Ondine Cloez & Kotomi Nishiwaki
The first word of the first poem of the first collection is basket
Performance – Saturday 21.12.2024 / 19.30

The reality,
what we do perceive of it,
we are translating
into tanka. We shout it
until something else appears.

A tanka is a short form of Japanese poetry in 31 syllables (5-7-5-7-7) that reveals something previously unseen or unknown: a feeling, a sensation, a memory, a wish, a fantasy. In their duet The first word of the first poem of the first collection is basket, the choreographers Ondine Cloez from France and Kotomi Nishiwaki from Japan translate everything that happens to them when they are on stage. It is a conversation in which past, present, misunderstandings, complicity and confusion mix. But it is also a performance of the feelings that run through their bodies between gentle whispers and violent screams.

BIOs

Ondine Cloez (1979) studied at PARTS, then at Exerce in 2002. Since then, she has worked as a performer with numerous choreographers, directors and artists (Antoine Defoort & Halory Goerger, Loïc Touzé, Linda Samaraweerova, Sara Manente, Grand Magasin, a.o) In 2018, she created her first piece Vacances vacance, followed by L’art de conserver la santé (2021) based on an anonymous 13th-century work: Regimen Sanitatis Salerniatnum, and its version for parks and gardens, La ballade des simples and a concert version Salerno. In 2020-21, she is artist-in-residence at Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, where she offers performances, readings, workshops and lectures.
She regularly teaches in various higher art schools and universities.

Kotomi Nishiwaki (1978) studied in Zurich and then at PARTS. She is a performer, choreographer and actress. She has worked, among others, with and for Joao Fiadeiro, Meg Stuart on stage; and Isabel Coixet, Alex & David Pastor for cinema. In 2015 she moved to Barcelona and in 2017 founded Park Keito with Miquel Casaponsa, where they develop research and creation of stage projects. They are currently working on a new project ROKATEI, supported by La Caldera, Barcelona and AltoFest Napoli.
After meeting in 2000 while studying at PARTS, Ondine & Kotomi decided in 2021 to begin a long research project based on the first collection of Japanese poetry Man’yoshū or collection of the ten thousand leaves (of trees) whose first word of the first poem of the first collection is komoyo meaning basket.