"all the important things being connected"

I’m Simon McCorry, a composer / cellist mixing the cello with live looping & electronics. I work a lot within theatre & contemporary dance. You can find my music in the usual places like Spotify, Apple Music & Bandcamp

https://linktr.ee/simonmccorry

Satoko Fukuda is a freelance dancer/choreographer in Fukuoka, Japan

I will be travelling to Japan in September to develop new work with Satoko. This will be a development of “In The Middle of Nowhere” which we performed at The Place in London early in 2020 just before the pandemic. It tells the story of Satoko’s experience of coming to the UK from Japan.

This time our roles are reversed, but also several years have passed. The world has changed. And we have changed. A lot of things have happened. The themes we want to explore - “all the important things being connected” - are how maybe it is the small everyday things which connect us, that maybe these are in the end the most important. Maybe these small rituals are where we find ‘healing’. Our bodies heal not in one big go, but incrementally on a microscopic level, cell by cell, capillaries knitting back together, living tissue reconnecting fibre by fibre. Maybe the world heals this way and not through grand gestures. Exploring how culture & cultures hold the story of human migrations, not necessarily in a big way, but in small ways like Satoko being in the UK & me being in Japan. Individual by individual, small accumulations of interactions, little nudges & changes & recognitions within ourselves, & between each other, without which, a ‘culture’ does not exist, becomes lifeless. How the border between things gives this possibility. The transfer of new energy, new ideas, new friendships and bonds. That allow creativity and make existence itself.

These are some of the things we want to explore and express through movement and music.

The main research will be in Satoko’s hometown of Fukuoka. First, we will be performing in Tokyo as part of the opening of a photography exhibition at Carreta Studio by Yuko Shindo of “Nature in Nature”. A contemporary dance film which we worked on together with Yuko Shindo. We will be developing a special live performance version together with Tomoko Kagatsume for the event.

We have generous funding to cover my flights to Tokyo & hotel accommodation from the Daiwa Foundation. The rest of the project is self-financed. We need help to cover rehearsal space costs, instrument hire (I won’t be taking my cello with me), travel costs within Japan for all the performers (as well as Satoko & myself we'll be working with others), and performance space hire including PA and some equipment costs.

It's an amazing opportunity and we can't wait to make the most of it and share that journey as it happens.