About this event
When
Sat 17th Oct - Sun 18th Oct 2026
3:00pm & 2:00pm
Price
£14.40 - £48
Duration
50 minutes
Booking Info
Suitable for aged 18+, contains depictions of sexual violence, fashing lights, loud music, nudity, sexual content
Closed Captions on Saturday 17th October
Book here
RAPEFLOWER by Hana Umeda. Photography by PatMic
UK Premiere
RAPEFLOWER is an investigation conducted within one’s own body. It is in the body, not in the discourse, that the experience of sexual violence – both one’s own, inherited and learned — is intertwined with defense and survival strategies. This is a story about rape understood as a condition, not just a single event.
Identifying oneself as a survivor often entails silence. In order to avoid becoming an object of pity, one becomes invisible. Avoiding confrontation with the experience of rape can lead to a compulsion to repeat the traumatic situation in search of lost control.
In RAPEFLOWER, Hana Umeda evokes the traditions of the classic Japanese Jiutamai dance, a 19th-century art performed in Japan exclusively by women. For many of them, dance brought the experience of violence while in small rooms during closed shows they were subjected to sexual abuse. The movement, the tension of the body, its confinement and freezing – all of this can be found in the jiutamai body continuously passed on by masters to the next generations of female dancers. Using her personal history and the jiutamai tradition, Umeda reflects on whether dance or theater can become a space for emancipation and healing.
Fierce says:
“With a quiet, unrelenting intensity, Hana Umeda’s RAPEFLOWER is a marvel, moving seamlessly between the personal and the universal and unlocking moments of transformation through – or in spite of – the technical precision of classic Japanese Jiutamai dance.”
credits
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Concept, direction, choreography, text, performance: Hana Umeda
Dramaturgy, cooperation on the text: Weronika Murek
Video: Martyna Miller
Music: Olga Mysłowska
Lights Director: Aleksandr Prowaliński
Outside eye: Joanna Nuckowska
Production: Komuna Warszawa Theatre -
The project was produced by KOMUNA WARSZAWA THEATRE, selected as part of the Open Call for Performance 2024. Research for the performance was conducted as part of the SoDA MA program within the framework of HZT Berlin. This work was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union.
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This performance is made possible with support from Midlands Arts Centre, co-financed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
This performance is presented in Fierce Festival as part of THIS IS DANCE.
THIS IS DANCE is an international season of dance in Birmingham presented in partnership with Fabric, Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham Rep, Fierce Festival, Midlands Arts Centre and Sampad Arts, bringing exceptional dance from both across the globe and the local community.
