A leading figure in American post-modern dance, dancer/choreographer Steve Paxton is visiting Japan for the first time in 34 years.

Steve Paxton has been integrating Aikido, Yoga, Vipassana meditation, and other Asian body techniques into dance. This exhibition introduces his understanding of the body, and his works based on that. At YCAM, Steve Paxton presents a new video installation, centered around which a variety of events including demonstrations by the artist himself, and lectures with invited experts, take place as a comprehensive introduction to Paxton's body philosophy. Through the experience of a video installation and other events explaining Paxton's methods and original artistic work, which keep influencing the current dance scene, this exhibition introduces Paxton's work from the contexts of social and historical circumstances in the 1960s, and looks at the present form of the new physical and spatial qualities discovered through media-based artistic expression.



Phantom Exhibition, Steve Paxton with Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien (Contredanse). Photo: Contredanse (Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien)

Introducing Paxton's body philosophy reinterpreting the frameworks of various physical sensation and action in a fusion of contemporary dance and art.



Phantom Exhibition, Steve Paxton with Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien (Contredanse). Photo: Contredanse (Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien)


Discover new physical sensations by abandoning yourself to a space completely filled with images
Steve Paxton liberated the body from conventional forms of ballet and dance, in order to carve out his own original dance style. In the 1970s, he advocated "contact improvisation" (*) as a new dance concept that would ultimately be introduced to the realm of contemporary dance as a groundbreaking new technique. This exhibition marks the first occasion in Japan to show a new video installation based on the "Material for the Spine" system that Paxton has been developing since 1986. Five large screens surrounding the exhibition space show images of Paxton and other performers moving according to that method, as well as dance moves simulated with computer graphics, along with poetically rhythmical explanatory narration. Within this overwhelming visual setting, the visitor perceives with all his senses the relationship between the human body and gravity.

(*) Contact improvisation is a form of dance improvisation based on movement triggered by contact with other performers. It is a dance and communication method that enables the performer to experience new forms of movement beyond existing dance patterns, by entrusting his body to the generated energy.

■Works in the exhibition
Video Installation
"Phantom Exhibition"


Phantom Exhibition, Steve Paxton with Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien (Contredanse). Photo: Contredanse (Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien)


Steve Paxton has been developing "Material for the Spine"(*) as a method for exploring the center of the body since 1986. The installation consists of five large screens showing video footage of Paxton and other performers who move their bodies based on this system, as well as computer-generated images analyzing those dance moves. Within a space that is entirely surrounded by images, visitors will encounter a new form of physical sensation by perceiving with all their senses the relationship between the human body and gravity, the body's interior and exterior, and the structure of its bones. The work was created by Paxton together with two Belgian video artists, and will be reproduced in a high-quality spatial installation as it can only be realized with the help of YCAM's own studio equipment and technology. Unveiled in Belgium this April, the talked-about piece is now staged at YCAM (and nowhere else in Japan).

(*)"MATERIAL FOR THE SPINE, a movement study." Steve Paxton. Contredanse Editions. Brussels 2008. DVD-ROM (PC-MAC) 240 min. English original version, English and French subtitles. www.contredanse.org

Steve Paxton, Florence Corin + Baptiste Andrien (Contredanse)
Originally produced by Contredanse with coproduction of Bozar Dance, Charleroi/danses, with the help of WBI.
Sound environment: Philippe Jelli


■Lecture + Dance Demonstration
May 24 (Sun) 13:00‒14:30 (the venue opens 30min before)
Venue: Studio B
Performance: Steve Paxton

This is one particularly noteworthy event held as part of this time's exhibition. The artist himself gives a dance demonstration in the same exhibition space where the "Phantom Exhibition" is on view, so visitors will have the unique opportunity to witness how Paxton's flesh-and-blood movement overlap with those on the screens.

Admission Free [Capacity: 70]
＊Tickets will be available from 10:00 am on the day of the performance
＊On the day of the event, the "Phantom Exhibition" will be open to the general public from 15:00.

■Lecture + Talk
May 24（Sun） 15:00‒17:00
Venue: Foyer
Guest: Steve Paxton, Fujiko Nakaya (Artist)
Lecturer/moderator: Kikuko Toyama (Professor for Aesthetics at Saitama University)

This event discusses Steve Paxton's activities and their meaning against the social backdrop of the genre-straddling experimental endeavors in art, dance, music in the America of the 1950s-60s. The lecture will touch upon Blackmountain College, inter-media, and other important keywords in the current art and contemporary dance scenes, and will be followed by a talk session with the artist himself.

Admission Free ＊English/Japanese Interpretation (in Talk)

■Gallery Tour
June 7 (Sun), 14 (Sun), 27 (Sat), 28 (Sun)
July 5 (Sun), 11 (Sat), 18 (Sat), 25 (Sat), 26 (Sun)
August 1 (Sat), 2 (Sun)
14:00‒15:00
August 29 (Sat), 30 (Sun)
11:00‒12:00

This event aims to communicate the theme of this exhibition along with basic knowledge about contemporary dance. Through the experience of both lecture and displays, participants will discover together with YCAM's expert staff the central, most attractive features of the exhibition.

Admission Free
＊Application: Please visit YCAM 1F Ticket Information 30 minutes before the start

■Film and Document Displays
Venue: Foyer, Gallery 2F

Steve Paxton's work, as well as his "Material for the Spine" system of body movement, will be explained in visual documents. The program combines excerpts from his latest DVD-ROM, released in 2008, and video footage from the 1970s, to trace the history of Paxton's achievements.

Admission Free

Cooperation: Contredanse/Videoda



Material for the Spine

Begun in 1986, it is a simple dancing system based in sensation and evolved self-imagery for the skeletal elements of head, spine and pelvis. In other words, an exploration of the center of the body. The Material is abstracted from Contact Improvisation, which will be used in the class to some extent, but Material is more technical and meditative, with emphasis on breathing and precise exercises done solo. Connections may be noticed to extant dance techniques, and their mostly unstated use of the pelvis. Material for the Spine cannot avoid the rest of the body: so far it has extended to the hip sockets and thighs, the shoulder blades and arms.
(2007/08 by Paxton)


Phantom Exhibition, Steve Paxton with Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien (Contredanse). Photo: Contredanse (Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien)

Organizer: Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
Support: Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education
Co-organizer: DANCE DOCUMENTS JAPAN COMMITTEE (DDJC)
Co-sponsor: Japan-United States Friendship Commission, Asian Cultural Council, The Saison Foundation
Produced by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Technical support: YCAM InterLab
Curator: Kazunao Abe (YCAM)
Design direction: Shun Kawakami (artless)


＊This event is part of the "Touch, Contact, Bones Steve Paxton + Lisa Nelson Dance Project 2009.4.26 - 8.31" series co-hosted by art-related organizations and facilities across Japan.
Organizer: DANCE DOCUMENTS JAPAN COMMITTEE (DDJC)
Co-organizer: ot Summer in KYOTO, Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts, Wacoal Art Center, The Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Global COE Programme, Dance Research Course, Waseda University, Kinki University International Center for Human Science, Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
Cooperation: Aomori Public College Aomori Contemporary Art Centre AIR Committee (tentative), Contredanse, Videoda
Sponsor: Japan-United States Friendship Commission, Asian Cultural Council, The Saison Foundation