Rapeflower
direction Hana Umeda
Duration: 45 min
Tickets: 40 zł / 50 zł
Trigger warnings: nudity, stroboscope lights; themes of rape and sexual abuse, recommended for viewers over 18 years old
In the solo “Rapeflower,” Hana Umeda uses the traditional Japanese dance jiutamai to tell a personal, yet universal, story – the experience of sexual assault. This is one of the most transcultural phenomena, shared by women regardless of their ethnic identity and latitude.
At the same time, the artist – a certified jiutamai dancer – looks at the violence inherent in this traditional technique. In the 19th century, jiutamai was performed exclusively by women. Female dancers were not allowed to perform on the stage, reserved for men, and appeared in so-called tea houses, pleasure districts where customers came for private dance shows.
She began work on the performance with in-depth research, which she conducted as part of the “SoDA” MA program at HZT Berlin, Univeristy of Arts Berlin & Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts Berlin and the “Thinking Through the Museum” residency, Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN.
The result is a bold and moving, yet subtle and visually sophisticated, performance about rebuilding oneself.
“Identifying ourselves as survivors, we are often silent. We don’t want a victim figure projected onto our living bodies. We become invisible by escaping from being seen as objects of pity. By avoiding confrontation with the experience of rape, we condemn ourselves to a compulsion to repeat the traumatic situation or aspects of it in search of lost control.
“How to talk honestly about rape? How to situate one’s own experience between tabooization and pornographization? RAPEFLOWER is an investigation conducted within one’s own body. It’s an experience of sexual abuse – both one’s own, inherited and learned – intertwined with defense strategies and survival strategies. It is something corporeal, not discursive. It is also a story about rape understood as a condition, not just a single event.
Lucrezia of Roman legend, after experiencing rape by Sextus Tarquinius, commits suicide, thus becoming an example of female virtue for centuries, although today her death could be interpreted as a consequence of PTSD. However, Artemisia Gentieleschi, a Baroque painter who repeatedly depicted Lucrezia in her paintings, worked through her own rape trauma precisely through artistic creation, becoming one of the first recognized female painters in European art history. Can a stage where I put my raped body on public display and speak on my own behalf, while embodying the experiences of sexual violence of generations of dancers, become a space for emancipation and healing?”
Media
“By dancing naked, without a kimono, Umeda makes an assault on traditional Japanese culture – an act of insult that allows her to change the meaning of jiutamai and produce an alternative narrative. By recounting her own experience of rape, the performer embodies stories of sexual violence affecting female dancers from generations past. Rapeflower, as she and playwright Veronika Murek wrote in the program for the show, ”is an investigation conducted on the territory of one’s own body”. The memory of a personal traumatic event triggers the memory of other women with a similar experience.”
Maria Magdalena Ożarowska, “Falujące wargi Lukrecji”, “Didaskalia. Gazeta Teatralna”
“It begins innocently enough – in the depths of the stage we see a dancer lying on her side, fully “covered” by a projection of a field of rapeseed. She calmly, though barely perceptibly, looks at us – the audience entering the room, testing our perception in this way. After a while, then, we reciprocate the gaze, still looking, and not all seeing.”
Julia Hoczyk, “Kwiat mego sekretu”, „Czas kultury”
“In her performances, personal experiences gain a decidedly broader, extra-personal dimension and resonance, referring to such topics as: the presence of female artists in the public, media and collective imagination, functioning at the border of different cultures and traditions, religious and sexual violence. Thus, the performer does not create performances only about herself and encourages a reception that transcends her experience.”
Monika Kwaśniewska, „Przetrwanki”, „Dialog”
“In 2020. Hana Umeda becomes the first non-Japanese to be officially admitted to the Hanasaki-ryu ancestral jiutamai school, while receiving the authority to nurture and further pass on the tradition of this Japanese traditional dance. She is a student of master Hanasaki Tokijyo, head of the Hanasaki-ryu school in Tokyo. While still in Poland, she became fascinated with the art of kabuki, a traditional theater that originated in the 17th century.”
Dawid Dudko, “Opowiedziała o rozstaniu z Kościołem. Dziś na scenie porusza temat gwałtu”, Onet.pl
Team
concept, direction, choreography, text, performance: Hana Umeda
Dramaturgy, collaboration on text: Weronika Murek
Video: Martyna Miller
Music: Olga Mysłowska
Lights direction: Aleksandr Prowaliński
Collaboration on the show/Outside eye : Joanna Nuckowska
Production: Olga Kozińska
Premiere
19 April 2024
Bio
Hana Umeda – a performer, director, dancer, graduate of cultural studies at the Institute of Polish Culture at the UW, student of master Hanasaki Tokijyo, head of the Hanasaki-ryu school in Tokyo, natori at the jiutamai Hanasaki-ryu school. A participant in the SoDA MA program, HZT, Berlin University of Arts.
In 2020, as a jiutamai Hanasaki-ryu dancer, she took the name of Sada Hanasaki. In 2021-2023, a member of the collective Center in Motion. Scholarship holder of the Young Poland program of the National Cultural Center in 2018, as part of which she made her directorial debut with the performance “SadaYakko” presented at Komuna Warszawa Theater.
Winner of the first edition of the Scena New Situations Artistic Residency of the Contemporary Theater in Szczecin in 2022, as part of which she produced the play Faithfulness. Nominated in the IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive NonFiction, IDFA DocLab: Phenomenal Friction, Amsterdam, 2023 for VR Close.
Her work and performance activities have also been presented at Cerulean Tower Noh Gakudo in Tokyo, Zero Base in Tokyo, Kunstbanken in Hamar, Norway, and at the IDFA Festival in Amsterdam.
Martyna Miller – multimedia artist, performer, filmmaker. She graduated from the Institute of Polish Culture at the University of Warsaw with a degree in anthropology and from the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Studies at the University of Arts in Poznań.
Olga Mysłowska – composer, lyricist, singer and translator. She works at the intersection of music, theater and performance. Co-founder of the bands Polpo Motel and Frozen Bird. She has co-created performances by Mikołaj Grabowski, Michał Borczuch, Komuna Warszawa, Marcin Liber, among others. She recorded the album “plays Henry Purcell” with Raphael Rogoziński.
Aleksandr Provalinsky – painter, graphic artist, light director, stage designer. He is a graduate of A.K.Glebov Minsk State Art University at the Department of easel painting and the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw at the Department of graphic design. His works have been exhibited in Poland, Great Britain and the Czech Republic, among others. As a light director and stage designer, he has worked with theaters throughout Poland, including the Dramatic Theater in Warsaw, the Grand Theater of the National Opera in Warsaw, the Capitol Musical Theater in Wrocław, the TR in Warsaw, the Studio Theater in Warsaw, the Nowy Teatr in Warsaw and the Nowy Teatr from Poznań.
Joanna Nuckowska – curator, culture manager, co-founder of the Culture for Climate collective. For many years she was deputy director of Nowy Teatr in Warsaw, where she curated the Generation After show cases and the New Europe International Festival, among others.
Partners
Matronage of the performance: Feminoteka
If you have experienced rape or other types of sexual abuse, you can get free help at the Post Rape Women’s Help Desk run by the Feminoteka Foundation. Just call 888 88 33 88
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The event is subsidized by the Warsaw City Hall as part of the project Komuna Warszawa – Social Cultural Institution.
