German-Japanese choreographer and dancer Minako Seki continues her Human Form series with a piece that extends beyond the limits of the human shape. Referring to figures such as dolls, robots, corpses, ghosts and spirits, Seki incorporates all the potential divisions of physical bodies using life-size puppets.
Where are the limits between man and animal, man and humanoid, man and machine? In Japanese, dolls are called ningyo, written as 人 – human and 形 – form. A doll, therefore, is “a being with human form”, making it possible to discover what is really human.
IF Barcelona is an international platform for research, production and exhibition of performance arts linked to visual theatre that uses puppets and figures. A biennial project that produces a festival and symposium every other year, together with a programme of artistic residencies and exhibition of new creations.
Supported by Arts Santa Mònica and Institut de Teatre.
Japanese dancer, choreographer and teacher, founder of the reEnter Company. Based in Berlin since 1986.
Seki’s first influences were Japanese dancers Tetsuro Tamura and Anzu Furukawa, who mixed contemporary dance and physical theatre with Butoh techniques. Minako labels her individual dance approach “Dancing Between”; a unique choreographic method that examines emotional states as positioned between the boundaries of reality and illusion, consciousness and unconsciousness.
