Introduction

By Daisuke Tomita

The English and French words Pacific/Pacifique are etymologically linked to peace/paix. In the 2015 culminating performance of Régine Chopinot’s Dance Song Music Project, PACIFIKMELTINGPOT, performers face each other on either side of the stage. They vary in build, skin-colour, and speak a spectrum of languages from islands across Oceania. The performance gets underway with a ball being rolled across to the far side of the stage. Interestingly, the French word balle designates a “bullet.” While each and every human being has red blood flowing through their veins, they nonetheless fight over outward differences such as skin colour and language, as well as more generic differences such as ethnicity and nationality. Irrespective of how the Pacific islands to which they belong interlink on the ocean bed, the islanders still dispute about everything visible on land and sea. In her writings in this book, Chopinot remarks that “artistic imagination is the power to see in these superficial, and apparently remote things, an inner, resonant relationship.

[…]

In my view, such artistic imagination can be put to good use in the creative process by learning to love our uniqueness. In particular, with regard to PACIFIKMELTINGPOT, Chopinot affirmed that she “choreographed” the piece even before embarking on the creation in 2015. More than ever, this entailed having to confront the uniqueness of each individual member of the PMP cast; they couldn't simply be pigeonholed as “Kanak” or “Japanese. In her essay included in this book, she further states that the vital challenge for any artist/choreographer is to perceive the lingering glow, that unbridled wildness, which nature has gifted certain people. She strives to render accessible this “wildness” even to the general public by harnessing it. As many commentators point out, the French verb apprivoiser is a key word in Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince, where it signifies “to create a bond” or “to need one another.” In the Japanese edition, as translated as by Nozaki Kan, it is translated as “to tame.”

The PACIFIKMELTINGPOT Community
Toward a Time and Space of Polyphonic Inclusion

By Megumi Takashima

At the performance of PACIFIKMELTINGPOT / In Situ Osaka in 2013, the differences in physicality between performers from different cultural and geographical backgrounds were easy to grasp. Their physical strength, their ability to jump, the powerful a cappella singing, the improvisational interplay, the musical rhythms integrated with body movements were all deeply captivating. And yet, such a presentation tends to fall into a multiculturalist harmony, settling for, as it were, a politically correct affirmation of mutual respect for diversity and difference. Following an impromptu session in which all performers participated, the performance culminated in a festive mood with dancing, fun, and audience participation. I couldn't help but feeling uncomfortable, however, at that fabricated “narrative” with a happy and peaceful ending.

In addition to the risk of exploitation posed by asymmetries in the relationships between Euro-American choreographers and non-Euro-American performers, there is also that danger that, in the prevailing context of consumer capitalism and the global marketplace of art including dance, the differentiation of what is local will be staged as a “symbol,” turning it into a mere “commodity” to be consumed and distributed,” or even spruced up as a resourceful tourist attraction. From the 1990s on, there has been a trend in contemporary art, as well as across the performing arts such as dance and theatre, for artists to create works from a multiculturalist perspective and to employ an anthropological cultural approach. The respective merits and demerits of such an approach have given cause to much debate.

The sense of discomfort I felt at the presentation by the three Japanese performers onstage was not limited to the disjointed and floating nature of their physical presence, when contrasted with performers from the other two Pacific regions. Had they been merely presented as an ordinary, independent trio, I wouldn’t have been that conscious of their Japanese sense of physicality. Forces at work, however, made the audience perceive performers bodies within a specific cultural framework of assimilation and exclusion, of belonging to a particular nation and an ethnic group. Naturally, the individual body is by no means neutral and transparent; rather, it is political, for it has already been burdened with a multitude of cultural, social and historical baggage. While acknowledging their uniqueness and their respective differences, how is it feasible to create a true “melting pot” without having to reduce it to a framework of nationality, race, ethnicity, or gender, but instead by pursuing individual physical interaction, seeking common ground and banishing boundaries? As a dance piece, this would represent much more than just an accomplishment; it would be a critical presentation of the society in which we actually live. We will have to wait for the forthcoming performance of PACIFIKMELTINGPOT in two years’ time in order to see how we can arrive at that stage.

Excerpts from Daisuke Tomita ed. A Journey of Body Sense: Dance Artist Régine Chopinot and the PACIFIKMELTINGPOT. Japanese text published by Osaka University Press, 2017, pp.12-14, 33-34.

Translation: John Barrett

Daisuke Tomita

Professor of Sociology at Otemon Gakuin University, Ph.D. from Kobe University. He is involved in research, education and production of performing arts such as dance and theatre. His major projects and appearances include: RADIO AM Kobe 69 Hours: A Chronicle of an Earthquake Report (Kobe University Centennial Hall), PACIFIKMELTINGPOT (“BIRD” Theatre Festival, National Stage– Reims, etc.), The Show Must Go On (Sainokuni Saitama Arts Theatre), Cornucopiae (Centre Georges Pompidou, Opéra de Montpellier, etc.), and his articles include “Tatsumi Hijikata's Theory of Psychosomatic Relations” Buyogaku, Vol. 35), “The Mechanism of Kinetic Euphoria in Paul Valéry” (Bigakugeijutsugakuronshu, Vol. 6), and co-author of Machikaneyama Boy: A Laboratory of Memory Connecting University and Community through Art (Japanese texts published by Osaka University Press). etc. https://researchmap.jp/dtomita

Megumi Takashima

Art and performing arts critic. Researcher at the Research Center for Art Resources, Kyoto City University of Arts. She has written a series of reviews on contemporary art and performing arts for the web magazine artscape (https://artscape.jp/). She has also organized exhibitions, notably Project ‘Mirrors’: Tomoko Inagaki's solo exhibition: Opening the Hazama (Kyoto Art Center, 2013) and egØ: Reconsidering the “Subject” (punto, Kyoto, 2014).

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