Noism0＋Noism1 "I want to be holding the sea" / Revised version "The Rite of Spring"

Noism0＋Noism1

"I want to be holding the sea"

Revised version "The Rite of Spring"
◎To download the flyer, please click Front ／ Back　*in Japanese

[Niigata Performance]
2026
Saturday, 27 June 17:00
Sunday, 28 June 15:00★
Saturday, 4 July 15:00★
Sunday, 5 July 15:00

RYUTOPIA Niigata City Performing Arts Center - Theatre

■Performances marked with a ★ will be followed by a post-performance talk.

●Sunday, 28 June
Speakers:
Jo Kanamori (Direction, choreography / General Artistic Director)
Sawako Iseki (Artistic Director, International Activities Division)

●Saturday, 4 July
Speakers:

Noism1 members

*Questions from the audience will be answered.
*Anyone with a ticket for the performance (any of the Niigata performance dates) is welcome to attend.

■Admission (tax included)

All seats reserved 5,500 yen, U25 3,000 yen, High school students and younger 1,000 yen

■Ticket on-sale dates

RYUTOPIA members pre-sale: Wednesday, 25 March
General sale: Saturday, 28 March

[Saitama Performance]
2026
Saturday, 25 July 15:00
Sunday, 26 July 15:00

Saitama Arts Theatre - Main Hall

■Admission (tax included)
General 6,000 yen, U25 3,000 yen

■Ticket on-sale dates
SAF members pre-sale: Sunday, 12 April
RYUTOPIA members and General sale: Sunday, 19 April

■Ticket sales

〇RYUTOPIA

◇Online Ticket

https://piagettii.s2.e-get.jp/ryutopia/pt/ (Available from 11:00 on the first day of sales)

◇Telephone

025-224-5521 (Available from 11:00 on the first day of sales)

◇Box Office

[Not available on the first day (for both RYUTOPIA members and general sales)]

*On the first day sales, tickets will be available online and by phone only.
If tickets remain, they will also be available at the Box Office from 11:00 on the next business day.

*For inquiries and reservations
RYUTOPIA Ticket Hotline

025-224-5521 (11:00-19:00 / Except on closed days)

*From 1 April 2026, the opening hours of the Information Desk on the second floor and RYUTOPIA Ticket Hotline will be changed to [10:00-17:00].　Please click on this link for further details.

〇Saitama Arts Theatre 　*Saitama Performances only

◇SAF Online Ticket

https://www.saf.or.jp/t/ (Available from 10:00 on the first day of sales)

◇SAF Ticket Center

0570-064-939 (10:00-18:00 / Except on closed days)

◇Box Office

Saitama Arts Theatre (10:00-18:00 / Except on closed days)
Saitama Hall (10:00-18:00 / Except on closed days)

*Preschool children are not permitted to attend.
*U25 category applies to those aged 25 or under at the time of the performances (excluding preschool children). U25 and high school students or younger are required to present valid ID upon entry.
*Please note that late arrivals may be denied entry due to staging requirements.
*For details regarding childcare services (available only for Niigata performances) and wheelchair seating, please refer to the Noism website or the respective theatre’s website.
*Resale of tickets for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited.

“I am a man who, whilst always striving to reach the Kingdom of God, ends up slipping through the gates of hell.”

*From the opening of Ango Sakaguchi’s “I want to be holding the sea”

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This year marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of Ango Sakaguchi, the "Buraiha (Outlaw faction)" writer from Niigata City, and this works has been created inspired by his short story "I want to be holding the sea". The music features piano pieces by Erik Satie, the composer beloved by Ango, whose 160th anniversary of his birth also falls this year. Jo Kanamori weaves the resonant spiritual worlds of Ango and Satie into a dance poem.

We also present Jo Kanamori's version of "The Rite of Spring" originally premiered in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, in a reduced-scaled prodction performed by Noism0 and Noism1, with a minimal cast and stripped-down staging. It portrays the psychological state of modern individuals, burdened with indescribable anxiety, fear and frustration, as a ritual of collective hysteria, expressed through the physical body.

