hajime fujita: videos of his works

Structure/ Improvisation/ Multi-layered Phases

2010-10-11T08:12:00.000-07:00

ESMTC, Lisboa, 2010 with Miguel Leiria Pereira

f/f in Maus Hábitos

2008-07-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

"f/f in Maus Hábitos" in Oporto, Portugao, June. 2008 10"19

parole

2007-11-12T07:53:00.000-08:00

17min. (original version: 70min.) in shin-bi, Kyoto, 2006

Direction: Hajime Fujita
Choreography and Interpretation: Hajime FUjita / Meri Ohtoshi
Music: Hikaru Shimizu
Video: Yuki Netsu

“Parole” is Hajime Fujita’s represented work ever. This very simple but very thoughtful duo dance performance was presented in Tokyo and Kyoto in the beginning of 2006. Afterwards, in Japanese dance magazine “Engekijin”, one article remarked “Parole” and reviewed with long text.

Hajime Fujita and Meri Ohtoshi, two dancers’ very slow and sensitive movements, using a essence of contact inprovisation, with light electlonic music by Hikaru Shimizu and beautiful videos by Yuki Netsu. “Parole” tryed to reveal the our tiny and sensitive activity between our communications.

The biggest unique point of this piece is that dancers had not fixed the detail of movements. All of the movements were in-between choreographed and improvised. According that, all the moment, dancers were taking care of each partner. To realize the choreography, dancers needs a cooperation in the improvisation. Even small movements like one dancer goes up on the other’s body, they have to imagine how the partners thinking/feeling presicely. This is like a real converation: “Can I go on?”, “Sure.” So sometime they shows even hesitation.

The piece had also the unison part. But that is also not only to show the dynamics of the same movements of two dancers. Actually, what could be seen is the difference of two dancers. Fujita and Ohtoshi tryed to dance same movements, but unconsciously thier movements are involved by the backgrounds of each(how he/she has been studing dance, what kind of thechnique is his/her speciality, preferences a.o.). Hajime Fujita, started his career with the theater, and Meri Ohtosh, started her career with long time training of ballet, so they have totally defferent experiences. According, the difference of them is easily to be seen as the detail of the movements with unison.

hajime fujita in Ananil (f/f)

2007-11-12T06:42:00.000-08:00

8min. (original version: 35min.) 2007 in Festival Ananil in Motemor-o-Novo, Portugal

Direction/Interpretation: Hajime Fujita
Collaboration with Andreu Jacob

f/f is improvisaton dance project, which is core of all of Hajime Fujita’s dance works, and has been presented in several places (Reims, Motemor-o-Novo, Osaka, Kyoto and Yokohama) since 2001. The original theme is showing the existance of himself, not only showing “dance” or “performance”. To do that, he trys to be honest and to show everything what he feels/thinks/reminds.... on the each moment. So sometime he losts, he hesitates, even sometime he starts to speak

Recently, this piece is also involved by presenting in the alternative places. Especially, in the Festival Ananil in Motemor-o-Novo, Portugal, Fujita represented this piece on the path of country side besides old house, collaborating with Spanish musician, Andreu Jacob, was quite appreciated. All of the nature surrounding him affects his sence, and make the movements diverse and flexible. Also in the French momument, Palais du Tau, he danced in the outside place.

f/f in Palais du Tau

2007-11-12T05:19:00.000-08:00

"f/f in Palais du Tau" in Reims, France, Sep. 2007 9"37

dontdiemyfriendtommy -sound

2007-11-12T05:06:00.000-08:00

-10"00 This is a sound from my short piece called "dontdiemyfrinedtommy", which reading my experience in London.

   This small and short piece was presented in Oporto, 2007, which was based on Hajime Fujita’s personal experience in London. According to some incidents, he had to sleep on the street 2 nights there. And he encountered one old Scottish homelesness. This piece dedicates to him.

   Here is the text from Fujita’s diary:
   Last week, I was in London. It was terrible days. I could not find any place to stay for 2 nights, and I was sleeping on the street that 2 nights. The temperature on the morning in London was extremely cold for my body without any blanket either sleeping bag. I was lying down on the cardboard, shaking and thinking that “why I am here in this such a difficult situation...?” The answer was not coming up, but so many memories of my childhood was circling in my head.

   And I encountered one homeless person, Tommy, seemed over 40 years old, coming from Scotland to look for a job. He told me his story and how he is living there. He had a job in Scotland then, even had a SUZUKI-4WD. But one day the company cut him off, then he could not pay for his house any more. He had bought a train ticket with100 pounds and got to London 4 weeks ago. However, he has not been able to get a job, because none of companies employ a person who can not prove where he/she lives. So he has no way to escape from his situation.  He said, “I saw so many homeless people here in London. Some of them have been living more than 10 or 20 years as homeless. And most of them are alcoholics. I may be so too someday...” The government of UK just supports him small money to eat, not to live some place.

