Delicious Movement in Tokyo 2017 (ENG)

Hi there! This is Kotaro, a relatively fresh liberal arts college grad, and I'm currently based in Tokyo. This is a crowdfunding campaign I'm doing with my friends from my alma mater Wesleyan University, CT, in order to fund our liberal arts workshop series happening this June in Tokyo. Please read the discription below, and if it's something you want to invest your money or time, that'd be wonderful! Check out our facebook page and stay tuned for updates.

 

Photo Credit: Steven Schreiber

[Background]

 

Why this project? What issues are we dealing with?

 

1 Lack of opportunities to learn to express thoughts/emotions, due to the suppression of "self" in Japanese culture, education. Being different is thought as a vice here, peer pressure and bullying, we/them mentality

 

2. Japanese today grow up not knowing how to be different, or what it means to be different. Not having a tool to self-reflect, people tend to become conditioned to always look for the “textbook answer. Passivity, conformism, diminishing of creative capacities

 

3. Difficulty in understanding others, manifested in such as Xenophobia, prejudice and discrimination – Zainichi people, immigrants, which leads to the reproduction of peer pressure and bullying

 

4. The issue expands further. No non-art colleges in Japan offer creative art classes to its students. Art is not regarded intellectual – many either alienate themselves from it or disparage it, and hence they're deprived of one of the most important chances to express and understand self and others.

 

People in Japan know this is an issue, but don’t quite know how or where to start...

 

[Project Summary]

 

“Delicious Movement in Tokyo” invites NY-based artist Eiko Otake this June (10th, 17th and 24th) to lead a series of workshops at Tokyo University. Participants, drawn from various professions and walks of life, will contemplate themes such as time and space, self and others through interdisciplinary discourse. We do so not only through readings and discussions in seminars modeled after American liberal arts classrooms, but through movement labs that involve the whole body for a richly holistic learning process. Move, see, feel, talk, listen, think, read, write—connect.

 

When：2017/６/10日 (Sat), 6/17 (Sat)、6/24 (Sat)

  12:00~20:00 (15:00~16:00 short break)

 

Where：東京大学駒場キャンパスコミュニケーションプラザ身体運動実習室②

Tokyo University Komaba Campus, Communication Plaza, Body & Movement Studio 2 

 

Who：20 participants (all ages, occupations, and backgrounds)

In the selection process, we give preferences to those who can attend all the sessions, as well as those in the education field. You do not need any dance experience -- anyone willing to move is welcome. Japanese language assistance is available. Here is the application form. 

 

Fee：Free

This workshop is partially funded and supported by Ishibashi Foundation, University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy, and Wesleyan University Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship.

 

[Delicious Movement Workshop]

 

DELICIOUS MOVEMENT MANIFESTO

1. Move to rest, sleep, and dream.

2. Move to pass time, bloom, and linger.

3. Move to taste and share.

4. Move to forget and remember.

 

and more...

 

"Delicious Movement Workshops are designed for all people who love to move or who want to love to move with delicious feelings. You don't have to be a dancer to enjoy the experience... For many participants, seeing movement intimately and being seen moving are a transformative experience, which brings a new appreciation of how "time is not even and space is not empty."

 

The exercises employ images, body articulation, floor work, and largely slow movement. However, the aim of the workshop is not to teach these. Rather, the participants, through their personal digestion of the material and of the improvisation and nonchalant partnership, which supports it.  Participants are encouraged to acquire personal taste and flexible discipline to suit their own moving body." (From Eiko & Koma's website)

 

[Instructor]

 

Eiko Otake: Born and raised in Japan, Eiko Otake is a New York-based, movement-based interdisciplinary artist and performer. As a duet Eiko & Koma, they were honored with two New York Dance and Performance Awards, two Guggenheim fellowships (1984), a MacArthur Fellowship (1996), the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award (2004), the first United States Artists Fellowship (2006), and more. Using movement study as a means of inquiry along with readings and media studies, Otake has taught interdisciplinary college courses about the atomic bombings and other environmental issues at Wesleyan University, Colorado College, UCLA and New York University.