Cypher(s)
I accepted an invitation from the 2023 Tokyo Biennale to create and present two new pieces. It’s not often that contemporary art exhibitions include dance, so in order to involve as much of the local dance community as possible, I decided to organize two public dance sessions for the exhibit.
Cypher is a gathering of dancers and DJs at the Tokyo Dome that took place on October 8, 2023. The event was free and open to the public to participate to any extent they wished. Over the course of four hours, people just hung out and watched or socialized; the cypher was so welcoming that most who got close enough couldn’t resist joining in.
The entire session was documented using four cameras: two GoPros and an insta360 x3, which were passed around between the dancers, as well as Sony ac7 that sat on a tripod for the four hours. The footage was cut together (with minimal cuts) and displayed on the top floor of the Tokyo Biennale’s main venue: the Etoile Kaito Living Building.
Cypher II is the more intimate and meditative of the two dance sessions, featuring local dancers Go Yamashiro, Jasmine Mazlika, Runa Miura, and Rion Watley; myself wearing a GoPro to provide viewers with an inside vantage point; and the temple’s Abbot Mr. Sugitani.
The live performance which was free for the public to watch, took place on October 10, 2023 in front of Kiyomizu Kannon-do of Kan’ei-ji Temple. The video documentation was installed inside the Konpon-Chudo of Kan’ei-ji Temple for two weeks of viewing after.
Credits:
Directed and filmed by: My-Linh le
Assistant camera: Jardy Santiago
Produced by: Tokyo Biennale
Performance Site: Kiyomizu Kannon-do of Kan’ei-ji Temple
Performers: Go Yamashiro, Jasmine Mazlika, Runa Miura, Rion Watley, and Mr. Sugitani, Abbot of Kan’eiji Temple
Original Music Compositions: Alex “Pu22l3” Abalos and Secret Sidewalk
To cypher is to be simultaneously the audience, the artist, and the artwork itself. Rather than a performance, the cypher is a continuous free flow of extemporaneous exchanges
contained within and by a mass that is in constant states of flux, and held together and guided by the unspoken agreement that all who are present are a part of and are responsible for holding the space and keeping it alive.
Special thanks: to DJs jaylen shaw and MASTER HIRO in Cypher (right), whose selections really brought the openness and joy out of everyone; to all of the dancers who made the cypher so magical; to Tokyo Dome City for giving us the space and support; and to the Tokyo Biennale staff for making this all possible.
In Cypher II (left) the act of documentation is inseparable from the act of participation. Entering the performance space with nothing but a GoPro strapped to my sternum, I joined local dancers Go Yamashiro, Jasmine Mazlika, Runa Miura, Rion Watley and the temple’s abbott Mr. Sugitani—with absolutely no prior rehearsal or even much of any verbal communication or planning.
Improvisation here is not simply a tactic but a generative force, situating the work within both the lineage of the cypher as a site of collective invention and the broader histories of performance art that test the boundaries of communication across cultural divides.