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Presenting a Japanese production on the 2023 DANCE XXV International Contemporary Festival as part of Veszprém’s ECoC program was a very exciting prospect. For the last few years there has been a steady growth in presenting more and more international productions in the festival’s programme. This was the second time that we invited a Japanese artist, the first being Tadashi Endo, butoh dancer, featured in the Bozsik Yvette Dance Company’s HA DÔ. The festival’s professional advisor had several great ideas regarding potential invitees for this year; we got started on several different routes of negotiations in order to see more clearly about the different technical needs of different productions.

In the end we had two reasons for choosing Hiroaki Umeda: first and foremost was the fact that he is a great representative of digital art combined with contemporary dance. This factor is important for us because we constantly strive to strengthen the festival’s multi-artistic aspects: we aim to present not only dance in itself but also as a complementary feature of more theatre, music, circus or fine art-oriented pieces. The second reason was that we could meet his technical requirements much more easily and securely than other, initially planned Japanese productions.

The negotiation process and technical discussion was relatively smooth, even though we had to make a couple of compromises one of which involved a change of plans regarding one of the performances. We presented two of his solos and the initial idea was to create contrast between his purely dance-centered work and something a little more reliant on the supporting role of digital art. The latter has always been intended to be Intensional Particle, which involved two simultaneous angles of projection: one for the background and another one for the floor. The two synchronized projections created the effect of a completely immersive environment for the dancer who moved with seemingly no effort whatsoever amongst the lines of projected light. He was so completely in sync with the set that the illusion of him being the one who directs the light’s movements felt completely natural to the viewer. His other show, while going to a condition, was Hiroaki’s first internationally successful piece. It is a great example of how it can be possible for a single person to command all attention when he’s on stage. The piece itself is a gradual development of movement from complete stillness to slowly gaining momentum and completing this arc of evolving movement.

One characteristic feature that set Hiroaki apart from the other companies of this year’s festival is his complete autonomy when it came to the creative and performative process. He’s not only the performer of his own work but also choreographer, sound designer and light designer from start to finish as well. His touring team included only Suzuko Tanoiri production manager apart from himself, while the general approach of other companies is to bring sound and light technicians as well. There was no need for anyone like that in this case because Hiroaki himself directed the technical set-up as well as the pre-programmed projections, lights and speakers onstage. I merely highlight this information to show that in Hungary we mostly work with manually controlled lights and sounds, especially in more free-flowing performances but Hiroaki’s solos were both so precise in their making that it became possible to make them fully automatic from a technical point of view.

Every festival offers great learning opportunities about different ways of self-expression through the language of contemporary dance and its connected artistic fields. This year has been no exception and we hold out hope to be able to continue our cooperation with EU-Japan Fest and keep on presenting the widest possible range of contemporary dancers and choreographers during future festivals. We maintain that this genre is not something only an elite audience will be able to enjoy but an essential part of human nature itself. The possibilities of expressing the origins of music and dance are endless and there are never too many modern representations when it comes to exploring dance’s connection to other artistic fields.

In the name of the whole organizing team behind the DANCE International Contemporary Festival, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in making this cooperation happen, we dearly hope to continue this success in the coming years.