By: Hiroaki Umeda.
Produced by: S20.
Co-produced by: Le Studio/Le Manège – Scène nationale de Maubeuge and Romaeuropa 2008.
Performed at: The Project Arts Centre, Temple Bar.

Picture © Annav Kooij

Some dance performances, like a number of modern paintings and potentially any piece of art, prove challenging to understand, difficult to follow, and to be brutally honest, at times, come across as plain pretentious. Writing a review on Hiroaki Umeda’s work is the exact opposite. His creations produce mere enjoyment, learning and writing about his work is a grand endeavor due to its complexity. Best of all, his work provides food for thought, and invites a reflection on the condition of humanity.

Adapting for distortion presented by the Japan born Hiroaki for DDF 2011 is a prime example for a wholesome, coherent and self-explanatory dance performance. It clearly follows a very intelligently grafted process of internal and external reflections. I would warmly recommend this piece to anyone, be they dancers, lay audience or computer nerds because even the more tech-minded of us will be able to identify with its message.

When Hiroaki appears on the Project Arts Centre stage, total darkness envelops him and only a few dots popping up on the screen illuminate the space. These gradually multiply while a voice keeps repeating the same three words “Work it out” time again. Dressed in white, a shadow in the dark, dots wander across his body as they float across the screen. Lines start appearing, which, in combination with the voice, allow the audience to plunge into a multi-sensorial experience. The slow build-up and the suspense are tangible, audible and visually intriguing, alluding to some of the complexity that is to hit us. The beginning is so well thought out that it provides the simplest, yet most effective foundation of a thickly layered visual experience cake.

Hiroaki utilizes the interchange between build up and suspense in sound, light and movement. Long monotonous, same-y sound walls are interrupted by sudden blasts of industrial computerized noise. The almost invisible, gritted man suddenly crouches down, responding to the menacing sound in a protective fashion. Indeed, there is a sense of threat or menace that this piece conveys right from the start – a sense of ambush lingering, surrounding all of us. The sudden locking and strobing technique used by the dancer in the dark aptly highlights this sense of menace, surprise and anonymity.

It is fascinating to see Hiroaki move in response to the audio-visual impulses he is receiving, as the high-pitched industrial sounds become more pressing, his movements become more hectic. At a certain point the figure appears totally dehumanized as it only consists of the reflection of computerized grids.

Then, total silence and Hiroaki stands still in the middle of the stage. Suspense is ever building, for a sudden noise now wells up and the lines that initially only appeared at the back now also pop up on the ground. Hiroaki is now entirely trapped in a machine, inside a computer. It seems like a crossroads experience between marveling at a Kraftwerk gig, watching the Matrix and Tron all in one.

A particularly memorable moment is when Hiroaki appears almost superhuman, effectively stirring the computerized machine. At sudden high-pitched intervals, he twists his body from right to left with his arms out in second, and the tapestry of lit lines twists in response, as if the dancer was pulling it. Hiroaki is leaning into the move, thereby creating the optical illusion of tipping the screen at his back, superman at work.

The interplay of sound, light (kinetic art) and computerized technology is essential to the persuasive nature of Adapting for distortion, and that won me over right from its outset. It is a wholesome marriage between different artistic means and proves that eclecticism and a pluridisciplinary approach stimulates all the senses during a dance performance, and therefore makes it accessible to a broader audience.

One of my favorite parts was when the screen turned pitch black and the lit lines remained only on Hiroaki. His upper body in turn undulates up and down, creating fascinating shapes within those lines. There is an almost meditative quality inherent to this undulation. This also coincides with the noise wall from the previous section switching over to the more musical and melodic. It is when he is swaying from side to side like a jellyfish that I find myself delving into the piece completely. While I admire this sequence from the eyes of a dancer, appreciating the perfect undulations. The majority of the audience would have gotten something out of this passage, be it a sense of satisfaction from the melody or fascination with the technology that shapes the piece.

Aside from the many artistic tools Hiroaki uses, which are married into a perfect unit in this one piece, the great thing is that it delivers one message loud and clearly to everyone. Rationally, Adapting for distortion provides an insightful reflection on modern society and depicts the trapped (in technology) condition of contemporary man as well as the dehumanization that results from technology. There is, in the piece – a significant symbolism that can be felt. Namely in the interplay between technology and humanity, insinuating that humans are small compared to technology. At the same time, in reality all the pieces (technology and human movement) are co-dependent, the moves of the dancer adhering to precise timing adapting to the optical illusions and sounds. It is intricate, intelligent and the illusion of “being trapped inside a machine cube” is impeccably well simulated using various means that tie into an admirable piece of art.

Hiroaki Umeda is the living proof of what amazing art can come out of eclecticism and pluridisciplinarity.

I would see this again anytime. A big thumbs up!

Born in 1977 in Japan, Hiroaki Umeda is a dancer, choreographer, lightening and sound designer and originally studied photography before moving on to start dancing at the age of twenty.

Check out for more information on Umeda’s work.

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