    As you know, London is very clean city and very controlled. But the cleanness exclude the dirty: poor people, aliens, minor religious....

   In the performance, he represented what he felt when he was lying on the street. First he came into the stage almost naked accompanying a tote bag with a lot of clothes. Then scattering those clothes, slowly pick up them and ware one by one. After, he took news papers out from the bag, spread them onto the floor, lay down on them with bending bodies and started to shaking, seemed really cold...

   As a background sound, he played recorded his voice talking about his experience. Though, Fujita did not mention cleary what the piece means. So some of spectators could not understand and pointed him with confusing or laughing. Actually, this is also the imitation of situation sometimes happnes on the street. Descrimination and misunderstanding to homelessness: descrimination and misunderstanding to excluded people. This piece was not quiet radical but seemed very simple, yet actually really political.

DANCEMINUTE

2007-11-11T07:52:00.000-08:00

These videos are hosted in DANCEMINUTE, my friend Monica's web site. Thank you Monica!!

Chalon-sur-Saone, France 22 Nov. 2007

Paf, France 21 Aug. 2007

***You need a Quicktime to see these videos. If nothing appeared, visit http://www.apple.com/quicktime/

one dance/one video/one day

2007-11-10T06:53:00.001-08:00

“One dance / one video / one day” is very simple video dance project. The idea is just taking one shot of short improvisation and update to the internet everyday. Like a diary, he took several videos in the French old building of Performing Arts Forum under the programme of SKITe/Sweet and Tender 2007 annual meeting.

This is quite simple action to be apart from the way of creating the piece based on any concept. What Hajime did was just being honext for the intitution of his artistic sense. Find a place, find a flame, find a time, find movements, all the process were improvised. Even there were no editing of video, just shows what happens there and then entirely.

On the internet, 7 versions of videos are avaiable to watch. These videos shows Fujita’s eye for the frame of screen as well. For instance, version. 21/8/2007 was shooted on the dark room with just one small desk light, which placed on the left of screen, behind dark green wall. The camera cut the wall very flat. And Fujita was almost naked and first starts to sit down the chair on the right of the screen. The frame of image is like the picture. Or the version. 16/8/2007 shows the sky of dawning with almost half of the screen.

one dance/one video/one day

2007-11-10T06:52:00.000-08:00

one dance/one video/one day

2007-11-10T06:51:00.000-08:00

PRESENTATION WITH MY PHOTOS

2007-11-10T06:46:00.000-08:00

I made this video to apply one program. For showing my important point of view, the video made with my photos, instead of my dance.

Review of “Parole”

2007-11-02T06:40:00.000-07:00

Review of “Parole”, Hajime Fujita dance performance

On the 4th of Jan. this year, I saw the dance performance called "Parole" created by Fujita Fujita (born in 1982, in Core-Shakkyo, Tokyo). He is quite a young choreographer and dancer, and has started to work while based in Kyoto. "Parole" is his 2nd self-produced performance in the area of Tokyo. The reason why I would like to speak about him is that he has neither excellent technique nor does he create very unique works. He has also stated: "My work is characterized in the neutral body, and the atmosphere and direction of 'in-between'. " What is interesting is the style of the duet and the way he creates the whole production.

First, the atmosphere of the production. When we were going into the space, dancers were stretching their bodies in the performance space (the stage). Though these sorts of things are not unique for productions held in this type of studio (not a theater), they are different from the other productions. The dancers did not concentrate much on the stretch; they were obviously paying attention to the audience without any tension. Ryo Iwamatsu (*1) was surprised with one perfromance of Chelfitsch in which the actors started to talk to spectators: "we would like to do [ ]." (a very concrete explanation of their actions on the stage). In an interview, Iwamatsu asked Toshiki Okada, the director of the Chelfitsch (*2), about the motivation of that choice. Okada replied: "I just wanted to be open." Fujita was also "open". He did not pretend that there were no spectators, but he obviously showed his curiosity for the spectators. 'Who is coming? How many people do we have now?' At the beginning I thought that attitude was very amateur. However, when show was finished, I understood that Fujita had decided on this attitude consciously.

