RESPONDING THROUGH MOVEMENT:
Dance Analysis of Architecture
ART|FILM|ARCHITECTURE
Fumi Takenouchi has made a new work that responds to various architectural sites in Winston-Salem.
Experience report from Garrett Parker, UNCSA Dance ’17:
With support from the Center for Design Innovation, dancers from UNCSA collaborated with Fumi Takenouchi to explore the relationship between architecture and the human body. We visited architectural spaces of varying shape, design, size, material and texture (including Reynolda House, Old Salem SECCA and the Semans Library). At each place, we worked to notice what there is to be noticed toward creating phrases of movement that uniquely embody each space. Interestingly enough, in addition to the physical variations from one location to another, each space has its own qualitative characteristics (ambiance, smell, sound, history and purpose), which factor into our kinesthetic responses. While at each location, we shared our phrases with one another and discussed the aspects of design/ sensation that inspired us to create the movement we created. We then traveled back to the CDI each day to learn each other’s movement phrases, adapt them into this vastly different space and integrate them with the media of film and music.
It was fascinating to watch the transformation of our movement when placed in a different environment. How and to what extend can a phrase deliver the same meaning and physicality when stripped of context? How can the curved staircases of SECCA or the scent of freshly baked bread in Old Salem be translated into the confines of an industrial 60×60 foot cube? These are just a few of the question that became visible through movement in the performance at the Center for Design Innovation in December, 2016.