Club Origami's folded paper allows kids' imaginations to flourish at Vancouver International Children’s Festival
Presented with Boca del Lupo, the accessible production by the U.K.’s Seven Circles encourages interactive learning
Club Origami. Photo by Summer Dean
Vancouver International Children’s Festival and Boca del Lupo’s Micro Performance Series present Seven Circles’ Club Origami at The NEST on Granville Island from May 27 to June 1
NEAR THE END of the interactive dance show Club Origami, there’s a section that the piece’s co-creators, Takeshi Matsumoto and Makiko Aoyama, like to call “children’s invasion”.
They’ve dubbed it that because audience members are free to join the performers onstage as they toss, crumple, and tear up all the white paper that has been meticulously folded into origami shapes over the past hour. But since the entire work is nonverbal, the performers don’t actually invite anyone onstage. It simply looks so fun to the children in the audience that, time and time again, they take it upon themselves to run up and join in on the shredding action.
Over a Zoom call with Stir from his home base in Croydon, U.K., Matsumoto calls the frenzy the peak of the performance.
“What really fascinates me is that, depending on where we go—you know, we’ve toured to 16 countries—it really shows the culture of the area and what kind of parenting they’re doing, what kind of schooling, the educational approach,” Matsumoto shares. “And it’s also really different between family audience members and then school audience members. So there are sort of ranges of participating and invading the space.”
Produced by Matsumoto’s company Seven Circles, Club Origami will have its North American premiere as part of this year’s Vancouver International Children’s Festival, and Matsumoto says he’s curious to see how audiences here react. Boca del Lupo is presenting the piece as part of its Micro Performance Series, which audiences may remember from the multisensory show TREE at last year’s festival.
Makiko Aoyama (left) and Takeshi Matsumoto in Club Origami. Photo by Summer Dean
Matsumoto was born and raised in Japan and has been based in the U.K. since 2005. The artist has a background in dance-movement psychotherapy working alongside children with autism, who tend to face difficulties in three facets of life: communication, social interaction, and imagination. Dance-movement psychotherapy, Matsumoto says, can teach a young person to become more aware of their own body and of other people. One example is when a therapist mirrors the movements of a child, which encourages eye contact and allows the child to notice that another person is indeed paying attention to their actions.
The principles of dance-movement psychotherapy have been incorporated into Club Origami along with other accessibility accommodations. At the beginning of the piece, for instance, children are handed a square piece of white A4 printer paper, which they can fold or scrunch as they please while any folks who might be running a bit behind filter into the theatre. Then all the kids’ creations are collected by Matsumoto and Aoyama, who display them onstage throughout the show. At one point, the artists respond to each of the origami pieces with abstract, improvised contemporary movement; if a shape is reminiscent of a bird, for example, they’ll become birds onstage.
The paper itself is also a key component of the work’s inclusivity.
“For some children, it really soothes their senses because it’s tactile,” Matsumoto notes, “and when you scrunch up, it creates sound. So from my experience working with disabled children, often they might feel calmer and more relaxed if they have something to hold onto or feel.”
Another important element of Club Origami is live music by Robert Howat, who plays xylosynth and creates a soundscape by ripping and scrunching paper, allowing viewers’ imaginations to flourish even further. Though the show is recommended for kids ages one to six, its principles can be helpful for folks in all stages of life.
“As we grow up, you know, we tend to forget the body is here, and hence also the feelings and sensations,” Matsumoto says. “So for me, one of the purposes is to bring attention back to the body using imagination, using movement and mobility. And I believe that as human beings, we have a capacity to maintain our health by just simply moving.”
There isn’t any fancy paper used in Club Origami. The kids get to fold plain printer paper cut into squares, and the stage is lined with a roll of white drawing paper from IKEA. And—though it may not seem so on first glance—choosing simple materials was very intentional.
“I remember as a child that I was fortunate enough for my parents to take me to theatres or concerts,” Matsumoto shares. “And when you watch something, then you reenact it at home. Children love imitating, you know? That’s how they learn. And I wanted the performance to continue in some way, within the imagination and thinking, but also with action and then with exploration at home. So that’s why it was important to use materials that they can find anywhere and then continue.
“So I warn parents to just keep important documents somewhere safe,” he adds with a grin. “Because they might rip.” 
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