caa a22 4500 388109246 CHVBK 20180307125348.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130s1999 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0307883300019155 doi S0307883300019155 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0307883300019155 Mezur Katherine Japanese Deconstructions of the Female Body [Elektronische Daten] [Katherine Mezur] H Art Chaos stands out from other Japanese performance troupes as it performs against traditions. The troupe is a all-woman ensemble directed by a woman whose aim is to wage war on the culturally constructed Japanese female body. Oshima Sakiko, the director, and Shirakawa Naoko, the main solo performer, combine their visions of violence to extract the most precise gesture, exact timing, flawless shape, and perfect prop to project those images to rigorous excess. They focus on a kind of distortion and extreme manipulation of the female body which evokes painful kinaesthetic sensations. Their choreography produces discomfort, strain, and anguish through frantic, wrenching movement which aims at stressing the performer's body to the point of explosion or dismemberment. While their movement is based in modern, jazz, and ballet dance idioms, they push the stereotyped and classic vocabulary beyond pretty lines and feel-good sensations. They take technique to the point of excess in order to undo its forms They play with the overt meanings of props and costumes and destabilize those readings, like metaphors in a waking dream where their daily meaning drops out. Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1999 Theatre Research International Cambridge University Press 24/3(1999), 281-287 0307-8833 24:3<281 1999 24 TRI https://doi.org/10.1017/S0307883300019155 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0307883300019155 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Mezur Katherine NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Theatre Research International Cambridge University Press 24/3(1999), 281-287 0307-8833 24:3<281 1999 24 TRI CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge