Intro
About
ㅡ From the choreographer's note in Shut Up Womb (2021)
Shimojima Reisa was born without a womb. While preparing for the premiere of Shut Up Womb for the 2021 Korea National Contemporary Dance Company’s ‘My Family are Off-limits’ project, she was inspired by the traditional Korean age calculation method, which considers a person to be one year old at birth. This led her to realize that it was not that her womb had never formed, but rather that she chose to leave it behind in her mother's womb before birth. According to her, the only way to stop conflict is to stop giving birth to humans, so as her ultimate form of atonement for everything humans have caused, she had decided not to bring a womb into this world while still inside her mother's body.
In March 2011, at the age of 18, she was told by a doctor, "You might have testicles." The absence of what she was certain would be there and the unexpected presence of something she had never imagined, that sense of lack and excess, led her to fiercely awaken to her identity as a 'woman.' Based on this deeply personal and inexplicable physical experience, the choreographer, through her uniquely intense and physical approach, attempts to confront the complex relationship between humans and the world head-on. Following the 2021 premiere and the choreographer's solo work 2011: A testicle Odyssey (MONOTANZ SEOUL 2023) presented in 2023, Shut Up Womb has expanded into a 60-minute performance featuring dancers Yun Hyejin, Lee Daeho, and Im Sojeong, along with nine female performers cast through an audition. Musician Jang Younggyu, the bassist of Leenalchi, who spans a wide range of genres, joins as the composer and music director, adding a colorful touch to the performance.
Credit
Choreography
Photo ⓒSato Mizuki
Born in 1992, Shimojima Reisa, a native of Kagoshima Prefecture, began studying dance at the age of seven, focusing on Yosakoi dance, which is performed at festivals. She studied contemporary dance under Kisanuki Kuniko at J. F. Oberlin University. In 2013, she formed the dance company KEDAGORO and has been responsible for the choreography and production of all its works. Based on the company's philosophy that ‘Dance is a way to interpret this world,’ she has been working both in Japan and overseas, aiming to present thought-provoking works across international borders. Shimojima's signature works include Monkey in a Diaper (2017), which is based on the case of Aum Shinrikyo, and Shut Up Womb (2021) commissioned by the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company. In recent years, she has created many international collaborative works with overseas artists, primarily in Asia, including South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Northern Ireland. She has been supported by The Saison Foundation since 2022 and has been the International Dance Festival “ODORU-AKITA” Official Associate Artist since 2023.