Transcendence (Dance Film)

Transcendence – Composer Olivier Messiaen’s seminal work “Quartet for the End of Time” spoke to me on so many levels. From the music and its structures, I felt there was a way to imagine, through movement, a kind of internal journey: one experienced through the process of dying and involving memory, pivotal moments in time, reconciling the past, and not being trapped by our fate. Like the music, this internal journey seemed not to lead to despair, but away from the abyss towards the possibility of release and transformation. Working in collaboration with cinematographer Kuo-Heng Huang, we have tried to capture imagery and action that lives in the space between consciousness and unconsciousness. And in thinking about the work’s title – that moment of passing from one state to another, of crossing a boundary – what do we find? – David Shimotakahara (Choreographer, Director)