Turning the Clock

The ongoing cross-cultural adventure that is Yoshiko Chuma’s A Page Out of Order arrives at the [92nd Street Y] this weekend. Collaborating across generations and borders, this time around, Chuma unveils "Hold the Clock"—an intriguing, richly textured blend of movement, text, projections and original music. The Y may be an unusually “uptown” venue for this veteran Japanese dance-theater artist, who has made New York her home base for the past 30 years. Her feisty, unpredictable troupe, the School of Hard Knocks, is usually found is less established settings. But this program, presented as part of the Y’s Harkness Dance Festival, fits in nicely with the festival’s focus on choreographic mentors welcoming and nurturing the works of their protégés.

Three of the performers in Hold the Clock—Ursula Eagly, Jon Kinzel and Rie Ono—will present their own new pieces within the program. Chuma invited each of them to create small-scale works to be integrated into her dance/installation, which has a cast of 11, including Chuma herself. Kinzel, whose work was recently seen at The Kitchen, has created Arch, a duet he performs with Chuma. Eagly’s Excellent Handicap features guest stars from the School of Hard Knocks, and Ono’s 1-39 is performed by Eagly.

Chuma was inspired by Sayonara Gangsters, a 1982 novel by Genichiro Takahashi. In a recent phone interview from Japan, where she was developing Hold the Clock through performances in various cities, she explained that she met the author recently, and first read the book last September. Takahashi was arrested as a student radical and spent half a year in prison, a harrowing experience that rendered him incapable of reading or writing for several years. “The author is of same generation as I am. It’s a very sensational novel, based on what was going on 1960s and ‘70s—the younger generation, very involved with a lot of political movements around that time. This book is very crazy, chaotic—it’s difficult to follow the story. He gave it to me and said I can use it any way. I can transform, change.”

Previous works in Chuma’s A Page out of Order series were developed in different countries—including Macedonia, Romania and Poland—drawing on the people, politics and situations Chuma discovered in each. Hold the Clock, which she describes as a “collage,” was developed over the past six months in both New York and Japan, and features performers based in both places. “This piece is a kind of bridge between Japan and New York, and a collaboration with a new generation for me—young artists whom I met in both places.”

Working with a cast that  includes actors and singers as well as dancers,  Chuma fluidly combines text, movement and multimedia elements. Among the performers is singer Sizzle Ohtaka, whose striking songs have made a strong impression in earlier entries in Chuma’s ongoing series. Chuma offers possible suggestions for her title—it might refer to the time differences that mark her frequent and far-flung travel, or to different historical periods. Clearly, she has found considerable fodder for her curiosity and imagination as she turned this latest “page.”

>[Hold the Clock]

March 19-21, Harkness Dance Festival, 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave. (at 92 St.), 212-415-5500; Fri. & Sat. 8, Sun. 3, $15.