Minako Seki

Minako Seki

Minako Seki ( Japanese 関 み な 子 , Seki Minako ; * in Tomitsu , Nagasaki Prefecture ) is a German-Japanese dancer, choreographer, performance artist and lecturer in contemporary dance. She is the director of the Minako Seki Company and co-director of the Berlin Post School of Physical Theater-Dance . She is one of the pioneers of Butoh in Europe.

Life

education

During her training as a primary school teacher in the early 1980s, Minako Seki first encountered modern Japanese theater and expressive dance . After completing her studies in 1983, she began studying acting and dance for two years and joined the KSEC Ensemble in Nagoya . She first learned from Anzu Furukawa and Tetsuro Tamura and became a member of the Tokyo Butoh dance company "DanceLoveMachine", under the direction of Maro Akaji .

Together with other ensemble members of the “DanceLoveMachine” she traveled to Europe in 1986, at the invitation of the Künstlerhaus Bethanien she came to Berlin in 1987, where she settled and founded the company “tatoeba-Théâtre Danse Grotesque” together with Delta Ra'i and Yumiko Yoshioka - the first Japanese-German Butoh ensemble to date.

Seki deepened the distinctive style of “tatoeba” in around 50 productions as a dancer, choreographer and director and received recognition for her work on international stages. Since 1996 she has been working successfully internationally under her own name, based in Berlin.

Teaching

In addition to her artistic work, she is involved in teaching at art colleges and universities, dance workshops and cultural centers throughout Europe, Asia, South America and the Middle East (including many years in the Tanzfabrik / Berlin ). She received u. a. Teaching assignments at the Danish "teatret cantabile 2" (School of Stage Arts, Vordingborg), at the state Akademi for Scenekunst and the Akademi for Figurteater in Norway, at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies in Giessen , at the Alanus University for Art and Society in Alfter, as well as at the Folkwang Hochschule Essen (2010), the University of Hamburg in the field of performance studies and most recently in 2013 at the summer academy of the University of Arts in Social Sciences, Ottersberg . For the past 20 years she has led workshops in u. a. Santiago de Chile, Frankfurt / Main, London and Antwerp, New York, Buenos Aires and San Francisco.

plant

style

Seki's dance style is open and multi-layered, in addition to the classic butoh and other trends in modern Japanese expressive dance, elements of other dance forms such as contact dance , break dance , capoeira , tango and physical theater can be found in her work. She developed her own dance technique, which she calls "Dancing Between". The space “in between” is the actual place of the action. According to a mind game of meditation, according to which it is a task to find the space between two thoughts, in dance there are points, steps and moments between the movements.

“There is this gap. There are infinitely many points between two points. This is how I deal with dance. Dancing means looking for movement. My goal is to create an illusion for the viewer through my own imagination. We all live in our respective interpretations of the world. Therefore, I would like to communicate with the people who experience my dance using these different interpretations. "

The dancer hangs on a virtual thread in space, instead of moving, he is moved by vibrations between the geocenter and the universe.

Subjects and artistic approach

Many of her pieces are thematically in the tradition of the Butoh and are inextricably linked with its performative body concept. The body as a permeable membrane in which there is no clear separation between the inner and outer world. In terms of content, the works deal with basic existential questions about death and pain, love and destruction, but also with becoming, ecstasy and metamorphosis. Transformation, processuality and development are leitmotifs in her work. Playing with the uncertainty of supposedly distinct borders between reality and illusion, consciousness and subconscious in the physical and immaterial sense runs like a red thread through her work.

