"KOKO DOKO"
Premiere: Oct. 2006 / La Ferme du Buisson Paris
Duration: 60 Min.
a Production by Ludica. & Kubilai Kahn Investigations
Choreografie/Dance: Ikue Nakagawa, Frank Micheletti, Morgan Narrt
Visual Art: Naoko Tanaka
Live-Music: Miguel Constantino (Audiopixel)
Co-produced by La Ferme du Buisson, Paris, the Grand Théâtre de la Ville, Luxembourg and the tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf
In collaboration with Commedia Futura, Hannover
Promoted by the Office for Culture of the state capital Düsseldorf, the Kunststiftung NRW and the Prime Minister of the Nordrhein-Westfalen
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |
The question “Koko Doko – where is here?” is being formulated in an experimental way on stage and by the stage itself. It refers to the traditional 12th century Japanese architecture style known as “shindenzukuri”: a big, open room with no separating walls or fixed partitions. According to requirements or circumstances (seasons, guests, etc.) the room was adjusted harmoniously by moving Tatami mats or mobile walls – a kind of staging. The room makes life possible and protects it, and at the same time the room is a product of its inhabitants, always changing.
Everything here is laid open: movement and manipulation, light and shadow, music and projections. All making is visible on stage. And in spite (or because) of that, what happens here is like a philosphy of creation or like a dream of appearing and disappearing, of forward and backward, of colour and emptiness, being here and away.
The dance, the images, the views and looks and sounds will tell stories from outside and inside the room. Their threads will cross each other like the lines in a crystal. Memories are spaces, too.
Tour
12.03.2010; Theatre de La Licorne, Cannes/Frankreich
13. und 14. Mai 2008; D.FAB Riga/Lettland
im Rahmen des deutschen Kulturmonats in Lettland O!VACIJA
21.- 23. Februar 2008; UsineC, Montreal/Canada (Festival "Temps d Images")
13. - 15. Februar 2008; La Comedie de Clermont Ferrand/Frankreich
05. Februar 2008; Theatre Aragon; Tremblay en France/Frankreich
29. und 30. Januar 2008; Theatre du Saulcy, Metz/Frankreich
12. Mai 2007; tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf (Festivals"Tanz NRW 2007")
09. bis 11. November 2006; tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf (Festival "Temps d Images")
21. und 22. Oktober 2006; Premiere im La Ferme du Buisson, Noisiel/Frankreich (Festival "Temps d Images")
24. September 2006; Preview im Theater in der Eisfabrik, Hannover
04. bis 08. September 2006; "Open Studios" im Theater in der Eisfabrik, Hannover
(Festival "TANZtheater International")
17. August 2006; "Open Studio" im tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf
PRESS
Abandon Firm Ground
In the beginning the light arranged precisely by Naoko Tanaka on a wooden construction suspended over the dance floor was based on Japanese floor mats or Tatamis.
An invitation to abandon firm ground. About 40 visitors in the sold-out Studio 6 of the Tanzhaus NRW intently follow the piece “Koko Doko” (“Where is here?”), a production of the group Ludica (choreography: Morgan Nardi, media art: Naoko Tanaka) and the company Kubilai Khan Investigations, which is part of the Temps d’Images Festival.
Five participants play on the stage, which is decorated with neutral white curtains – an ideal projection surface for the dancers Ikue Nakagawa and Frank Micheletti (Kubilai Khan Investigations). While Nardi and Tanaka operate the projector and lights, Miguel Constantino accompanies the dance installation using guitar and effects devices with subtle arrangements that vary from tender to aggressive. The decision of which optical attractions to follow is already forced on the viewer in the first few minutes. The apparent? The real? The films, which are initially projected on small pieces of fabric, grow on larger backgrounds and mix with the accessories carried by the participants into these prepared images. Are the monumental shadows forming on the back wall the event, or the actors in the foreground? The latter leave the stage again and again, as if washed in or blown out.
The scenes develop fluidly; a prism held into the light provokes a spontaneous scene change – it casts a picture of two skiers, which is initially tiny. This theme is also addressed through dance, and the observer effortlessly adjusts to the new image. It is enjoyable to follow the densely packed ideas associatively rather than narratively. The excitingly staged theme “light and shadow” ends with the use of a small lamp, which illuminates Nakagawa’s heart before the audience and artists find themselves surrounded by woods again. A beautiful image – after many other beautiful ones.
Regina Matthes, Westdeutsche Zeitung Düsseldorf, 11 November 2006