Some Notes about Choreography of “Origin”
Except for the content in 11-min interview with Shae-Lynn Bourne, I found something really interesting in this blog. (The writer, Momo, luckily had an opportunity to directly listen to Shae-Lynn after ACI, and has got the consent and some confirmation to share the post.)
The choreography referring to “Kojiki” (An Account of Ancient Matters, which is the oldest extant chronicle in Japan) was the advice from Shae’s husband, Bohdan Turok. Originally, she intended to use Greek mythology to create the program. Choosing “Kojiki” is more appropriate because it’s closer to Yuzu’s cultural background.
When she was asked that what’s Yuzu’s reaction when she first shared this idea with him, Shae smiled and said: “His eyes went big”. Probably, he was surprised that this suggestion was from a person who has a completely different cultural background with him.
In the 11-min interview, Shae-Lynn said: “ the movement came from this for me, that’s the vision I had, is him from the ground up developing this world of his, and he has this joy in what he does. There’s a mischievous quality to him. Have fun around the ice when the music kicks up.”
Q: Are you going to create something from the ground upwards?
Shae: Yes, from the opening pose, it feels like something goes up. Come out from the underground, rather than from the ground. That’s why his sight was downward at the beginning.
Q: The movement of two quick nods at the beginning, it feels like something wake up?
Shae listened and immediately responded with high tension, “Yes! Right! That’s the feeling!”
Shae: That movement, I want to express that “He is reaching both worlds”. One hand to the ground, another to the “World of Spirits”.
“I wanted both.” It’s the summary given by Shae and the meaning of that movement.
Momo: When talking about the world touched by the upwardly reaching hand, Shae didn’t use “Heaven” but “World of Spirits”, which is very interesting. In short, it means residence of the soul. For Yuzuru Hanyu, he is the dominator of both human and spiritual worlds. Probably?
4. The movement which is like touching somebody’s back
In the 11-min interview, Shae said “It’s almost like he’s touching somebody’s back and feeling what for the first time. It’s like a child for the first time when you touch them. And this is a human thing! Touch! That makes you feel alive and makes you feel loved!” (Oh, that is, in the second half, just before he entered Ina Bauer. He was going to 3A from there, certainly.)
Q: What do you mean “like a child for the first time”?
Shae: It was what in my mind when I choreographed. For Yuzu, there is a transition from the gods to the mortals. The movement “touch” shows the part that he first experiences the most sense of human feeling.
It’s also proved by academic research. Children are greatly influenced by building skinship from baby time. Whether having skinship has a great effect on children’s growing up.
The reason is, “touching = love”.
(The movement they mentioned is @4:22 in this video, but I think it looks more obvious @5:36.)
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