The Japanese dancer and writer Tatsumi Hijikata describes this entanglement of physical, emotional and performative processes in the Butoh:

“ There is something hidden in our subconscious that is stored in our unconscious body that will appear in every detail of our expression. Here we can turn back time with a deadly elasticity. Here we can find Butoh, in the same way that we can find our invisible reality. Something can be born, appear, live and die in the same moment. "

Choreographies (selection)

own productions from 1996

• 1999 imagine I for theater imaginaire, Bremen
• 1999 SCHICHT , Solo, Gustav Gisiger (visuals) and Zam Johnson (music)
• 2000 noisY garden, solo, music by Zam Johnson
• 2001 EX ORIENTE LUX , Berlin with Inga Schrader, Gustav Gisiger (visuals) and Zam Johnson (music)
• 2002 Dancing Between , original version as a trio with Anita Barros Moreira, Yuko Kaseki, Zam Johnson (music)
• 2002 Glass Anatomies in collaboration with adapt, Berlin
• 2003 dance fondue , Tanzfabrik Berlin
• 2003 The Way to the Hidden Garden in collaboration with adapt, Sapporo / Japan
• 2003-2007 Dancing Between , Solo
• 2004 Zoom In , improvisation series, Berlin
• 2005 Borderless Split Brain , Berlin Workshop of Cultures ,
• 2006 Memories To Undressed Persons , piece for five dancers, music: Zam Johnson, Neue Nationalgalerie , Berlin
• 2007 modulations , trio
• 2008 Tenkai - Der Himmelsweg , duo with Willem Schulz
• 2008 The Undercover Elephant , Trio, physical theater with Elias Cohen, Nils Willers, Zam Johnson (music)
• 2009 Into Embodiment , Solo
• 2009 Second Sleep , Duo (with Willem Schulz, work by the video artist Chan-Sook Choi and Joon-Sik Shin)
• 2010 DORODORO Quarks , duo, music: Zam Johnson. In collaboration with Yuko Kaseki and co-director Marc Ates .
• 2011 Caos Sensible , Duo, Music: Zam Johnson. Centro Cultura del Matadero, Huesca, Spain
• 2011 Far from Thought , Solo, Music: Zam Johnson. Übersee-Museum Bremen
• 2011 Human Form 1 , solo, music: Zam Johnson. Museo de Caixa Forum / Barcelona
• 2011 Physical Meeting , Trio, Music: Zam Johnson. in collaboration with Ming Poon and Gonzalo Catalinas. Mica Moca, Berlin
• 2012 Forming , Duo with Ming Poon, International Dance Festival Ingolstadt and 2013: 100 ° Festival Berlin and XII. International Contemporary Dance Festival / Cadíz en Danza
• 2013 Insect , Solo, Diagonale 5 / Gütersloh

As a (guest) choreographer and artistic director

• 1996 opera The Final Solution by Peter Michael Hamel
• 1996 Homosapiens , teatret cantabile2 / Denmark
• 1997 Alzheimer , teatret cantabile2 / Denmark
• 1997 Dogman , teatret cantabile2 / Denmark
• 1997 Equinox Terminal , Antagon Theater / Frankfurt am Main
• 1997 Pentotal , teatret cantabile2 / Denmark
• 1998 Human Form , Antagon Theater / Frankfurt am Main
• 1998 Osmotic Cosmos
• 2009 vaYven , Teatro Oráculo / Chile
• 2010 1534 , Hebbel am Ufer (HAU2) / Berlin, on behalf of Showcase Beat le Mot
• 2010 Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten , on behalf of Showcase Beat le Mot, Theater an der Parkaue / Berlin
• 2010 Le Cadavre Exquis , Commedia Futura ice cream factory / Hanover

Prizes and awards (selection)

• 2001 Kurt Jooss Prize nomination (choreography) solo piece "Shift"
• 2001 “Best Solo” in the dance category - euro-scene Leipzig Festival of contemporary European theater
• 1994 Max Ophüls Prize , predicate particularly valuable - Saarbrücken Film Festival for Ju-ni hitoe or discovering the soul
• 1993 scholarship from the Berlin Senate - cultural funding for Berlin artists

Stage design and costumes

Clothing plays an important role in her productions; it is an essential part of the narrative aspects of the stage. Seki uses her own designs as well as costumes that were created in close cooperation with the German-Japanese costume designer and artist Mido Kawamura . Both share a similar concept of space and the idea of ​​space in the performing arts.

music

Seki works closely with contemporary musicians and composers, and many of her pieces have been accompanied by works by the American musician and composer Zam Johnson .