The duo dance was also not tense. For instance, at the beginning, two dancers (Fujita and Ohtoshi) separated to the right and left of the stage, then each walked back to the other side again. What happens at the moment when they meet is not the conventional cliche of contemporary dance, like "running toward each other and crashing" or "walking through or beside each other and looking back at him/her". Without any attention for something special, they were just walking to the other, confronted each other, and put their backs together. Even keeping minimum tension, they were refusing to deliberately allow the illusion to occur. This duo piece had a lot of scenes which used unison and contact. In the unison there were many differences between Fujita and Ohtoshi, such as the way to use the accent and the angle of the neck, even though the choreography was the same. Usually, Ohtoshi selected the angle and adjusted the speed of her movements as "so-called dance", that let us feels the sophistication. Meanwhile, Fujita did not aggressively put himself into that kind of style. Although he completed the action of the choreography and controlled his body, without losing the weight and without make noisy movements, he also left his body the same as in his daily life. He seemed to place himself "in between". Additionally, in the scene using the technique of contact, the dancers were moving very slowly. Most of the movements themselves were not so unique, which usually we can see in a contact improvisation jam session. In one, Fujita was on hands and knees, and Ohtoshi went on his back and rolled. The point was in their concern and caring for one another in this movement, more than simply showing the movements. Looking to see what happens and taking care of each other, they moved very carefully. Because they moved very slowly, spectators could easily see their concern and care.

Generally, in dance productions, people have plenty of rehearsal, and show very clear movements in which the spectators do not notice the dancers' concern. So this scene was quite rare. Actually, there is something lost when dancers become able to understand each other with unspoken communication after the rehearsals. When dancers enter that state, their otherness among dancers will reduce. Then it is hard to see the communication with the others. To the spectator, such a group of dancers appears to be a community which is only dedicated to their work itself. Of course, because of the choreography, it is easy to expect what they will do next. Even so, Fujita and Ohtoshi tried to keep to think each other as unexpected existence.
When dancers try to make, among themselves, a sort of imaginary public space, "the place between the other and the other is birthed". Then spectators also can feel invited into that virtual public space. When the show was finished (though it was not clear when exactly it finished), two dancers, sitting on the floor of the stage, started a conversation together:

Ohtoshi: "Hajime, today is the final stage in Tokyo. How do you feel? What is your reaction?"
Fujita: "Hmmm...."
Ohtoshi: "You have nothing?"
Fujita: "This is a difficult piece...."

The sentences sounded little bit idiotic, but they were talking very seriously. Thus, the spectators could feel what they would say in their reaction to Fujita. Then Fujita continued, trying to be closer to the spectators. At the end, he started to say: "Actually this has not gotten good reactions but I would like to..." and asked spectators to tell him their names in a hesitant manner. When I was there, not one of nearly 20 spectators declined to speak. The staff of the video noted their names and passed their names to Fujita. He read each name out, bowed deeply and gave his appreciation to the spectators. Fujita attempted to adjust the relationship between himself, Ohtoshi and spectators, from an adversary relationship: from "community of creators -vs- spectators", to "public space", where all of them understood each other as an Other. A very relaxed atmosphere at the beginning, Fujita's dance left his non-dancing body as well as the choreography, which did not engender illusion. Every strategy worked in that adjustment.

"Parole" was quite a naive challenge as a whole. It gave us some hopes. I would like to encounter more performances like this one, which does not approve of the current situation of dance performance.

*1 Ryo Iwamatsu: Japanese well-known theater director, actor and cinema director.
*2 Chelfitsch: Japanese theater company. Recently they are appreciated and famous also in the dance field in Japan because of their very experimental works.

-Tohru Inakura, 15th March 2006 in Engekijin 22nd
(original version written in Japanese, translated by Hajime Fujita)

Profile of Hajime Fujita

2007-11-01T19:23:00.000-07:00

Hajime Fujita is choreographer and dancer. He was born in 1982 in Yokohama, Japan. He holds a BA in Peforming Arts from the Kyoto University of Arts and Design. He has received the danceWEB scholarship 2006 led by Mathilde Monnier and Loic Touze to participate in Impulstanz Festival in Vienna, and the Pointe to Point of the Asian Europe Foundation led by Simon Dove in Warsaw. In 2008, he was nominated for the Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative program. Currently he is participating in Programa de Estudo, Pesquisa e Criação Coreográfica in Forum Dança in Lisbon.

He has been working in Japan and Europe. Recently He choreographed two big projects; "Parole" & "This is my kindness". The former that was presented in 2006, received very positive reviews in the Japanese dance magazine. Since last year, He is working also in the European dance scene sharing a residency in Oporto, Portugal to create and perform pieces in 2006 and 2007 supported by local associations, Maus Habitos and 555. In 2007 he was in the Performing Arts Forum of Jan Ritsema in Reims participating in the SKITe/Sweet and Tender Project, a one month collaboration programme with Jean-Marc Adolphe. And in the presentation of that program in la Comedy Reims, he presented video installation piece called "visible/invsible" with Thelma Boavita from Brazil.

He loves very sensitive and poetic movements. He has strong intention to research around social and political issues rather than thinking only movements. He is motivated by the analytical thinking way, because of his study of the Phenomenology.

read more detail on Hajime Fujita Official web site