Sensational Knowledge uncovers the process and nuances of learning nihon buyo, a traditional Japanese dance form.

Troy, N.Y. — How do music and dance reveal the ways in which a community interacts with the world? How are the senses used in communicating cultural knowledge? A new book written by Tomie Hahn, associate professor of art at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, uncovers the process and nuances of learning nihon buyo, a traditional Japanese dance form. Hahn will discuss her new book during the Troy Night Out event at Market Block Books located in downtown Troy. The event will take place on Friday, Sept. 28 from 5 to 7 p.m.

A performer and student of Japanese dance since the age of 4, Hahn has been awarded natori—the professional stage name of Samie Tachibana—from the Tachibana School in Tokyo. In Sensational Knowledge: Embodying Culture Through Japanese Dance (Wesleyan University Press), ethnomusicologist and dancer Hahn examines the transmission of nihon buyo and how cultural knowledge, along with the dance, is passed from teacher to student. She uses case studies of dancers at all levels, as well as her own firsthand experiences, to investigate the complex language of bodies, especially across cultural divides.

In an excerpt from the book, Hahn writes — that “performing gestures with clarity to convey a narrative is vital.” Pictured here, Hahn (left) and Iemoto (headmaster) Tachibana Yoshie in the Tokyo studio students affectionately call “Hatchobori,” practice the dance “Seigaiha.” In the dance the character of the young woman discovers a seashell in the sand. This photo depicts the young woman holding up the seashell. Photo credit: Walter Hahn

Paying particular attention to the effect of body-to-body transmission, and how culturally constructed processes of transmission influence our sense of self, Hahn argues that the senses facilitate the construction of “boundaries of existence” that define our physical and social worlds. In her flowing and personal text, she reveals the ways in which culture shapes our attendance to various sensorium, and likewise how our interpretation of sensory information shapes our individual realities.

“The book offers a peek into some of the everyday life at the Tachibana school of nihon buyo in order to convey the sensitivities of the culturally constructed process of teaching,” writes Hahn. “Since childhood, nihon buyo has been a part of my life. This led me to question how we learn cultural sensitivities of the body in such a way that they seem second nature, reflecting our sense of self, as well as how we come to understand the world around us.”

In an excerpt from the book, Hahn shares the memories of her first dance lesson with Iemoto (headmaster) Tachibana Yoshie in the Tokyo studio students affectionately call “Hatchobori”:

She took my elbow and led me across the studio, pointing at the impeccably clean wood floor. Nothing seemed unusual. “See these marks . . .,” she said, kneeling down on the floor and still pointing here and there. As I bent down to sit by her side, minute water marks and nicks on the floor’s surface came into focus. “Those stains are from all of our sweat and tears here together,” she continued, sweeping her arm across the room toward the half-dozen on looking students. “All these marks are from our hard work together everyday––dancing.” I looked up from the floor to the students and down to the floor again. My eyes, now wide open, saw how speckled the floor was. In conversations “Hatchobori” often becomes a metaphor for our dance lives, relationships, obligations, and the Tachibana dance tradition.

Hahn writes —“This story illustrates how the ‘house’ embodies our dance, and how each of us contributes to the physical form of the house. The surface nicks and stains are insignificant in themselves, but they are a tangible result of physical exertion during the process of learning. They are manifestations of the hours we practice there together, generations of marks layered upon each other. Dancing bodies created these marks which are symbolic contributions to the larger representation of the school body and an instantiation of our strong bonds.”

Sensational Knowledge: Embodying Culture Through Japanese Dance is accompanied by a DVD that provides a unique companion to the book, taking viewers inside private nihon buyo lessons.

Hahn has been a faculty member at Rensselaer since 2002. She is a performer and ethnologist whose activities span a wide range of topics including: Japanese traditional performing arts, Monster Truck rallies, issues of identity and creative expression of multiracial individuals, and relationships of technology and culture; interactive dance/movement performance; and gestural control and extended human/computer interface in the performing arts. For more information regarding Tomie Hahn, go to http://www.arts.rpi.edu/tomie/.

Hahn received her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University, an M.A. in urban ethnomusicology from New York University, and a B.S. in performance and art history from Indiana University (Bloomington). She is also a teacher/performer of shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute).

Hahn has spoken and performed in such venues as New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institute. The American Museum of Natural History, Japan Society, Asia Society, the Freer-Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute, MIT Media Lab, Franklin Furnace, ABC No Rio, Mobius, and Galapagos Art Space. She has collaborated with Curtis Bahn for several decades in the development of new experimental intermedia works and new performance technologies. Their work has been featured in The New York Times, Art Byte, and other publications.