Direction: Michiyasu Furutani
Performance: Michiyasu Furutani, a stone

12/Dec/2019 at TATWERK, Berlin

A dance/performance work emerges from a story based on the dancer’s personal experience at a friend’s funeral: being offered to ingest a piece of bone and ashes of the deceased friend at a crematorium. Central to the performance is a stone, symbolically embodying the form of the friend’s bone, with which the dancer engages in a profound, non-verbal dialogue.

On stage, the dancer interacts with the stone through physical movements, gestures, and symbolic acts, such as offering a glass of water. This non-virtual conversation aims to explore the potential of cognitive and emotional exchange between living and non-living entities. Through this exploration, the performance raises a fundamental question: Can we perceive and give shape to intangible emotions or thoughts? And if we recognise these invisible forms, does this open a path to fostering empathy for all beings, even allowing us to communicate with those who have passed away?

The work also challenges conventional notions of communication. When we, as living beings, approach non-living entities with our established modes of interaction, we risk imposing our own thoughts, memories, and interpretations upon them, bringing their presence into our dominance. This performance instead advocates for an alternative approach – one rooted in attentive observation and active listening. By relinquishing control and witnessing the essence of the other, whether living or non-living, the dancer invites the audience to reflect on the nature of the connection, the passage of time, and the profound silence of death.

Ultimately, this piece serves as an invitation to reconsider how we relate to the world around us, offering a space to question whether deep, empathetic listening can help us understand the immediate moment and the continuity of life, death, and memory.