Tezuka begins with a dancer rolling and contorting around the stage like a rubber man, reading a comic book held between his toes. It is succinct image which links several of the themes of dance drama, the relationship between ideas, writing, calligrap
Tezuka by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
New Zealand International Arts Festival
St James Thetare
Until March 6th
Tezuka begins with a dancer rolling and contorting around the stage like a rubber man, reading a comic book held between his toes. It is succinct image which links several of the themes of dance drama, the relationship between ideas, writing, calligraphy and dance.
Tezuka started off as homage to the Japanese artist Osamu Tezuka who was one of the main developers of the manga, the Japanese’s comic book from the 1940’s through till his death in 1989. He is the equivalent of Herge with his books about Tintin and addressed similar social and political issues over the same period.
What the work has become is a vast cross-disciplinary, multi-media work about, Tezuka, the nature of art and a short history of Japan bookended by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the recent tsunami and the nuclear plant catastrophe at Fukashima.
Using dance, animation, manga comics, music and some socio political tracts Cherkaoui creates a remarkably dense work which becomes almost impossible to comprehend when all the elements are working to the full.
Some of the time there is just so much activity and information it feels as though you have missed something
Central to the piece is the work of Tezuka which is shown on a full size screen. Pages of his cartoons race across a huge screen telling ancient stories which have contemporary relevance as well as descriptions of Japan recent history
As well as the artists own work the actors, using some tricky wizardry produce large calligraphic works on the screen, creating a commotion between dancers and calligraphy.
One dance which celebrates the hand of the artist starts as duo and develops so that the full cast is involved focuses on the role of the hand in creating art. At the same time hand huge hands flex and grasp the white screen. In another sequence an Escher-like drawing of an arm and hand draws another hand and arm while another erases it.
Another sequence has two actors fighting, there bodies colliding in dramatic displays. Whenever they connect with each other the screen explodes with symbols and texts in a “kapow /biff “calligraphic style
This notion of the calligrapher and dances meeting highlights the connection between the drama of events and the recording, interpreting and dissemination of these vents by the writer.
Much of the time the “artist” sits to one side of the stage producing calligraphic works on paper but he also inscribes designs and lettering on torsos of the other actors. Other actors will use the brushes to produce their own work includes slashing their bodies with ink loaded brushes.
The dancers also produce calligraphic styles of dancing; long languorous moves, complex darting shapes and lines of dancing which connect, repeat and intersect.
One of the figures which appears occasionally and plays a part in many of the dances is the red booted Astro Boy who is something of a Japanese Superman / Tintin, who intervenes to warn and save. He is figure who stands for the indomitable spirit of the people in this work about the power of the artist to create and transform.
John Daly-Peoples stayed in Wellingon courtesy Comfort Hotel
