Dear Yuko Nishikawa Sensei,
I believe the first time I had the long-awaited pleasure of witnessing your actual dance performance was at “Dancing Bach and Cage” at the Minami-Aoyama MANDALA. When you slowly appeared from the back of the stage, the clamor inside me shouting “Finally, I get to see this!” was instantly silenced, and I felt something within me being directly “purified.”
I had a vivid experience when I saw your standing posture, where something organic and vital seemed to flow from your fingertips to every corner. As I watched, it felt as if something physically vital within me was also being “uplifted” at the same time.
I continue to explore and create through music and voice, and I have long struggled with issues like scoliosis. I’ve been working to gradually improve while considering these challenges. Actually, the COVID-19 pandemic provided a good opportunity for me to carefully engage with my body. Even at this stage of my life, I am still discovering the deep interconnections within my body through physiological voicing, which astonishes me daily.
Perhaps my own gradual physical changes have influenced this. Each time I have had the privilege of seeing your performances since then, I have discovered new depths and dimensions in your presence that I hadn’t fully appreciated before. This has allowed me to experience something within myself being cleansed and “purified,” and this experience remains vivid and powerful to this day.
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The dancer’s stillness, presence, and even the smallest gestures directly convey to us the primal impulse from which those noble traditions, “kata” of the art, were born. Moreover, the dancer continues to create new horizons.
Watching your performances, I experience this profoundly each time.
The recent performance of “Kiyo-hime Confidential” was another mysterious experience for me. Although the setting was a temple, I initially did not personally sense much religious or mystical depth before the performance began. Suddenly, the place transformed into a pure and exquisite space with true religious magnetism. In the pinnacle moment when Nishikawa Sensei raised the fan high in the center of the stage and struck her definitive pose, I found myself overcome with heartfelt tears.
From ancient times, dances performed by shrine maidens and others have been part of rituals, not merely as hollow forms or sideshows, but with a substantial power that supported people in ways we modern individuals can hardly imagine. And I reflected on the profound importance and value of transforming those primal impulses into noble “kata,” and the incredible journey of preserving and developing them over time.
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Nishikawa Sensei, there are countless thoughts, stories, words of gratitude, and admiration that I wish to convey to you. I look forward to having another opportunity to greet you again in the future.
With heartfelt gratitude,
Hidetake Yamakawa
(Voice Performer & Composer)
Mr. Hidetake Yamakawa,
The early summer zephyr is upon us. Thank you for your letter. I’m delighted to hear that you’ve been watching my performances since “Dancing Bach and Cage” at the Minami-Aoyama MANDALA. While it brings me great joy, I also feel a deep sense of responsibility and anxiety about whether I am living up to your expectations.
As you pointed out, Mr. Yamakawa, traditional performing arts include “kata” that have evolved from refining everyday practices. By using “kata,” I believe that anyone can efficiently convey to the audience the various common concepts we have acquired, using our own body. Sometimes on stage, we make our expressions clearer by “kabuku” (engaging in exaggerated actions, which is the origin of the word “Kabuki”). However, when dancers vocalize, it is usually very brief and limited. This is because the themes, actions, emotions, and scenes are expressed by the singers and narrators, called “Utakata” and “Jōruri,” while the dancers use their bodies to appeal visually. If the dance merely “mirrored” the concepts already conveyed by words, it could end up being redundant. I feel that “kata” not only embody aesthetic beauty but also help to communicate the intended expression instantly.
In your letter, you mentioned “the deep interconnections within my body through physiological voicing,” and I am very interested in how this manifests for someone whose voice is, so to speak, restrained.
When I think of voicing, I remember my teacher, Shigeka Hanayagi Sensei, saying that the body should be like an instrument that plays music. Mr. Yamakawa, isn’t your goal to make your body an instrument for producing sound? A body trained to produce voice, much like an instrument, can also be considered “kata.”
It is our natural body, but through many years of training and self-observation to express something, these efforts and struggles strengthen the performer’s spirit and become the will to play our instrument. We should be grateful that we have both found something so fulfilling, shouldn’t we?
I hope we will have the opportunity to talk and that I can experience your work live someday. I look forward to witnessing your continued growth and success.
Yuko Nishikawa