Staying in Toyooka for 10 days with Austrian artist and musician Hannah Todt to conduct research for “Dog Star”, a new solo dance performance by Yoh Morishita, scheduled to premiere in Vienna in 2026.
Inspired by the aesthetics and forms of expression of Japanese puppet theater, as well as Junichirō Tanizaki’s essay “In Praise of the Shadow” (1933) and his reflection on the “mysterious Orient,” we develop the character of a “princess who breathes life into a flute while dwelling in shadow.” The goal is to make the poetic yet ambivalent dimension of darkness, femininity, and sound tangible through this figure.
During this residency, we will explore the possibilities of new artistic expression emerges from the fusion of “Japaneseness” and different cultures through research on the Shinobue and expression of shadows in Toyooka, a place where festival culture, traditional buildings, and modern architecture still thrive.