MEMORIES FROM THE WOMB
Is there a moment in life at which one leaves their egg? What does it mean for one’s shell to be broken? Are they safe? At risk? Is the risk worth it?Memories from the Womb uses an experimental dance form to explore how the amorphous, internal self is contained within a multitude of bodily forms. Furthermore, how the physical bodily form must navigate the arbitrary social systems it is born into.
During the project’s developmental stage, I was doing a lot of research on the art of butoh, also known as the dance of darkness, which emerged out of Japan after WW2. The title of the piece is pulled from Butoh artist Isamu Ohsuka. His words are what really formalized the entire piece.
“When humans are in the womb, it is said that the developmental process they go through is like the process of human evolution. For me, butoh is when those memories from the womb are reawakened. I was born in Hiroshima. When the atomic bomb fell, I was in my mother’s womb. The windowpane turned pink, then lavender-purple, and finally a deep crimson, That was the instant of the explosion. Although I was still in the womb, I can remember those colors.”
This original piece was performed from May 7th-9th. More iterations and extensions on this research are in progress.
Credits:
Directed and Choreographed by Mira Aiko
Technical Direction by Sam Charney
Costume Design by Jojo Wren
Projection Design by Ace Harvest
Set Design by Anastasia Mezhanskaya, Mia Kandi James
Score by JC Chang
Performed by Mira Aiko, Ziwei Chen, Angel Gonzalez, Alessandra Insley, Marie Mardorf