Even in the shade of a pine grove on the small island of Oshima in Kagawa Prefecture, the summer heat is oppressive. Cicadas cry so piercingly that they drown out the faint notes of an ambient music overture. The audience holds its breath, when suddenly, a man on a bicycle enters and freezes mid motion. For a moment, the audience seems to question: Is this art, or is this real life?
The unexpected tableau is broken by volunteers in Setouchi Triennale T-shirts who hurry over to politely explain to the local resident on the bicycle that he is interrupting something important — the start of renowned dancer Min Tanaka’s performance of “Locus Focus.”
“Locus Focus” is a dance improvisation project Tanaka started in 2004. Each performance changes according to the dancer’s surroundings, using a style of site-specific choreography called ba-odori — “dance of the place, an improvised dialogue between body and landscape," according to butoh scholar Rosa van Hensbergen.
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