So, this guy is the actual miracle aligner!
Has he shared any takeaways from the first show?
This is not exactly a takeaway
after the first show, but an interesting exchange between choreographers, Kikunojo Onoe and Kenji Miyamoto, during production, taken from the program brochure of
Hyoen - Basara (yes, I scanned the pages and had them OCRed
) :
-One of the highlights of "Basara" is the choreography by two people who are active at the forefront of completely different genres. Kabuki and figure skating. This was the first time you two met. So what were your first impressions of each other?
Miyamoto Kenji (hereafter Miyamoto): To be honest, I had the impression that working with Kabuki actors was a bit intimidating, but when I met Kikunojo, he was very friendly and easy to talk to. and I felt like we were able to share the fun feeling of "creating together" right away. Kikunojo is very gentle and kind, so it's easy to ask him anything. He answered my various questions carefully, such as "In Kabuki terms, what kind of movement would this be?" We started exchanging various ideas frankly from quite early on.
Onoe Kikunojo (hereafter Kikunojo): As we talked and explored each other's ideas, the most interesting thing was the story of Renrihiki* [*this translation might be incorrect] (a type of kabuki performance in which a vengeful spirit reaches out and pulls a person from behind and the person grabs the collar and moves backwards). You want to go this way, but someone grabs you by your collar and takes you away, pulling you by the hand and taking you away. On ice, you can skate backwards while pretending to skate forward. In a normal play, you act that way yourself, but in skating, you can look as if you want to go forward, and you can skate backwards smoothly with your feet.
Miyamoto: That’s right.
Kikunojo: Miyamoto-san is a choreographer, but he was originally an ice dancer, so he is good at creating distances and has a very rich way of expressing emotions. I felt that there was something in common between us.
Miyamoto-san showed us his own choreography, so it's very interesting to see us show each other our movements. It's interesting and fun to watch Miyamoto-san show us how to do it.
— Before you first met, you both apparently went to see a Kabuki performance and an ice show to study each other.
Kikunojo: Until then, I had only seen skating on TV. I had never seen it before [live], and although I vaguely thought it was beautiful, I had never really looked at it from the perspective of how the movements were done, or how to combine this sport with Kabuki. So last year, I went to see ’Christmas on Ice," which Miyamoto-san was also involved in regarding the choreography. But to be honest, even after watching it, I still couldn't quite get a sense of it. I thought that if I went to see the show, I would somehow be able to get an idea of what it could be like [to combine the two], but the more I watched, the more I wondered what it would be like (laughs).
Miyamoto: Kabuki as a collaboration partner - when I looked at Kabuki and skating, I noticed that there are some parts that are very similar, but also some parts that are completely different. For example, the way the feet move, and the amount of force they put in. In skating, it is considered a beautiful form to bend the knee fully, and to fully extend it, but in Kabuki, when showing powerful movements, the legs are not fully extended. There are movements where the center of gravity is placed in the middle and the feet are pressed firmly against the ground, and there are many expressions of the feet that are not found in skating. One example is not showing the soles of the feet. Skaters express the body using even the blades of their skates. I learned that these aspects are completely different.
Kikunojo: The depiction of the feet was a big difference between Kabuki and skating. The costumes were also different. I learned from Miyamoto-san that figure skaters can't skate easily if their costumes are below the knees because its dangerous. I heard that the more professional the skater, the more stressed they are by the length of their costumes. But Kabuki actors, on the other hand, don't have to worry about that. In any case, its dangerous for Kabuki actors to wear skates (laughs). In that sense, the Kabuki actors will be "skaters with hidden feet," which you don t see in regular ice shows (laughs). Ichikawa Emiya’s costumes are quite interesting because they look like they're floating in the air when they skate on the ice.
— What do you think about the projection mapping used in this production? Projection mapping has already been used successfully in several performances, and it is known to be a good match for both Kabuki and figure skating.
Kikunojo: Projection mapping is often used as a background art, but it is very difficult to create a large-scale projection mapping that crawls on the ground like this time. Originally, Kabuki was performed in water, on high places, or on the beach, and it has been performed in various locations, but this time it is performed on ice and with skates on. This is of course unprecedented. It is not just figure skating and kabuki, but art that is truly a "three-way street." I felt that it was interesting and difficult to figure out how to combine the two.
Miyamoto: I have experience using projection mapping in productions I have been involved in*, but it is still a new form of expression, so each time I felt that I could have done a little better. This time I would like to take those lessons learned from the past and complete the ideal fusion with projection mapping.
[* I assume he referred to the two figure skating x projection mapping collaborations that he choreographed, “Fine on the outside”, which was a bonus feature on the DVD/Blu-Ray of the Studio Ghibli film “When Marnie was there” (2014) , and “GIFT” (2016).]
— This time, the kabuki actors are taking on the new challenge of skating, and the skaters are taking on kabuki gestures.
Miyamoto: When Kikunojo showed us his kabuki movements, I was impressed by how beautiful they looked from any angle, whether seen from behind or in front. I thought this would look great in the Yoyogi Gymnasium, where the audience seats cover a 360-degree angle.
Kikunojo: In this instance, instead of suggesting to the skaters, "Let's try this Kabuki movement," we provided them with Kabuki movements that made us think, "Oh, I see, this is Kabuki-like," or ”I can feel the traditional Japanese movements and atmosphere," and then trnsformed them into new expressions.
I hope we can continue to do so. Miyamoto-san probably feels the same way. It’s impossible to get a Kabuki actor to do the same movements as a skater (laughs). But I think that when Somegoro-san and the others say, "I want to do this kind of movement," Miyamoto-san thinks of a way to make it look like they’re really good at the sport, and I hope that we can fuse styles together.
Miyamoto: When someone says, "I want to do this kind of movement," our job is to figure out how to give it shape. However, this time there are technical issues with what you can and can't do with skates, so you have to choose which parts to use and which to give up. But it’s also fun to figure that out. When someone says they want to do something, and you think, "I can do this much, but I can't do that much... so how should I do it?" that's what gets me motivated to create.
Kikunojo: Through this performance I was surprised to learn that it is normal for skaters to practice at the skating rink late at night. I was shocked when I saw the timetable (laughs). I had no idea that even the most experienced skaters could only use the rink at night.
Miyamoto: You must have been surprised to see the schedule that goes until 5 am (laughs). From now until the performance there will be many late-night practices. Let’s do our best!
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(I guess this comes with the territory though as most established kabuki actors (the “fan-favourites”) seem to be at least middle-aged.) For instance, Ichikawa Ennosuke IV, who played Monkey D. Luffy, was 40 at the time. The show was re-staged in 2017 with a couple of changes to the script and direction and with different casts for the matinee and soiree performances. In the “special” matinee shows the characters were mainly portrayed by young actors while the cast for the “regular” soiree performances was the same as during the show’s first run. However, when Ichikawa Ennosuke IV broke his arm in an on-stage accident, he was permanently replaced by the young Monkey D. Luffy from the matinee shows, Ukon Onoe, who was 25 at the time.
Since Oda saw the first ice show in his life just a little more than a year ago, it might take time, but... My wild dreams are back. Thank you 
Maybe you can edit the title of this thread to include the 2021 spin-off and the 2024 production instead?