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＝＝"I want to be holding the sea" related websites＝＝

〇Aozora Bunko "I want to be holding the sea"
https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/001095/files/56806_56907.html

〇ANGO Digital Museum
https://ango-museum.jp/

〇ANGO Digital Museum
About the work "I want to be holding the sea"
https://ango-museum.jp/work-detail/?w_cd=0046

Photo: Tadahiko Hayashi
Provided by: Niigata City "Ango Kaze no Yakata" Project Office

Provided by: Niigata City "Ango Kaze no Yakata" Project Office

"I want to be holding the sea"
In the spring of 2024, I received a request from “The Ango Society,” a group of volunteers from Niigata City. They asked whether I would create a dance work based on Ango Sakaguchi, whose 120th birth anniversary will be celebrated in 2026, a year and a half from now. I had read some of his representative works such as “On Decadence”, “The Idiot”, and “In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom”, but I had never felt any inspiration to turn them into a dance piece. So, I replied, “I will look into it, but I cannot promise anything.”

Following my usual creative process, I began researching the author himself rather than his works. In doing so, I discovered that Ango possessed a remarkably deep musical sensibility, and in particular had a profound knowledge of French music. This immediately sparked my interest. For me, music is the very core of creation. No matter how interesting the theme I might find, I cannot begin choreography unless the music has first been determined.

Among French music, Ango had an exceptional fondness for Erik Satie, and he even translated Jean Cocteau’s “Erik Satie”. From the tone of his translation, one can sense that Ango was drawn not only to Satie’s music but to the man himself, his manner of being, his way of life, in other words, to Satie’s spirituality. When I began researching Satie as well, I found that he too was a self-aware outsider of considerable individuality. From the solitary spirits of these two men, resonating with one another, the first seeds of a creative idea began to sprout.

Even so, something of Ango was still missing. I did not want to create a work only with Satie, whom Ango loved. Rather, I wanted to create a world that could only emerge from the encounter between Ango and Satie. For that, I needed a work by Ango that would resonate with, or stand in tension against Satie’s music. As I systematically examined Ango’s works with that thought in mind, I realized that his essays and short stories responded more profoundly to Satie’s piano music than his long novels did.

On the Revival of the Revised version of "The Rite of Spring"

This work, whose creation happened to coincide with the COVID-19 pandemic, has always carried many complex emotions for me, and even now, when I look back on it, there are many things to reflect upon. In addition to the pandemic, the issue concerning the continuation of Noism’s activities, which had erupted the year before, was still lingering, so in a sense it was only natural. The work that emerged under such circumstances received invitations for overseas performances immediately after its premiere, however the tour was canceled due to the outbreak of war. Having been tossed about by every conceivable calamity, the pandemic, the crisis over Noism’s survival, and the calamity of war, it feels strangely fateful that this piece is now being revised and restaged amid another crisis surrounding Noism’s continuation.

In this revision, I intend to strip away elements such as the number of performers and aspects of the staging, aiming to shape the work into something simpler, more intense, and possessing greater physical intensity. By doing so, I believe the central theme of this work - how the fears and anxieties carried by each character influence one another and generate a kind of collective hysteria, and how everyone is simultaneously both victim and perpetrator - can be expressed with greater vividness.

Niigata Performance
Organizer: Niigata City Art & Culture Promotion Foundation
Co-organised by: Broadcasting System of Niigata Inc., NST Niigata Sogo Television Co., Ltd., TELEVISION NIIGATA NETWORK CO., LTD., The Niigata Television Network 21, Inc. (Niigata Performance)
Production: RYUTOPIA Niigata City Performing Arts Center

Saitama Performance
Organizer: Niigata City Art & Culture Promotion Foundation
Co-organized by: Saitama Arts Foundation (Saitama Performance)
Production: RYUTOPIA Niigata City Performing Arts Center
*This project is subsidized by Niigata City.

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