You
by Koma Otake
Choreographer’s Notes

I dance with various “You.” 
A friend, a parent, a brother, a street, and a thing.

I had special moments with each.
I talk to a costume,
and everything I bring onto the stage, calling them “You.”

Dancing together brings back memories. 
A moment later, I dig my head into the ground, missing “You.”

“You” is a dance of “I have nothing.”

Why potatoes?
The potatoes are bombs.
They are also the dead people on the ground.

Why a red chili pepper necklace?
These peppers protect one’s house from evils.

Why naked?

If I feel aggressive or possessive, how can I calm down?
Take off my shoes.
Be barefoot.
Take off my shirt.
Be naked.
Say “I have nothing.”

Note on Music: Amy Winehouse, “Back to Black”

To me, “Black” in this song means an unnamed place I cannot return from.

Amy Winehouse, “You Know I’m No Good”
This song is about me.

I cheated myself
…
I told you I was trouble
You know that I’m no good

Part 1: Memories

A painting is hung in front of the church altar.
Behind the painting there are four Shoji screens.

I appear in a “yukata,” a light summer kimono, but with western shoes on.                              

An arrow and potato are on the front edge of the drop cloth
when the audience arrives.
I enter the dancing area, I pick up one potato, I throw a potato against my painting.
I take off my shoes. 
I pick up an arrow and put it in my belt.
I walk towards the painting.

Music: “Back to Black” by Amy Winehouse

He left no time to regret
He kept his dick wet 

I drop the arrow.
“Get up!” I’m the referee and the dear ones who encourage the fallen boxer.
I am struggling to stand again.
I am also the arrow.
I am also the fallen boxer.  
I stand up, take the arrow, and stab the painting in dismay.
I dance in a circle, wandering like a ghost.

Part 2: Despair 

I take off the top half of the kimono.
I bring three sacks of potatoes and drop them on the ground.
I bring a chair.
I wear a necklace I made of red chili peppers. 

Music: “Ciego,” tango played by Francisco Canaro

In this song, a man tells of how in despair when his lover left him,
he took a gun and tried to kill himself but ended up only blinding himself.

I break the chair.

Scenery after the bombing: dead bodies, broken houses.
I pick up one piece of the chair and use it as a cane.
I limp right through a shoji screen.

Music: “Coqueta,” a tango played by Orquesta Típica Victor

I chant “Go, Otake!”
I’m cheering for my sons who are abroad. 

I tear a piece of paper from the screen.
This becomes a letter.

The letter notifies me of the death of a loved one.
No body, bones, ashes, or belongings.

In despair, I blow my nose into the letter. 
I move in fury. I travel to the battlefield in search of my son.

Finally, I find him.
I drink a glass of sake, then spray it onto the painting
stabbed by an arrow as a disinfectant for the wound.
I take the arrow out, break it, and collapse.

Part 3: Naked

I am naked. 

Music: “You Know I’m No Good” by Amy Winehouse

I cheated myself
…
I told you I was trouble
You know that I’m no good

I dance by the shoji screen.
The potatoes are bodies, dying bodies.
I can’t touch the dead.
The screen is broken.
I, too, am broken.

Lights out.