PRESENTED BY ASIA TOPA, Dancehouse, Temperance Hall and the Keir Choreographic Award, JOIN Choreographer and ex-Dumb Type member Takao Kawaguchi IN HIS WORKSHOP, THE TOUCH OF THE OTHER.
During the 1960s, controversial sociologist Laud Humphreys studied in meticulous detail the codes and choreographies of male-male sex in public restrooms. Touch of the Other explores the aesthetics, erotics, and politics of these places, known to their users as "tearooms."
Leading Tokyo-based choreographer and dancer Takao Kawaguchi explores the legacies of public sex mapped out by Humphreys' own scripts (now collected at the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives in Los Angeles), while connecting these histories to contemporary practices, as well as to the policing and pleasuring of bodies today and queer sociality.
TOUCH OF THE OTHER WORKSHOP – TAKAO KAWAGUCHI
Workshop:
Saturday 29 February, 10am–5pm
Sunday 1 March, 10am–4pm
Public outcome:
Sunday 1 March, 5pm–6pm
Tickets $150 Full, $100 Dancehouse Members
Temperance Hall
199 Napier St
South Melbourne
Join us also for Takao Kawaguchi's performance of Good Luck – more info here: Click here
Dancehouse’s Japan Focus has been supported by Sidney Myer Fund and Arts Centre Melbourne.
Images: Bozzo
ABOUT TAKAO KAWAGUCHI
Takao Kawaguchi (b. 1962) was a member of the Japanese multimedia performance company Dumb Type from 1996 to 2008, during which time he also worked independently with sound and visual artists to produce video works such as: DiQueNoVes (Say You Don't See) in 2003, D.D.D.- How Many Times Will My Heart Beat Before It Stops? (2004), Good Luck (2008) and TABLEMIND (2011).
From 2008 he began the solo performance series a perfect life, the 6th work of which, From Okinawa to Tokyo, was presented at the 5th Yebisu Eizo Festival at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 2013. Recently he's approached Butoh in The Sick Dancer (2012) based on the text of the Butoh founder Hijikata Tatsumi, and About Kazuo Ohno ― Reliving the Butoh Diva's Masterpieces (2013-). The latter was shown at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels in 2016; nominated for the NYC Bessie Award for 2016-17; and was presented at Theatre de la ville a Paris (Festival d'automne a Paris) in October 2018. The piece has been performed 70 times at over 30 cities around the world including Berlin, Melbourne, Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, and Bangkok among others, and still touring to date.
Latest works include: TOUCH OF THE OTHER (Los Angeles 2015; Tokyo in 2016) which was based on the archive materials of sociological studies of male-to male impersonal sex at public places from ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives in LA; and solo dance BLACKOUT (2018, Tokyo).