Adapting for Distortion followed by Haptic
17, 18/5｜Saturday, Sunday｜8 pm
Macao Cultural Centre Small Auditorium
Tickets: MOP 120, 100
Hiroaki Umeda was born in 1977 in Japan and currently lives and works in Tokyo. Although Umeda studied photography at university, he underwent intensive training in ballet and street dance. At the age of 20, he decided to pursue a career in choreography, and founded his own company, S20, in 2000, subsequently earning recognition for his talent and acclaim as an original and promising young artist when he presented the piece while going to a condition at the Rencontres Choregraphiques in France. He has performed many solo shows at important festivals all over the world until 2008, when he was commissioned a ten-year long project by other dancers, exploring movement concepts in order to discover the relationship between body and dance. Also he has started working on installations, sound and video pieces as an extension of his solo projects. A multidisciplinary artist, Umeda is also a sound, image and lighting designer.
Umeda’s works radically break the typical boundaries of dance, representing a shattered and detached manner, which forms the themes of his dance. His pieces fully reflect the existential state, anxiety and hasty nature of contemporary citizens. His work is both minimal and radical, subtle and violent, and is created to be “experienced”. He is now recognized more as a visual artist rather than a choreographer, a mover rather than a dancer.
This time, Umeda has brought along his two pieces, Adapting for Distortion and Haptic. The former is an abstractly designed and intensely anti-narrative piece, whereas the latter puts much emphasis on the sensory nature of colors, stimulating senses through colors they intend to evoke.
“All these are effects to marvel at. Yet this second viewing confirms that Umeda works a narrow seam. One man, a few wonderful lighting ideas and some very brutal noise can make for a very long evening.” - The Guardian (UK)
Duration: approximately 1 hour, including one interval
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