[>Fumiyo Ikeda, Jean-Luc Fafchamps : interview](https://www.ictus.be/interview)

It is better to discover mystery in light than in the shadows.
(Arthur Cravan)

Never ask your way to the one who knows it : you might never get lost.
(Rebbe Nachman of Breslov)

This “chamber dance” performance leads us into the heart of Morton Feldman’s art (1926–1987): an 80-minute work for piano and strings, radiating a quiet halo of light, where “every something is an echo of nothing”.

The dancer-cum-choreographer Fumiyo Ikeda shares the same space as her fellow performers, the instrumentalists, as if she were a sixth musician. No stage set, no backstage, no frills: everything is laid bare. The “imprecise repetitions” of Ikeda’s movements are tantamount to a gentle creation of spatial sculpture, a temporal phenomenon, in common with Feldman’s music. The audience is out of its depth with this interweaving of the familiar with the unpredictable, where memory becomes unfocused, goes astray, and in the end agrees to succumb.

Fumiyo Ikeda : When I listen to the Piano and String Quartet of Morton Feldman, I like to close my eyes. And listen to the invisible sounds. I am floating, waving and they bring me in a new space and bring me back like in the womb. This music has no dramatic tension, but anything could be possible to happen like in a wave. 
The audience can close their eyes while they listen to the music, and open their eyes again whenever they want to see the dance, just like when you’re on a quiet beach and wandering.
December 2014, Brussels

Ikeda : biography

Fumiyo Ikeda, born in 1962 in Osaka, Japan.
In 1979, she entered MUDRA, Maurice Béjart’s dance school, where she met the choreogrtapher Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker.
In 1983 she joined the newly-founded company Rosas.
Between 1983 and 2008 she contributed to the creation of (and danced in) almost all the Rosas productions: rosas danst rosas, Elena’s Aria, Bartók / Aantekeningen, Mikrokosmos, Ottone,Ottone, Stella, Achterland, Toccata, Just Before, Drumming, I said I, In Real Time, Rain, April me, the Repertory Evening, Bitches Brew / Tacoma Narrows, Kassandra, Raga for the Rainy Season, D’un soir un jour, Zeitung and the revivals of Mozart / Concert Arias and Woud.

Fumiyo also contributed to several of Rosas’ films and videos:
Répétitions, Hoppla!, Monoloog van Fumiyo Ikeda op het einde van Ottone Ottone,
Ottone Ottone I & II, Rosa, Achterland and CounterPhrases.
Alongside her activity within rosas, Fumiyo Ikeda also worked with Steve Paxton, Needcompany, Josse De Pauw and Tom Jansen.
She has participated in several films and theatre plays. In 2007 she created Nine Finger with Benjamin Verdonck and Alain Platel. This performance was selected for the Festival d’Avignon 2007.
She appeared in the production In pieces, a collaboration with the British playwright and director Tim Etchells that premiered in June 2009.
She performed in Life and Times, Episode 2, a performance in collaboration with Nature Theater of Oklahoma (2010).
Since last season, she performs in the reruns of Drumming and Elena’s Aria, and leads the rehearsals of Rosas danst Rosas and Bartók / Mikrokosmos. In 2013 she creates a new performance together with the Japanese dancer Un Yamada.

They said...

More than anything else her movement seems constantly weighed, as if there is some sub-micro-second (or unquantifiable attention-split) of contemplation involved in even the fastest move. Not all dancers give that impression but with Fumiyo it's very strong. For me it means that what happens counts. What's amazing too is how fast she picks up and drops a particular energy in her movement - so the tone of what she's doing can seem extremely fluid, changeable, unstable - light one moment, harsh or difficult another, with barely a boundary between the two.
Tim Etchells, artistic director of Forced Entertainment, London

With her straight black hair, smooth face and fierce technique, Ikeda flips in an instant from girlish to witchy, subtle to brash.
Lilian Baylis, The Guardian

Une formidable comédienne capable d'exprimer tous les sentiments, du rire aux pleurs, de l'espièglerie à la rouerie.
Guy Duplat, La Libre

To be able to witness the combined talent of this exceptional duo is a real treat; something that will surely stay on your own list of significant memories for a long while.
Oonagh Duckworth, Brussel deze week (about the duo in pieces)

SEE ALSO THESE PROJECTS :

"Piano & String Quartet" will be part of larger events :
[Jardin Des Secrets](https://www.ictus.be/garden), Opéra De Lille, February 3, 2017
Saint John's Eve, Handelsbeurs, Ghent, June 24, 2017