Velocity Dance Center and The Henry Art Gallery Present Takahiro Yamamoto

In partnership with the Henry Art Gallery, Velocity is excited to present Portland-based artist Takahiro Yamamoto's Property of Opaqueness. This event will coincide with Takahiro's work with the Henry, connected with Carrie Yamaoka's recto/verso exhibition, on view at the Henry through November of this year.

The collaborative dance performance Property of Opaqueness is the first iteration of choreographer Takahiro Yamamoto's project under the umbrella title Opacity of Performance, which will debut at the Portland Art Museum in Fall 2020. This multi-year project investigates visibility and the physical and emotional effects that performers and viewers undergo when acts of looking, moving, and paying attention vary over an extended duration. When does visibility/invisibility validate the performer and when does it negate them? What are the social consequences of looking at a performing body today?

Opacity of Performance applies Edouard Glissant's idea of opacity to a discipline that relies on the audience's clear desire to see the performers. For him, opacity is "that which cannot be reduced" to the familiar. It is the part of ourselves that others cannot grasp, "the thing that would bring us together forever and make us permanently distinctive." By varying levels of visibility/opacity in the work, Yamamoto proposes that both viewers and performers use perception and imagination to reflect on the relational nature of validation and understanding. In this work, Yamamoto centers the unknowable as a vulnerable yet necessary state of being.

In bringing Property of Opaqueness to Seattle, Yamamoto will further his research for Opacity of Performance by collaborating with local artists and thinkers, both in this performance on October 6, and during a public discussion at the Henry on Saturday, October 5.

*While ticketing sales provide valuable support, we do not want to turn anyone away for lack of funds. A number of free tickets are available with pre-registration. Please email Shirley Wong, Operations Manager, operations@velocitydancecenter.org to request.

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