Ensemble and collaborations

Minako Seki worked in various dance ensembles, including a. in DAIRAKUDAKAN, DanceLoveMachine, Tatoeba - Théâtre Danse Grotesque (1987–1996) with Yumiko Yoshioka and Sayoko Onishi, since 1997 director and ensemble member of the Minako Seki Company.

Seki's work is cross-art and strongly interdisciplinary. In the past she has worked with renowned artists from the fields of dance and visual arts, with musicians and artists from other disciplines, and others. a. with Peter Michael Hamel , Sven Väth , Elliott Sharp , NU Unruh ( Einstürzende Neubauten ), Zam Johnson , Dudu Tucci , Nils Willers, Johannes Hitzblech , Gustav Gisiger, Nullo Facchini, Uwe Renken, Feridun Zaimoglu , Martin-Karl Wagner, Jens Winter , Yumiko Yoshioka, Schiller , Bremer Kammerorchester, Dani Karavan , Yuko Kaseki, Willem Schulz, Elias Cohen, Chansook Choi, Mi-Kuni, Miranda Markgraf, Ming Poon, Helmut Diez , Showcase - Beat le Mot and many more.

Seki Method

During the last 20 years Minako Seki has summarized the experiences from her artistic work and the intellectual examination of her own roots, the findings of modern brain research and classic Asian thought traditions in a training method and her own movement language.

She teaches the Seki Method as a kind of holistic mindfulness practice , through which observation and concrete experience of basic physical principles should be made tangible on one's own body.

The laws of the body in space that can be experienced in practice, such as B. the effects of gravity - falling, hanging, flowing - aim at an open, sensitized perception of one's own body. Last but not least, the perception training aims to eliminate the artificial separation of body and mind , the left and right hemispheres of the brain in the artistic creative process.

A key concept in understanding the method is the concept of tan den energy. Tan-Den (in TCM Dan-Tian) is an energy point in the area of ​​the abdomen / Hara ( 腹 , belly, stomach), in traditional Japanese medicine it embodies the “center of being” and is at the same time the seat of the soul.

Not only in the Japanese martial arts like Aikidō the importance of the body center as a power point is emphasized, in breathing exercises the attention is directed specifically to Hara / Tan-Den and considered as the starting point and origin of the movement.

As in the Butoh, there are also therapeutic aspects in the Seki method, the principles of which can be transferred to other types of physical expression (dance, drama, movement therapy , motopedia, etc.). Echoes of this can be found in various traditional Asian practices ( yoga , Tàijí Quán , Qigong ).

See also

• Modern dance theater

Filmography

• 2012 Minako Seki. Documentary by Nicolas Clément, Kathy Contreras Manzanilla, trailer
• 2005 Hiroshima. The Bomb, Who Changed the World. (BBC / ZDF), short documentary by Paul Wilmshurst
• 1997 The Silent Clips. Lacrimosa . Short film (choreography)
• 1994 Ju-Ni Hitoe or the discovery of the soul. Director: Jutta Ohlenberg. (Actress and choreography)
• 1993–2005 short music films. Lacrimosa, videos (choreography)

Web links

• official page
• Directory of international Butoh artists (in English)
• www.physicaltheater.net
• Zam Johnson

