The Unnameable Dance

… on Monday, January 24 at 5:30 pm for a sneak preview of Isshin Inudo’s luminous documentary The Unnameable Dance, which follows legendary dancer Min Tanaka through the streets of over 30 locations in five countries, capturing nearly three years of performances and celebrating not only the sublime craftmanship of its 75-year-old star, but also the artist’s enduring quest for fresh forms of physical expression. Tanaka’s site-specific, genre-bending, improvisational dances take place against the backdrop of everyday life in locations both beautiful and prosaic, from Santa Cruz, Portugal, to Ehime, Japan, with bold cinematography that captures his art in closeup and long shot, with unusual angles echoing the movements of his sinewy body. Tanaka’s recollections of growing up during World War II and finding his own feet in contemporary dance are beautifully reimagined by the animation “performances” of Annecy Award-winning, Academy Award-nominated Koji Yamamura. Inudo and Tanaka, who first worked together when the latter starred in La Maison de Himiko in 2005, will be on hand for the Q&A session. (The Unnameable Dance, Japan, 2021, 114 minutes, in Japanese/English with Japanese subtitles).

Karen Severns, Chair, Film Committee