dancing is a little too romantic for me is a collaborative performance and text developed from a dialogue of speech, sound, and images exchanged between Satoe Fukushima and Kim Zumpfe. This exchange revolved around obvious, subtle, and conjecture of cross-cultural influences between Japan and the United States, particularly late 20th century overlapping pieces and parts of culture, and therefore, our lives. And we asked ourselves, How does misreading cultural cues impact self-structuring and quality of lived experience?
The work is an extension of these discussions, with a focus on the inter-relationship between the economic boom of good times and wealth in post-war Japan with the Cold War production of the United States. People in both countries were having expectations of “the end,” visions of the bomb’s impact on bodies, quality of life, history, and the future that influenced visual and aural culture. Haunted by this mutually shared historical precedent, actions and gestures were formed in the face of potentially unlivable futures.
Writings and Performance: Satoe Fukushima and Kim Zumpfe
Sound Work: Kim Zumpfe
Performers: Nathan Bockelman, Jasmine Dillon, Nathalia Fagundes, Geovani Fregoso, Garrett Hallman, D Hill, Tu Nguyen, Alzira Lena Ruano, Monthira Soonthorsarathool, and Freddy Villalobos
dancing is a little too romantic for me was part of the series, Performance Killed the Video Star in conjunction with the exhibition SECOND WAVE: Aesthetic of the 80s in Today’s Contemporary Art, organized by UCR ARTSblock and curated by Jennifer Frias, Culver Center of the Arts + Sweeney Art Gallery. Support was provided by UCR’s College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CHASS), and the City of Riverside. Book published by Golden Spike Press.
Performance Image Credit: Christopher Wormald
Kim Zumpfe 