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I am very happy to participate in the Biennial “BODY.RADICAL”. I have been in contact with Batarita, the organizer of this festival and I was very much looking forward to participating in this festival.

My mentor, Ko Murobushi, is a regular participant of this festival and I had heard a lot about it, so I was looking forward to seeing what kind of participants there would be and what kind of collaborations we would be able to have this time. This year’s program also included a chance to view archival footage of Ko Murobushi. I participated in this festival with a sense of gratitude and remembrance for Ko Murobushi.

The first day was a performance at the HOPP Ferenc Museum of East Asian Art – Museum Garden.

It was also the first time for all of us to meet. We danced a solo, and at the end we all had a session together.

The Asian atmosphere of the garden was wonderful. The artists danced while moving to various locations in the garden, allowing audience to enjoy the performance from wherever they wanted. I decided to dance improvisation with UHERKOVICH Gál Győző, a musician.

The venue had bamboo bushes, a stage, and a lawn. The energy of the place made us dance comfortably, and the audience was very warm and welcoming. The final session was also a good opportunity to introduce ourselves to each other and get to know each other for the rest of the tour.

On the second day, we performed at the Zsolnay Cultural Quarter. Each piece was presented in a theater-style setting, complete with lighting. I danced a 45-minute solo piece. At the end, I had a session with local noise music artists. And after that, I participated in a talk session with the audience.

There were kids who came to see me, and they were very interested and asked me many questions. Batarita told me that one of the purposes of having this festival in various places in Hungary is to let many people see various dances, to get them interested, and to increase and stimulate the number of people who start dancing. I felt it was very important.

The third day is the church yard. Again, each artist danced their piece at desired place, and we had a session at the end. We had a Hungarian home-cooked meal for lunch. This was the most delicious food and it was hard not to eat too much even though we still had a performance after the meal. The audience asked many questions about the performance here, and many children came and told us what they thought. I found it very nice to interact with the audience and have feedback. I feel that it is a good attempt to understand the work, especially for those who are new to contemporary work, to be able to ask questions and hear the intentions of the artist.

The fourth day was, to my surprise, a performance by the lake! Before the performance I gave a workshop. Since I base my style on butoh and develop it into my own style, I decided to share what I learned from butoh with everyone. After that I danced a solo piece with the lake as a backdrop. The location was wonderful, and I was happy to be able to dance in this scenic setting. People who came to the lake to play were also interested in watching the performance.

It was a great experience for me to be able to perform in a different place every day, to be seen by many people, and to hear various impressions and exchanges during the talk sessions.

On tours like this, it is often difficult to have time to talk with audience, but this tour was a great opportunity to talk with a variety of visitors at each location and to have time to hear their impressions and questions. It was an opportunity for me to better understand and think deeply about my work by taking questions and talking about my own work. I was also very happy to receive feedback, especially from small children, and I hoped that this would be a good opportunity for them to become interested in dance and to start dancing. In my case, I have been dancing since I was 24 years old, so I was able to prove that age is not a barrier for starting dancing. I still believe that dance should be learned from a young age, and of course it is good to start early, but I think I was able to show that if you want to start dancing, you can do so even if you are older.

The improvisation session was also a valuable opportunity for the participating dancers to get to know each other and their dance backgrounds through their bodies.

This year’s participants were Laura, dancer from Hungary; Byeong Hyeon from Korea; Hiro and Tu from the Netherlands; and local Hungarian musicians joined us for an impromptu performance.

We learned a lot from each other’s solos and duos, and I think we were able to influence each other in a positive way. Then we exchanged our impressions with each other and listened to each other’s explanation of the piece.

We talked a lot about the culture and dance situation in each country, and it was also a very good experience for us to talk a lot about dance, such as what we would like to do in the future.
We also talked about what kind of competitions are available in Japan, and told them about some residency programs in Japan and suggested that it might be a good idea for them to stay in Japan for the purpose of creating their works. I would be very happy if their works could be performed in Japan. I hope that this relationship will continue in some way in the future.

It feels like a flash when it is over. It was a very fulfilling day, and I was able to dance with feeling a strong body on the Hungarian tour. It was Body Radical.

Yukio Suzuki