Asian Performing Arts

"When at the beginning of summer, thunder comes rushing forth from the earth again, and the first thunderstorm refreshes nature, a prolonged state of tension is resolved. Joy and relief make themselves felt. So too, music has power to ease tension within the heart.

The enthusiasm expresses itself involuntary in a burst of song, in dance and rhythmic movements of the body. In the Temple men drew near to God with music and pantomimes. Out of this later the theatre developed."

The I Ching, Hexagram Yu

Asian Performing Arts is an organisation dedicated to the study of Asian dance and theatre. This initiative was founded by Florencia Guerberof in London back in 2012.

Asian Performing Arts Dance Theatre Training program includes workshops, talks and screenings. Additionally, APA curates performances by renowned masters and contemporary choreographers.

The main focus is the origin of theatre and the mythological, religious and philosophical concerns behind these type of representations. Revisiting early forms of performance through a contemporary approach, APA opens a space where past and present coexist.

Even though ancient rituals have become secular, stylised, and turned into art forms, it is vital to rescue them as they bear something essential, profound and atemporal.

Asian Culture has a peculiar way of dealing with time. The Japanese word Ma is a term that represents the space between things. In a conversation, we pause to breathe and reflect. Music has intervals between phrases. A dancer might stop before his next movement unfolds. Silence and stillness are essential elements of the art of subtlety, where the slightest detail makes a whole universe manifest.

In the body of the Asian performer, the energy concentrates in the centre of the body. The feet, like roots, absorb the power from the ground. In Indian dance and dramas, the gaze has a crucial role. From a determined way of looking, a particular movement flourishes. Delicate movements of the eyes and hands are bodily expressions of something mesmerising and supernatural.

Artaud describes "a great metaphysical fear which is at the root of all ancient theatre*". In the spectacle of the Balinese theatre, the actors appear in their spectral aspect and are seen in a hallucinatory perspective. "A kind of terror seizes us at the thought of these mechanised beings, whose joys and griefs seem not their own but at the service of age-old rites as if they were dictated by a superior intelligence." He distinguishes "the Oriental theatre of metaphysical tendencies, as opposed to the Occidental theatre of psychological tendencies".

The in-depth study proposed involves comparing the diverse rhythms and common ground between Kabuki, Butoh, Noh, Topeng, Kathak and many other Asian theatre forms.

As well as rethinking the diverse Asian techniques as a whole, the idea is to connect them to contemporary Western methods so that both worlds continue feeding each other creatively.

Rather than merely follow the established conventions of Asian folklore, we pursue a more challenging approach where Eastern and Western performing arts are compared, combined and integrated within a contemporary context.

From this project, we hope that a new and profound form of theatre will flourish.

Florencia Guerberof

*Artaud, “The Theatre and its double”.