Noism08 - Washington, DC

[Mike Gunther]

Tonight (2/7) The Kennedy Center presented Noism08, a contemporary dance troupe from Niigata City, as part of its Japan Festival. The performance repeats tomorrow. Its title is "NINA -- materialize sacrifice" (I have no idea what that means). The performance was 85 min. long, with no intermission. It took place on a bare black stage, lit by warm gold overhead lighting. There were 10 dancers, 5 men and 5 women. The women wore beige 'tards, with the men in black suits, giving a bunraku-like effect sometimes. The music was repeated string or vocalized sostinuto passages over a techno beat.

As the curtain opened, the five women were disposed around the stage in mannequin-like poses, which they held for an impressively long time. As the dance evolved, the women were moved around, fussed-over, and reposed by the men, in a rigid type of movement that reminded me of the mechanical doll (or since this is Japan, perhaps we should say "robot") parts of Coppelia. Some passages were quite effective, as when several of the men flipped a stiff-as-a-board woman end over end! When the men were off the stage, the women's movement became more fluid with large swirling extensions (arm/leg/body) into space. The men, when they were not partnering the women/dolls, executed vigorous movements that included interrupted and reversed back and side flips. Seen in sequence with the given musical background, it all fit together quite well. At the end they got a nice standing ovation. Usually the Kennedy Center crowd is fairly conservative, but obviously the contemporary dance audience was out in force tonight.