Dancing Cosplay

2018/02/01

In New York City, at a time when gender reassignment surgery was not yet legalized, a man wearing a ballet tutu rushed into a hospital with his groin soaked in blood. In his hand, he clutched his severed phallus. The man had taken extreme, life-threatening action to resolve his own unbearable gender dysphoria. At that moment, a white tutu may have been the only thing in his mind that represented being a woman. There is a historical background to this, where from the era of Romantic ballet to Classical ballet, tutus and pointe shoes have been perceived as the essence of femininity (the flow of new dance from the early 20th century to the present is also a history of trying to break free from such biased gender images).

While this is a bloody "incident," it is undoubtedly a form of cosplay. On the other hand, there are men who consider a ballerina dancing en pointe in a tutu to be the ultimate feminine beauty and have transformed this into a spectacle of cosplay. This is Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, founded in 1974. The members are all male. Naturally, when they perform pieces like "Swan Lake," the audience erupts in constant laughter. However, through their solid technique and serious dedication to the narrative, it is clear that they have thoroughly studied these masterpiece ballets and put in a significant amount of practice. It is a physical form of cosplay that does not rely on laughter alone.

The cutting-edge dance company La La La Human Steps from Canada had a masterpiece called "Amelia." Both men and women wear the same black suits and dance at a slashing, ultra-high speed, which refreshingly dissipates the stereotypical gender images often found on stage. In one scene, a man wears pointe shoes and dances en pointe (on his toes). It is a sharp pointe, like a drill boring into the floor. At this point, it is no longer a male imitation of a female. It is something entirely different from the angelic pointe of a ballerina. It is the moment when "physical cosplay," rather than costumes or makeup, disrupts gender.

So, what is a historically significant cosplay in the modern dance scene? The person who comes to mind is Michael Clark, the enfant terrible and rebel of the British ballet world. He was an elite dancer expected to have a bright future at the prestigious Royal Ballet School, but he broke away from traditional ballet to create stages full of cosplay, including nudity, drag, and gay aesthetics. In 2012, I traveled to Kochi to see his company perform for the first time in Japan in 20 years, and I spoke with him at an izakaya after the show. The once beautiful young man had filled out and become an "uncle," but I was strangely moved by the safety pin hanging from a piercing in one of his ears. It is a symbol of punk. His punk spirit was still alive and well. Could we call a safety pin the smallest cosplay in history?

What remains impressive in Michael Clark's recent work is the scene where he dances to David Bowie's "Heroes." Clark has long favored using Bowie's music. Bowie himself pulled off historic cosplay during his 1972-73 tour, repeatedly transforming on stage. This was the pinnacle of glam rock, "Ziggy Stardust." Ziggy Stardust, the fictional bisexual rock star from another planet, was, needless to say, a reflection of Bowie himself. Cosplaying a non-existent virtual character is something that connects the zombies of old to Hatsune Miku today. While reaching the peak of glam rock with this work, Bowie decisively retired Ziggy and threw himself into new developments thereafter. Cosplayers, then and now, are quick to change their identities.

Finally, regarding the recent buzzworthy work in the Japanese contemporary dance scene, "About Kazuo Ohno." This is unmistakably cosplay. And it is "super" cosplay at that. Kazuo Ohno was a legendary Butoh dancer who passed away in 2010 at the age of 103. Dancer Takao Kawaguchi sketched three of Ohno's early representative works while watching video footage and performs them by completely copying every single move and gesture. Butoh has now become incredibly globalized, and coupled with the high level of interest in Ohno, this work has continued to receive critical acclaim and has reportedly been performed in over 30 cities worldwide. On a clothes rack on stage hang faithful reproductions of the costumes Ohno wore, and Kawaguchi dances while changing clothes in front of the attentive audience. It is a cosplay of the elderly Ohno dancing in drag. It is strikingly similar, yet it is clearly not Kazuo Ohno. It is an overwhelmingly powerful performance by Kawaguchi. It is literally the thin line between fiction and reality. Kawaguchi's "forgery," into which he poured his heart and soul, is overflowing with true emotion. When cosplay reaches this level of creative intensity, it transcends play and transforms into "art."