TROOPER’S BROTHER
June 14-16, 2022
Roulette, Brooklyn NY
Choreographed and directed by Nami Yamamoto
In collaboration with Takemi Kitamura, Leah Ogawa, and Anna Vomacka
Lighting Design by Kathy Kaufmann
Costume Design by Nina Katan
Music by Boredoms, Mozart Heroes, Queen
ABOUT Trooper’s Brother
Trooper’s Brother is inspired by my experience going through multiple surgeries with Dr. Deborah Axelrod at NYU Langone Medical Center. She is a breast surgeon who dresses up as a kitty cat on Halloween. My relationship with her changed from calling Dr. Axelrod to Deborah throughout my diagnosis process. My observations and interactions with Dr. Axelrod, her nurses, and colleagues are my inspiration to create this work.
Some points to view:
Cue point 16:25 The piece opens with a 35 sq piece of paper pre-set on the stage right with a puppet crawling in from the stage left. Dancers manipulate breast-shaped stress balls, dodgeballs, and paper puppets. At the cue, the puppets dance to music by Queen, “We are the Champion.”
Cue point 31:00 The piece opens with a 35 sq piece of paper pre-set on the stage right with a puppet crawling in from the stage left. Dancers manipulate breast-shaped stress balls, dodgeballs, and paper puppets. The cue shows how I used the puppet limbs to create a world.
WHAT HAPPENS IN TROOPER’S BROTHER
We manipulate different objects, such as fake breasts, simple hand-made three feet tall paper puppets, 35 sq feet brown wrapping paper. The weight of the breast-shaped stress ball sometimes takes over a dancer’s body and the dancer smashes the stress ball on the floor as if tissue from a breast gets thrown away after the pathology exam. The dancer holds the breast-shaped dodgeballs high up by extending her arms. The dodgeballs act like surveillance cameras.
The handmade paper puppets are manipulated by one dancer at a time. The puppet’s feet are attached between the dancer’s first and second toe. We play an idea of who is leading. Can the puppet bring the puppeteer into their imaginary world?
If the first half of the piece is about what happened in our body, the second half is about what happened in our minds. The objects that we were manipulating begin to haunt us. The puppet becomes dissected into a piece of bundled-up paper. We obsess about pieces of puppet parts that have no shape, no life, or no meaning anymore. The shape of our body changes with time and age. But, we are still living, breathing, surviving, and celebrating our lives.
credits for trooper’s brother
Trooper’s Brother was developed at St. Ann’s Warehouse Puppet Lab with Matt Acheson and Lake Simons as Lab Co-Directors at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, NY, in 2019.
Trooper’s Brother was created, in part, with a space grant in 2019 from BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange with support from the New York State Council on the Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the Jerome Foundation and the Howard Gilman foundation.
Trooper’s Brother was also supported, in part, by CPR – Center for Performance Research’s Artist-in-Residence program in 2020-21, which is made possible, in part, through the National Endowment for the Arts and Dance/NYC’s New York City Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program, an initiative made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Nami Yamamoto researched, developed and honed Trooper’s Brother with financial, administrative and residency support from Dance in Process at Gibney in 2020-21.
Nami Yamamoto also received NDA/New Dance Alliance’s LiftOff Creative and Project Development Residency in 2020-21 to develop Trooper’s Brother.
Trooper’s Brother was developed in part during a residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York, NY.
Trooper’s Brother was supported by Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.
comments from my peers
It truly moved me very deeply.
I felt so surprised and intrigued and moved by your performances. I appreciated the humor but also the devastation. It tapped into a pretty deep mysterious place for me.
The show was so brilliant. So many star moments-beautiful duets and solos and group moments. I was really moved by the work. It felt like life pushing onward while the remains of things lost were remembered and cared for.
The work was very moving (sad, funny, absurd, delightful). All your performers are doing a great job and they are all so distinct.
I've been meaning to write and say that this piece was one of the most moving and powerful pieces of art I've seen in a LONG time!! It just knocked me out. Biggest bravas to you.
I just watched the video. This is the best thing I have seen in some years. It is perfectly beyond words.
The absurdity and clarity ring really resonantly for me.
WHAT A BEAUTIFUL AND MOVING PERFORMANCE!!!
I loved how you worked with the music, and how each performer was so strong and distinct. Obviously the puppets were amazing and somehow so poignant. Even in the work sample in your grant application, the dance to "We Are The Champions" made me cry! I don't know why. But I also laughed a lot.