literature

• Literature by and about Minako Seki in the bibliographic database WorldCat
• Michael Haerdter, Sumie Kawai: Butoh - The Rebellion of the Body. A dance from Japan. A publication by the Künstlerhaus Bethanien. Alexander Verlag, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-923854-22-6 .
• Irene Sieben: Nachtseiten: new pieces in the Berlin dance autumn . In: Tanz aktuell. Year 8, No. 1, Jan./Feb. 1993, pp. 46-47.
• Feridun Zaimoglu, Raimund Driesen, Minako Seki: Wandelgrat . In: Förderverein Kulturlandschaft Niederlausitz (Ed.): III. Europe Biennale Niederlausitz 1995 . Cottbus 1997, ISBN 3-00-002567-7 , pp. 25-29.
• Tatsumi Hijikata, Doris Schweda: Butoh: collecting weakened bodies. (Lecture given on February 9, 1985, on the occasion of the first Butoh Festival in Japan). Schweda Verlag, 2001.
• Irene Sieben: With and without Tatami: Japanese Artists in Berlin. In: Tanzdrama Magazin. No. 67 (2002, No. 6), pp. 16-19.
• Herbert Nichols-Schweiger: Butoh - Clarifying Rebellion . Tanzlabor Graz: Texts - Conversations - Photographs. Graz 2003, ISBN 3-205-77161-3 .
• Constanze Klementz: The moving dancer. In: Berliner Morgenpost. April 13, 2005.
• Ute Goridis, Minako Seki. Dancing between. Portraits of successful Berliners by choice. In: City Guide Berlin exotic: City guide to cultures, kitchens, clubs: Individual discoveries and experiences in the capital. 2007, ISBN 978-3-8317-1623-4 , pp. 53-58.
• Minako Seki, Lucas Fester (Ed.): Dancing Between. Monograph. Berlin 2007.
• Ayelet Zohar: PostGender: Gender, Sexuality and Performativity in Japanese Culture. Cambridge 2009, ISBN 978-1-4438-0990-0 .
• Rachel Sweeney: Transferring principles: The role of physical consciousness in Butoh and its application within contemporary performance praxis. School of Performing Arts Middlesex University, 2009.
• Sondra Fraleigh: Butoh. Metamorphic Dance and Global Alchemy. University of Illinois, 2010, ISBN 978-0-252-07741-8 .
• Kenneth Robbins: The Healing Power of Butoh. In: Daniel Meyer-Dinkgrafe, Per Brask: Performing Consciousness. Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-1-4438-1634-2 , pp. 89 ff.
• Dorothée Lentz: Dance with Death. Dance therapy support after a death. Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-8325-2922-2 .
• Silke Erdmann: Demons, witches, terrifying coincidences: Aspects of the fantastic in the lyrical drama of the fin de siècle. Verlag Tectum, Marburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8288-8820-3 .
• Romina Achatz: The revolt of the body. Butoh as a political act. Dissertation project at the University for Artistic and Industrial Design Linz . 2012.
• Fernando Cid Lucas: Mujeres en la historia del teatro japonés: de Amaterasu a Minako Seki. (Volume 17, Collecció "Sendes"). Universidad Jaume I. 2012, ISBN 978-84-8021-857-3 .
• Bruce Baird: Hijikata Tatsumi and Butoh: Dancing in a Pool of Gray Grits. Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-230-12040-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wolfgang Dietrich: Variations on the many peace. Volume 2: Elicitive Conflict Transformation and the Transrational Turn of Peace Policy. Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-531-93089-3 , p. 233.
2. ↑ Conversation with the online culture magazine ArtiBerlin ( Memento of the original from March 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Constanze Klementz: The moving dancer. In: Berliner Morgenpost. April 13, 2005.
4. ↑ Tatsumi Hijikata: Letter to Nakajima Natsu. 1984, copy from Sondra Fraleigh's Butoh collection, cited from Sondra Fraleigh: Butoh. Metamorphic Dance and Global Alchemy .
5. ↑ [1]  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ Dance portraits by Anja Beutler ( Memento of the original from January 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ 50 years of Butoh - Radialsystem ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ↑ cokaseki - Yuko Kaseki & Marc Ates
9. ↑ Miranda Margrave
10. ↑ http://www.mingapur.de/
11. ↑ Minako Seki, Lucas Fester (Ed.): Dancing Between. Monograph. Berlin 2007.
12. ↑ cf. Karlfried Graf von Dürckheim: Hara. Barth, Munich 2012 and Yoshiharu Imai: East Asian medicine and Japanese massage . German translation by T. Kusazima. Tokyo 1964.
13. ^ Dorothée Lentz: Dance with death. Dance therapy support after a death. Berlin, 2011, ISBN 978-3-8325-2922-2 .
14. ↑ Ingrid Schmid Bergman: Silence and Emptiness - About the Butoh Dance and its points of contact with Qigong and Taijiquan. In: Helmut Oberlack: Finally Peace: Leading people into silence with Taijiquan and Qigong. Steinbergkirchen 2012, ISBN 978-3-9808747-9-3 .