While Shimomura keeps a critic’s distance from “contemporary dance” and skillfully uses composition in his pieces, he never forgets his humor. Now, as the coronavirus rages around the world, stresses build, polarizing opinions have surfaced, and division, discrimination, and hate run rampant both on the Internet and in the real world, he has chosen to unveil his new work, with ‘voice’ as its main theme.
Now that everyone can publish their opinions and values on social media at the push of a button, our voices have gained incredible power. With voice as a front man, voice as a weapon, and voice as a shield, we charge on, compelled by voice.
Following “Defection for Beginners: The Country of DREAMS,” which won him the Jury Prize at the Yokohama Dance Collection 2019, his second edition of in the “Defection for Beginners” series is based on discrimination, division, and the obviousness of the contemporary dance world.
Shimomura Yu
“Defection for beginners: The country of VOICE” (World Premier)Performance by Former Prizewinner
- 2.10 [wed] 15:00
- 2.11 [thu] 15:00
Shimomura Yu
Born in Yamaguchi Prefecture. He started his dancing career based on the idea that “Dance is a vessel for everyone to coexist with each other.” He uses dance—and sometimes theatrical methods—to highlight the obviousness to social issues such as discrimination and division that are so close to home. This performance is a so-called ‘dance communication piece’ that brings dialogue with the audience directly into the work, making “human-to-human connection,”—an element that only arises in limited spaces such as theaters—an important component of the work. He creates works that capture the problems of certain spaces and their receivers. He has won the Yokohama Dance Collection 2019 Competition I, Jury Prize and the Porosus Endowment Fund – Camping 2019 Prize.