Tokyo-born dancer Ayumi Toyabe built her dance career in Europe where she first experienced performing butoh. In 2018 she travels back home with an idea to shoot a short dance video in the nature, introducing herself to the shapes around her, and feeling her bare feet (re)connecting with this now foreign but deeply familiar soil.
Directing: Ayumi Toyabe
Cinematography: Yuki Morioka
Dancer: Ayumi Toyabe
Editing: Ayumi Toyabe
Music: Coming Home by Borrtex from Free Music Archive
Release date: September 2018
Cinematography: Yuki Morioka
Dancer: Ayumi Toyabe
Editing: Ayumi Toyabe
Music: Coming Home by Borrtex from Free Music Archive
Release date: September 2018
Artist Interview: Ayumi Toyabe
Ayumi Toyabe details
IntervieW Transcript: Ayumi Toyabe
I am curious to know what SATO means?
Ayumi Toyabe: SATO means home…. Home city, or home country… It’s related to nature….. SATO. In 2018 you went back to Japan to first time perform as a contemporary dancer there? Ayumi Toyabe: It was not really to perform but … I wanted to somehow try and do what I do in Europe in my home country. But I don’t know the art community there so I started to think about this video project. Because that way even though I don’t have a place to perform or a dance community, I could find a way to do contemporary dance in Japan, … even though not on stage. When you came to Japan, you reconnected with your high school friend, Yuki Morioka. Is she an artist herself, a cinematographer? Ayumi Toyabe: No… actually not... I wanted to have someone who could help me to record. But since I don’t have any dance community in Japan it was hard to find someone to help, and someone who could understand what is dance and what I am doing in Europe. So it was hard. But I remembered I have this friend, we were in the same high school and she was taking pictures…. But not video… In my mind she was the only one that relates to camera. So, just to give it a try, I asked her if she could help me record. I never had an experience of dancing in the nature in Japan. And she had no experience recording, and especially recording dancers. It was totally first time for her. So we were both beginners for this challenge but I thought let’s just play and see what happens. We also didn’t have much time. Because the time is limited… how long I can stay in Japan. So we could meet only that day. And then also, the place was a question… where would be good to do it. I wanted to dance in the nature in Japan. Even though I didn’t have any concrete idea about the video, I had this image of nature. So I googled, and It’s close to Tokyo this park. It’s not really famous or popular place, and this is what we were looking for because if there were many people it would be difficult to record or to dance. It would be unusual for people who live there. Why was connecting with the nature important for you? Ayumi Toyabe: This interest came from my experience with butoh. One teacher in Budapest was teaching body awareness dance and suggested we do a solo dance piece for me… which was essentially a butoh performance. What we made was related to nature. In butoh I am human but if I follow exercises I can somehow become a part of nature, … I was practicing to have this feeling… Of connection with the nature...being one with the nature? Ayumi Toyabe: Yes… and not just Ayumi. Is what we are seeing in the video a butoh performance? Ayumi Toyabe: I chose this place because of this past experience. I could imagine that Japan has different type of nature compared to Europe. I wanted to feel it with my body. I didn’t have any idea what I will do or which kind of movement; it was total improvisation. I just wanted to trust my body and see what happens. Because video also didn’t have any sound. I’m curious about the sound choice. It does feel like the sound was added in post-production; that the original performance didn’t happen with the sound, or with a particular sound in mind. I was wondering whether at some points you were considering whether to add artificial sound at all or rather use the atmos sounds recorded on site? Ayumi Toyabe: Hmmmm … Yes this music part was always question for me…. But, I think because it was the first visit to the place I wanted to listen, to collect information from the environment. It was difficult to move without music but I wanted to really focus on the movement, to listen to my body. But it took time to really listen to the nature because I felt that big nature can take my energy. If I knew this place from before, maybe it would be different because I would know what I can do. So was it on the day of the shoot that you first went to this place? Ayumi Toyabe: Yes totally first time. And how long were you shooting for? Ayumi Toyabe: I think two hours or something. We recorded for few minutes, maximum five minutes in one place then moved to the other place. I chose that park because it had greens, and also had some kind of line, like street that I could imagine using with my dance… And also it had water, a pond. It was a good combination for me when I think about combination of nature and dance. And what was the purpose of the props that you used? Ayumi Toyabe: I brought stones… one normal stone and two crystal. I had some memory of my childhood with these stones. They were not from the site, I brought them from home. I had them since I was ten or twelve years old. I wanted to try bringing personal items to the new environment and use them with my movement. And the movement could be like a bridge between new place (the nature) and my personal stuff which is in Japan even though I am not living in Japan. And the hat? Ayumi Toyabe: The hat was by Yuki. By chance she had this hat. And in the recording process I suggested to use it. There is a lot you can do with a hat… When I started to think about the hat it came to my mind I should use bare foot, I should focus on the details of my body parts … fingers and toes. I cannot really explain why. Maybe feeling the ground… Ayumi Toyabe: Yes, that was also a really big point. How would you describe butoh? Ayumi Toyabe: Butoh… For me… Yeah… it is hard to say in clear words… But something I experienced in the previous dance piece is that somehow through butoh I could be a different thing… not so much a different person… but different… could be nature, could be table or any object. I am still really a beginner of butoh but I had a chance to work with a butoh master who visited Budapest and I asked