Session House Annual Report 2018: Ryu Suzuki
What L.A.B. Aims For…
Ryu Suzuki
To nurture young dancers, L.A.B. provides young people aspiring to bodily expression with workshops led by instructors active at the forefront of the field and opportunities to present their own works. Mobilizing all the knowledge, connections, and other resources I possess, I aim to help the younger generation accumulate not merely more stage appearances but higher-quality experience, and to build an unshakable artistic core on the foundation of a body that can move with assurance. There are three main reasons why I believe young people today need a place like L.A.B. for this.
The first is that Tokyo has far too many choices of classes and workshops.There are countless dance studios in Tokyo and many open classes and workshops, but few initiatives are structured as programs, so each becomes a one-off learning experience. Because dancers with many different levels of proficiency have to start learning afresh from the beginning every time, it inevitably becomes difficult to explore anything in depth.
Second, there are few classes or opportunities for creation offered at a level that can be called professional training.I myself teach many classes in Tokyo, but for better or worse, the range of participants’ abilities is extremely wide each time, and at present it is very difficult for instructors to set goals. I believe the lack of a place where young people can challenge and hone one another at a high level is one major reason why there are few young dancers who can use their bodies with assurance.
And finally, there are few opportunities to share high-quality time and space as a group.I think there is great value in placing yourself among a group of people who aim to “make a living from this,” as in a ballet school or professional company, regularly learning from first-rate instructors and creating together. And it would be fair to say that such places are virtually nonexistent, particularly in Tokyo’s contemporary dance world.
By focusing our approach on these three points, I hope to bring forth young people capable of bodily expression with a high degree of intensity. What I would like you to understand is that I am not saying that dancers with technique are necessarily right. But as artists whose axis is bodily expression, I think we should possess, at a high level, a method of bodily awareness—a bodily language—that serves as our own standard and the foundation of our art, whether it is ballet, street dance, butoh, martial arts, circus, or anything else. In that regard, might not time spent in an environment like L.A.B., “where young people can concentrate on themselves and stimulate one another,” have a very great influence on the formation of young dancers’ identities?
Already in our second year, several L.A.B. alumni are attracting attention in various fields. Please look forward to L.A.B. next year, our third year, as well.
Ryu Suzuki
Excerpt from Session House Annual Report 2018
Photographs from the performances on January 26 and 27, 2019
Junior Company L.A.B., “TRIPLE BILL”: “Crowded Room,” choreographed by Ryu Suzuki
