Artist Interview アーティストインタビュー

接触を遊ぶ
contact Gonzo
dance
Playing with physical contact contact Gonzo
Yuya Tsukahara (contact Gonzo)
The contact Gonzo group has a unique type of performance that involves constant physical contact in forms that sometimes look like street fighting and sometimes dance. The places they perform are equally unique, including parks, on the streets, in woods, or in nuclear shelters or underground malls. Their form of improvisational performance grew out of the experiments of dancers Masaru Kakio (presently involved in other activities) and Yuya Tsukahara using techniques of the “contact improvisation” style and the
Systema
style, which is often referred to as a Russian style of Aikido. Videos of their performances posted on YouTube quickly attracted attention shortly after the group was formed in 2006 and won them invitations to perform at exhibitions and festivals in Japan and abroad. Taking as their creed a kind of reckless disregard for the frameworks of existing dance, much as Gonzo journalism ignores the rules of journalism, the group now performs with six new members. We spoke with Tsukahara about the art and activities of contact Gonzo.
Interviewer: Matsue Okazaki / Representative, Offsite Dance Project [NPO])