him why dancers put the white paint on their body. Because this was a strong image of butoh for me. He told me they do it because it means that we can make things plain. As a human now I am Ayumi, one person, but because of this paint it can be totally plain… Like erased... from what you have been, so you can become ... Ayumi Toyabe: Yes exactly… So this stage is a welcome for other things to come. So I’m open for this. It helps create the situation to become something else. When you perform butoh in this natural environment, do your movements echo the space? Ayumi Toyabe: I felt really sensitive performing there so I think these movements came naturally. I didn’t plan to make them. You were responding? Ayumi Toyabe: Yes I felt like maybe I am communicating with the nature. As if introducing myself through my body parts. And maybe the nature was also responding. And coming back to my question about the choice of music…. You said you were not sure what to use …. Ayumi Toyabe: Yes I was wondering if we should use the nature sounds because we took some sounds of the wind and the leafs on site… But when I checked the video with that sound from the park, I didn’t really see it work… I wanted to have a little bit more of a story…. If I want to make this a dance video, I need to have a bridge to connect my movement, and the nature, and the way I edited it … and make it one dance video. So this music was really a key and it took time… It is hard to find it and say: ok this is the best song for this movement and this environment. I was also thinking about making the sound, maybe using instruments or even my voice but I didn’t have much time. I had one aim - that I wanted to finish this editing while still in Japan. I somehow felt I have to; I have to make this work while still in Japan. And how much time did you have? Ayumi Toyabe: Hmmmm…. I think about one week. I worked on it everyday. Music part was the most difficult. Finding the right thing you mean? Ayumi Toyabe: Yes… I listened to a lot of music. I decided to use something that already exists. And also, I wanted to use music which is copyright free. Usually it is not easy to find what I feel is best from those limited options. But luckily I found it. Maybe I had several options that might be good. Sound has such a big effect, even the same edit with different sound looks totally different. You said that Yuki is not a professional cinematographer and never before recorded dance. Yet what she’s done would fool me, it looks great and I thought that actually she might have been giving you tips on how to move with camera in mind, and to keep in mind that you are moving within the frame and that things will be edited in particular way. But I now assume that you have been instructing her how to direct the camera…. Ayumi Toyabe: Yes exactly… Yes…. I had several experiences making showreels for auditions so I had a bit of an experience of which angle I would like to have, or which dynamic…. So I had several images in mind… And if I could do it myself, record it myself, it would be the best, I thought, cause I would know clearly. So it was challenging for me. But she was open to listen to me, to what I would like. And I would also ask her if she had some idea even though she didn’t have an experience working with dance. … I asked her to try and record as she does usually when taking pictures. She usually takes portraits so it is totally different work but I felt that she knows how to put people in the frame. I thought it would help to tell her that she does not need to think that she needs to follow me, or that she needs to record movement. That she can just follow her idea as she would when taking portraits. … But in the end, it naturally came to her to start moving. That almost sounds like she was performing as well… She started to move in a butoh style almost, in connection to the object she was holding… She become a camera eye…. Ayumi Toyabe: That is true… Yes… I think so...I cannot really imagine now that she had no experience recording dance. The choice to have black and white combined with colour... is that something you had in mind before shooting, or did the idea come while editing? Ayumi Toyabe: Actually… when I was recording I had this idea that although this is a big nature it could be black and white… I wanted to somehow make it simple and colours could be too much information. There was an option to make it all black and white but when I was editing I felt that maybe I can combine. And I also felt that because I am using black and white, once the colour is introduced to the same place we will feel how much energy nature has or can bring. Coming to you as a dancer... What is for you the most interesting thing about putting dance on screen and thinking about cinematic language for dance? Ayumi Toyabe: For me dancing for camera is a little bit different energy from the one I use on stage because if I make dance video this video can stay forever. Any time we can see what I did, in which kind of environment, which day…. When I started working with visual artists I was very curious what they are thinking when they record dancers. That’s why I wanted to try to work with them… Not so much that I wanted to dance in front of camera but I was interested in people that were working with camera and were interested in dancers. Has your on-stage practice changed since you tried dancing for camera? Do you think differently when you perform live now? Ayumi Toyabe: Hmmmm…. Actually yes… Because I had this experience of dancing for camera I can see my dance on screen. Normally, when I am dancing on stage, I cannot see myself from the outside but because of this camera work I can see it from the outside. So I started to see which light, which angle, which environment makes my movement more interesting, or more deep, or can create a different atmosphere. You told me you had some experience editing your dance showreels even before you made a ‘proper’ dance video. Do you think there is a similarity between dance and editing, because there is a rhythm to editing? Ayumi Toyabe: Aha… yes … yes… exactly… I think so… That’s why I’m enjoying it. It’s really like I make an improvisation work with my body. It’s really same, or similar. |
"Because this was my first visit to the place, I wanted to listen and collect information from the environment. It was difficult to move without music but I wanted to really focus on the movement, to listen to my body." |