cat running across the street, etc. I see rhythms in the clouds and I hear the music in the sunshine.
Above all, I feel that love is a big essence of my creative motivation.
Family love, romantic love, love of what l do, friendship, loyalty….
Dream may influence my work unconsciously, but I never use dreams consciously as a part of the creative process. I just sleep so deep, and after waking up, I forget everything I saw in my dreams lol.
When do you decide to give a title to a work you are working on if it already does not have one?
I will wait till it arrives.
It often pops up in the creative process when I casually talk with the dancers about the piece or think/research about the piece.
I try not to put too much meaning in the titles, I keep it simple and casual. If I put too many messages and ego or things I wanted to convey, the audience will suffocate even before watching our shows.
I want the audience to be free. If I create the piece about ‘bloody dead body', for example, and the audience thinks “Oh, it is a fun piece about a pepperoni pizza!”, it is all good!
As far as they find something in the piece, it’s a successful piece.
So, I try not to drive people in one specific direction by the titles.
Talking about “Pythagorean Peas” for example, the first motivation of this work was the terrorism I’ve witnessed in Morocco, however, I did not want to choose any words that relates to this topic. Each of the dancers was focusing on their own vulnerabilities and investigating their somatic reaction to them throughout our creative process. I was hoping to find a word for the title that becomes a clue for the dancers. Then I remember the episode of Pythagoras; he was adored by so many people back in the day and established his philosophy, theory, religious tribe, however, at the end of his life, he was murdered by his pupils in front of his pea plants that he didn’t like. Sometimes people obey you with absolute loyalty but all of a sudden completely betray you in one second. How would you perceive those facts? I thought Pythagoras’s story would be a clue for the dancers and the audience to think about their own vulnerability. That is why I pick “Pythagorean Peas” as a title. (meaning we are not necessary dancing for Pythagoras ;)
Are there any artist whom you can describe as "my master", or any person whom you think influenced your art the most? And if there is such an artist or person, who?
People I meet in everyday lives; dancers, students, family, friends, musicians, philosophers, novelists, and/or random people in the street. Hhhahh, I cannot pick one…
How do you think that this pandemic which humanity is facing at a global scale today will transform performing arts in the future?
During our difficult time over the past few years, dancers/choreographers produced a lot of virtual performances. It allowed us to reach and connect people all over the world easily and quickly. However, I feel we have started to miss the actual connection with others; physical touch, sharing the one space, live performance, etc.
We never know our future, but I hope and believe that we will never give up on the actual live performances and festivals that many companies gather at once to share the space and love.
As we learn from the programm notes, you are inspired by folk tales in your piece Pythagorean Peas, which you will stage as part of the Istanbul Fringe festival. What do fairy tales mean to you and how did you approach fairy tales in this piece?
Talking about this piece specifically, I used a lot of fairy tales in our creative process to dig deep about each of our inner children, but they are not necessarily used in the piece itself as a storyline.
Our Cinderella is a job-less alcoholic lady who has never gone outside of her room for over ten years.
Our Snow White is abused by her husband and is a prostitute.
And our grandma has severe dementia, etc…..
So I would say this piece is not ‘about’ the fairy tales. Everyone has their own memories with fairy tales including the audience members, and I believe that this piece will allow us to travel back to our childhood and move forward with the sensation of being vulnerable self as a kid.
If you had to translate Pythagorean Peas into a single sentence, what would that sentence be?
See yourself gently and closely, then accept it.
What does ‘Fringe’ signify for you?
Generally speaking, fringe sounds not so important since it is not the core of things, however, these fringes enrich our lives. It decollates our lives more colorful with such layers and adds more joy to our lives.
Performing arts is not food nor oxygen, we would not die if we don’t take in performing arts. But these fringes will shine our life.
Why did you decide to participate in the Istanbul Fringe festival particularly with this work of yours?
I was always looking for a chance to connect with people and share the space using our art form. I have known this festival for a while and it is such an honor to be a part of it.
We human beings want to be heard and accepted. As I mentioned above, this piece particularly focuses on our own vulnerabilities. Revealing our weaknesses is challenging. Being seen and witnessed will be a big part of this piece as well. We also want to listen and take in the audience presence and voice while we perform. It’s a conversation, we, unfortunately, do not speak Turkish, but I hope we can talk to each other through this piece so that I can feel your vulnerabilities as well.
I wanted to test the power of humanity by sharing the piece in a different country and culture.
(We have performed this piece in France before and got completely different feedback from the US. I am interested in how people process and take things in here (Istanbul). You can dislike it and feel free to let us know! Sharing is a big part of our process.)
I truly appreciate this opportunity at Istanbul Fringe Festival, and I would like to thank all of the people involved in this project.
Thank you very much.
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