{"id":517,"date":"2019-12-03T19:32:55","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T19:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/?p=517"},"modified":"2022-02-05T13:34:47","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T13:34:47","slug":"creating-dance-with-elders-and-how-to-see-it-company-of-elders-in-the-festival-of-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/creating-dance-with-elders-and-how-to-see-it-company-of-elders-in-the-festival-of-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating Dance with Elders, and How to See It: Company of Elders in the World Gold Theatre Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Katsuhiko Sakaguchi<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The Company of Elders, produced by Sadler\u2019s Wells Theatre (U.K.), was invited by Saitama Arts Theatre (Japan) in 2018 as a model for dance companies which feature elderly performers. The article discusses how the triple bill by the company strived to explore the possibilities of creating dance by tapping into the physicality of the elderly performers, as well as how that challenge can be contextualised in the modern history of dance.
Keywords:<\/strong> dance, elderly performers, physicality, Company of Elders, creative process<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. A Dance Company of the Elderly<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The Cabinet office of Japan\nestimates that, in 2015, 26.6 percent of the country\u2019s population was of those over\n65, the highest rate in the world. The country\u2019s long-standing position at the\ntop of the world\u2019s life expectancy list has perhaps led to the impression that\nthe country is hospitable to the elderly. In actuality, while it is true that\nits national medical insurance service covers the entire population, Japan\u2019s\nmedical care system for senior citizens is riddled with problems at a time of\ndecreasing birth rate and aging population. The current administration strongly\nadvocates more elderly people working, with a clear political aim at reducing\nthe expenditure on the national pension scheme and medical care, raising the\nsuspicion that it is not serious about tackling the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art-sector participation by\nelderly people, on the other hand, is starting to take on various forms. Stage\nparticipation of older adults was the main agenda for the World Gold Theatre\nFestival, held by the Saitama Arts Theatre (SAT) in Autumn 2018. Theatre\ndirectors and companies engaged in theatre programmes and projects involving the\nelderly were invited from around the world to give performances, workshops and\nsymposiums. Its clear emphasis was on theatre made by the elderly as well as\nits social significance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAT\u2019s resident professional\ncompany, Saitama Gold Theatre (SGT), has put on ground-breaking performances\nsince its creation by the late Yukio Ninagawa, in 2006, soon after he was\ninaugurated into the office of the SAT artistic directorship. The company, with\nactors in their sixties and nineties, was at the centre of the Gold Theatre Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Japan has several\nsimilar active theatre companies consisting of older adults, which makes it\nsurprising that the country has had no dance companies with senior dancers. That\nwas one of the reasons why the Company of Elders (CoE), produced by Sadler\u2019s\nWells Theatre (U.K.), was invited as a model which SGT could look up to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is easy to imagine that\naging gives rise to difficulties for performers. The stronger emphasis on\nphysicality makes dance especially challenging for elderly performers. Because\nof this, elderly dancers, especially those over 70 years of age, draw our\nrespect. Just to see them dance is moving in itself. Dance can keep them\nhealthy and motivated. Obvious, however, is the fact that their participation alone\ndoes not automatically warrant artistic merit. Undeniably, we are likely to see\ndance pieces by elders within a certain, often predetermined frame of\nexpectation. The performances given by the CoE were examples of how performances\nby senior dancers can debunk that frame and be compelling enough to make us\nreconsider our possible prejudices against aged stage performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Creating with the Aged<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Sadler’s Wells Company of Elders, Fragments, Not Forgotten<\/em>. Photo: Maiko Miyagawa<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

CoE\u2019s performance was a triple bill, each session made by a different young choreographer. The first piece, Fragments, Not Forgotten<\/em>, was choreographed by Seeta Patel, who has a background in Indian traditional dance and contemporary dance. The dancers make each move as if to trace the fragments of their memories, never hurried, and with pauses and repetitions. It is hard to determine where their moves come from, but it is easy to see that the moves are deeply rooted in their physicality. As the ten or so dancers follow one single move, they start to go off synch, and rather than diminishing its artistry, the divergent movements make the piece all the more interesting. Those are most likely the moves that Patel must have drawn from her interaction with the dancers in the rehearsal\u2014the kind of moves that were not given to but extracted from the dancers\u2019 physicality. Pina Bausch and others have adopted this method, but it was even more effective in Patel\u2019s piece because of the age of the performers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sadler’s Wells Company of Elders, A Tentative Place of Holding<\/em>. Photo: Maiko Miyagawa<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The second piece, Adrianne Hart\u2019s A Tentative Place of Holding,<\/em> picks up pace with clearly choreographed movements, which were not too complicated, but with intermittent pauses and hiatuses. These pauses were strategically contextualized so as not to be received as being awkward. When dancers attempt an off-balanced move, instead of testing the limit as young dancers would do, they simply emphasise the imbalance by extending their arms and legs a little more than usual. They cannot risk taking a fall, of course, but in this piece these slight emphases were enough to make the moves effective. If younger performers had danced to the same choreography, the movements would have been much smoother, but then that would have been a totally different piece. This is a package with occasional naturally occurring hesitations and pauses calculated into the piece. Moreover, those \u201cawkward\u201d movements did not stop the flow, but rather varied the pace and even accelerated some moves. Hart must have had a full grasp of the physical possibility of her dancers and planned the choreography accordingly to create maximum artistic effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sadler’s Wells Company of Elders, Abyss.<\/em> Photo: Maiko Miyagawa <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Their last piece was Dickson Mbi\u2019s Abyss<\/em>. Mbi\u2019s background is hip hop, which requires not only agility but also sudden pace changes and a good sense of rhythm. Obviously, huge difficulties are posed for the elderly as a consequence, but the virtue of this piece is that Mbi did not expect this of his dancers. The dancers\u2019 powerful stomping on the floor defines the beat and drive. Then, they create a light upward motion with their arms as they stomp the beat. Their movements are not quick, but when the ten or more dancers move in one motion, the pace seems to pick up. They do not dance like young hip hop dancers, nor are they painstakingly trying to imitate their moves; inspired by and aspiring to the spirit of hip hop, they are using their limited agility and flexibility to its fullest. While what the title, Abyss<\/em>, suggests remained obscure, the performance turned out to be a wonderful fruit born out of the collaboration between them and Mbi.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three choreographers\nare of quite different feathers, but it was clear that the three pieces they\ncreated were a result of a very close collaborative process with the dancers. Time\nmust have been spent trying to understand their aged dancers\u2019 physicality and exploring\npossibilities through observation and dialogue, before they were able to give\nthe pieces their final shape. It was not just the choreographer dictating the\nmoves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Video 1<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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