SoundMoves
A portable interactive movement installation, SoundMoves was a week digital dance laboratory generating visual animation from motion and sounds generated by a diversity of bodies, creating new artworks in 2015.
In 2017, SoundMoves was developed by animator Dave Packer and me to make an accessible experience to a diverse range of users. It converts sound and movement into gorgeous light animations generated by people moving and making noise in space.
SoundMoves is available to book for your workshop or event.
Credits
- Artistic Director / Designer: Chisato Minamimura
- Digital Artists: Dave Packer, Wesley Goatley
- Producer: Sarah Pickthall
Presented
- 2017, BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer), Brighton Digital Festival, Brighton, UK
- 2015, SprungDigi Festival, Capitol Theatre, Horsham, UK
- 2015, Brighton Digital Festival, Brighton, UK
- 2015, Zo no Hana Terrace, Yokohama, Japan
- 2017, TED x Brighton, UK
Funded by
Arts Council England and The Great Britain SASAKAWA Foundation
Passages of Time
“Music is the depiction of the passage of time in sound.”
Peter Maxwell Davies (8 September 1934–14 March 2016)
I used this quote in “Passages of Time” as this was a powerful assertion, and perfectly explains from my Deaf perspective. In “Passages of Time” I create a brand-new score that draws upon classical and abstract instrumentation and the construction of music working closely with three dancers in an ensemble like no other.
“Beguiling and other worldly, like nothing else I’ve ever experienced.”
Laurence Hill, Brighton Digital Festival Director
Credits
- Artistic Director/ Choreographer: Chisato Minamimura
- Performers: Kristina Alleyne, Nathan Goodman, Patricia Zafra
- Sonic Artist: Danny Bright Lighting and Production
- Designer: Jon Armstrong
- Abstract Film Artist: Fiona Ring
- Animator: Dave Packer
- Consultant: Michael Spencer
- Project Accountant: Dafydd Jones
- Producer: Sarah Pickthall
Performances
- 2016, Brighton Digital Festival
- 2016, the SPIRE Arts, Brighton, UK
Funded by
Arts Council England, Brighton Digital Festival and The Great Britain SASAKAWA Foundation
Chisapp project
On the Chisapp project, I worked with digital media artist Peter Pavement to explore musical scores as creative expressions in their own rights, and reveal my working methods to the audience through a smartphone / tablet app that goes behind the scenes and allows people to interact in different ways with the performances and scores.
We conducted a research and development residency at Coventry University in 2014.
Credits
- Choreographer: Chisato Minamimura
- Performers: Kristina Alleyne, Nathan Goodman, Patricia Zafra
- New Media Artist: Peter Pavement
- Producer: Sarah Pickthall
Funded by
Arts Council England
Ring the Changes+
“Ring the Changes+” is an interactive dance performance with a key focus on exploring the possibilities digital interfaces offer for enhancing the experience of Deaf audiences at dance performances with sound visualisation and interactive tools. This work created a pool of research material and a score between the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 and then with digital sense enhancement software.
During a mentored research period, I examined existing interdisciplinary collaborations, and I had a choreographic residency at Waterman’s Art Centre in Autumn 2013. The result is a playful exploration of visual sound, a unique collaboration between dance and digital art
Credits
- Choreographer: Chisato Minamimura
- Digital Artist: Nick Rothwell
- Lighting Designer: Jamie Platt
- Performers: Richard Causer / Nathan Goodman, Carlotta Piubel, Patricia Zafra
- Mentor: Luke Pell
- Voice Trainer: Guy Dartnell
- Director: Ghislaine Boddington
- Produced by: body>data>space
Performances
- 2014, 6th International Festival, InShadow, Lisbon, Portugal
- 2014, Networked Bodies, Watermans Art Centre,London, UK
- 2014, Unlimited Festival 2014, Southbank, London, UK
Funded by
Arts Council England
Commissioned and supported by
UNLIMITED and Watermans Art Centre
Photographed by
Roswitha Chesher
New Beats
“New Beats”is a development of my 2009 piece “Beats”, which explored movements developing from the lower body that resulted in a ‘visual score’. The choreography emerged through an exploration of ‘impact’ (where the body meets the floor, another part of the body, or a place in the air). These points of impact may or may not make an actual sound but, through movement, the audiences witness an impact which reverberates visually, similar to the effect of an echo.
Articles / Reviews
Credits
- Choreographer: Chisato Minamimura
- Performers: Daniela B Larsen, Petra Soor
- Sound Composer: Lewis Gibson
- Lighting Designer: Andy Hamer
- Mentor: Matteo Fargion
- Presented by: Step Out Arts
Performances
- 2011, Hawth Theatre, Crawley, UK
- 2011, Spring Dance 2010, Utrecht, Netherlands
- 2010, DaDa Fest International 2010, Liverpool, UK
- 2009, BEACDS (British East Asian Choreograph Scheme), Greenwich Dance, London, UK
- 2009, BEACDS, Bedfordshire University, UK
- 2009, Liberty Festival 2009, London, UK
Funded by
Arts Council England
Photographed by
Yumiko Hakamada
Canon for Duet
I chose the title “Canon” for this piece because, according to my research, it is loved by many hearing people. My idea was to create a ‘visual score’ by recording the voices of three people and arranging them into a canon to be transcribed into film. With the help of Akira Baba, I was able to see the tone, volume, and length of each sound on a meter. Through this process, I could understand where different sounds occur, their intensity in terms of volume and tone, and where they started or ended. We edited the sounds together and created a visual representation of the meter which is projected during the performance.
Article
Tips from the top, The Guardian, 2008
Credits
- Choreographer: Chisato Minamimura
- Performers: Carly Best / Hannah Shepherd, Jamima Hoadley
- Lighting designer: Jonathan Samuels
- Composer: Akira Baba, Chisato Minamimura
- Film artist: Akira Baba
Performances
- 2008, Firsts 2008, Royal Opera House 2, London, UK
- 2008, the Place Prize 2008, the Place, sponsored by Bloomberg, London, UK
Funded by
Arts Council England
Photographed by
Yumiko Hakamada
Scot
“Scot” was created from the sign name (a sign-language name that Deaf people give to each other) of a dancer, Scott. The piece was developed from one note. Then, two dancers’ arm movements became notes, each one following the visual score. From a simple movement, a complex piece of work emerged as the dancers needed to control both mind and body.
“Deceptively simple, the sparse complexity of the structure required the dancers to remain always in active communication, their open concentration drawing us as audience into this dialogue. Minamimura’s stated intention was to share a deaf perspective on sound, but she also succeeded in presenting a beautifully clear composition, both minimal and engagingly playful.”
Martin Hargreaves, the editor of Dance Theatre Journal
Credits
- Choreographer: Chisato Minamimura
- Performers: Stine Nilsen, Chisato Minamimura
- Mentor: Jonathan Burrows
Performances
- 2007, the Deaf Ethnic Cultural MELA,London, UK
- 2007, Resolution! 2007, the Place, London, UK