Ataraxia
Created for the Ursula Moreton Choreographic Award 2014 (first prize).
“Kenji showed flair and choreographic craft in equal measure from the outset as a student. His choreography for Ataraxia, made when he was still studying, used abstract material and visual elements as metaphors, winning him the Ursula Moreton Award at RBS in 2014.”
- Kate Flatt OBE, Choreographer
Initially the material was created using the idea of tacit knowledge. In this way the movement phrases held an intuitive flow, the inertia of one movement informing the direction and speed of the next. These phrases were then positioned within the music where they most naturally connected, making the relationship between the choreography and the music an implicit one.
After a movement timeline had been established, other concepts started to appear. The ponderous yet chaotic music aligned with the lethargic and somewhat possessed movements of the two dancers, contrasted their still brains encased in light, suggesting a separation and examination of body and mind. The dancers circling, crossing and opposing each other while dancing in unison, raised a further duality and conflict between the limbic system and prefrontal cortex.