‘Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere’: Dance duo to explore our fragmented lives at OzAsiaFestival

OzAsia Festival Japanese dancer choreographer Yui Kawaguchi

Japanese artist Yui Kawaguchi will join forces with Australian counterpart Alison Currie for a performance at OzAsia Festival. Source: OzAsia Festival

Themes of connection and separation are at the centre of a new Australian-Japanese dance collaboration that's set to premiere at OzAsia Festival in Adelaide this month.


Alison Currie, whose recent work was commissioned by the Australian Dance Theatre, is teaming up with award-winning soloist Yui Kawaguchi for Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere

Using sound and light to highlight the distinctive techniques of each dancer, the production is described as “a collision between the everyday and imagined possibilities”.


Ms Kawaguchi is a Berlin-based Japanese dancer and choreographer who arrived in Australia last month, and is now rehearsing with the crew in Adelaide after enduring two weeks of quarantine. 
The two first met at the 2018 OzAsia Festival, where Kawaguchi performed a show called called Andropolaroid 1.1.

"Berlin and Adelaide are two cities on opposite sides of the globe," Ms Kawaguchi told SBS Japanese.  


"We are more digitally connected than ever before, while at the same time, people are becoming increasingly separated by location, proximity, political leanings, cultural history and language."  


Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere explores these complicated relationships. 
OzAsia Festival Japanese dancer choreographer Yui Kawaguchi
Berlin-based Japanese dancer and choreographer Yui Kawaguchi. Source: OzAsia Festival
“We’ve been looking at the distance between us and our different perspectives on the world, like how the news in Berlin might be different to how the same news is reported in Australia or Tokyo. We’re playing on our similarities and differences, and conceptually what it means to change the senses,” Alison Currie said in a statement.  


The pair began brainstorming two years ago, occasionally choosing a day and time to make a five-minute recording of whereever they were at the time. These spontaneous recordings have been adapted into the sound design for Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere
OzAsia Festival Australian dancer choreographer Alison Currie
Alison Currie and Yui Kawaguchi met at OzAsia Festival in 2018 and have been talking about collaboration ever since. Source: OzAsia Festival
"For me, when an image of dance comes into my mind, the colors of the lights and the stage set also come to life like a picture. It's part of the choreography," Ms Kawaguchi said. 


Ms Currie also said, "The light sculpture is a way of physically connecting the two of us in the work." 


"We’ve been working a lot with our set and lighting designer Fabian Bleisch and our sound designer Sascha Budimski. Fabian designed the lighting installation that we will also operate manually on the stage, and we’re looking forward to working with that because we think a lot of the choreography will be inspired by that,” Ms Kawaguchi said.  


Mr Bleisch is Ms Kawaguchi's partner, and her reason for relocating to Berlin in 2002. When Ms Kawaguchi first made the move, her focus was on raising a family. 


"I felt like I had done everything I could do with dance." 


However, living in an environment where she could not speak the language, Kawaguchi soon realised that dance was her "identity" – a "survival tool" that allowed her to communicate and connect with others.  


"The time off from dance, made me realise the necessity of it. I am here in Australia right now because of dance." 

 

‘A critical moment for Australia’s engagement with Asia’ 


Launched in 2007, OzAsia Festival is held annually in Adelaide over three weeks in Spring, bringing together some of Asia’s most acclaimed theatre, dance, music, film and art. 


“OzAsia Festival 2021 takes place at a critical moment for Australia’s engagement with Asia, and there’s no better time to ensure the people who best embody that connection – Australians of Asian background – lead the conversation," said Annette Shun Wah, the newly appointed artistic director, in a statement. 
OzAsia Festival artistic director
Artist director of OzAsia Festival, Annette Shun Wah Source: OzAsia Festival
She said the festival presents a snapshot of what is happening in contemporary performance and the arts in Asia, while fostering collaborations between Asian and Australian artists.  


“Most importantly the new thing of course is to ensure that there’s a strong representation of Asian-Australian work, because there’s a wealth of stories and a lot of rich material that really should be part of the festival.” 


OzAsia Festival will take place in Adelaide from 21 October to 7 November. The full program can be found here.

Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere will run from 21-23 October. Leading up to the festival, Kawaguchi and Currie will be holding a choreography and composition masterclass on 15 October.

Listen to SBS Japanese Radio on Tue, Thu and Sat from 10pm

You can listen to our past stories from our podcast

And don't forget to visit SBS Japanese Facebook page!


Share
Follow SBS Japanese

Download our apps
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
Independent news and stories connecting you to life in Australia and Japanese-speaking Australians.
Ease into the English language and Australian culture. We make learning English convenient, fun and practical.
Get the latest with our exclusive in-language podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS Japanese News

SBS Japanese News

Watch it onDemand
‘Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere’: Dance duo to explore our fragmented lives at OzAsiaFestival | SBS Japanese