TOAST Presents | A Lightness of Being

London-based Japanese dance artist Takeshi Matsumoto has been touring his immersive, interactive piece Club Origami since 2021. The performance invites children and young audiences to invent their own origami shapes from paper, with their creations inspiring the movements of the professional dancers on stage. “Paper is light, flexible, and moldable; you can scrunch it and change its shape very easily,” says Takeshi. He relates the pliable nature of the material to the boundlessness of the human imagination - especially when it’s shared. “When you work alone, you can get stuck in your head,” Takeshi adds. “Working with your community, or a group of artists, really helps ideas to flourish.”

In this collaborative spirit, Takeshi has joined director Joel Kerr and dancers Francesca Matthys and Masumi Saito to create a film celebrating the launch of the TOAST Spring Summer 2025 collection, A Lightness of Being. Throughout the season, we're exploring how embracing a playful approach to life can foster a sense of joy and creativity. “Play allows for an escape from the rigid, through imagination, improvisation and experimentation,” says TOAST Creative Director, Laura Shippey. “We look at how play helps us understand the world, lifts the spirit and brings us closer together.”

“To me, this concept means enjoying the small details, finding inspiration and playfulness in everyday life,” says Kerr. “It’s about using the language of art as a lifestyle - living in a way that’s open minded and ready to be.” Using these ideas, as well as the ideas behind Club Origami as a starting point, Joel, Takeshi, and the dancers took a spontaneous, improvisatory approach to filming, preparing minimal choreography before shooting on a windy day at an airstrip in Hungerford, Berkshire. “I usually shoot a lot on analog film. Having limited footage, and really committing to whatever you choose to shoot, has shaped the way I work,” says Kerr. “I always love setting up a scene with a few references, then allowing people to play and engage with the environment. I’m an imperfectionist and love it when things go wrong.”

The references the dancers play with in the film are a variety of objects ranging from colorful paper kites mounted on bamboo poles to origami helicopter seeds, all of which were designed by artist Finlay Abbott Ellwood. Their interactions with the objects are also guided by three simple instructions - “build a kite from found elements in nature,” “dance like a kite learning to fly,” and “now set it free” - that are narrated by a voiceover. The inclusion of these directions was inspired by the Instruction Paintings of Japanese performance artist Yoko Ono, whose large retrospective at Tate Modern in London last year Takeshi helped create a relaxed performance for.

“We had to use our intuition to respond to the material we’re working with,” says Takeshi of improvising with the props. “It was about listening to these materials - how they influence the body and the ways they invite us to move.” He describes how, as it was very windy when he was manipulating the kite, he had to ground himself and engage his knees and core muscles to maintain control and stability. “It was about the relationship between my body and the kite, but also my body and the ground. I had to keep finding gravity.”

Takeshi believes that physically attuning to inanimate objects in this way can foster a sense of empathy between living and non-living things. “That’s something I think is lacking in society right now,” he says. “Having empathy not just for people, but for objects too.” He attributes this perspective to his upbringing in Japan, where he was introduced to the concept of animism. “In Shintoism, a Japanese religion, there are eight million gods. They can take the form of objects or natural elements like trees.” As a result, Takeshi views objects as “friends or equal entities” rather than passive tools. “I try to recognise their spirits and sense of aliveness.”

Empathetic observation not only informs Takeshi’s performance practice, but also his work as a trained dance movement psychotherapist. In this role, he has worked with refugees, survivors of nuclear disaster, and individuals with learning disabilities, helping them find expression and connection through movement. “Through observing my clients, I’ve noticed that movement is deeply personal,” he says. Many people, however, forget to move regularly, becoming stuck in their heads rather than engaging their bodies to alleviate struggles. “When you move your body, ideas flow, and creativity flourishes. There is a lightness to it.”

The paper and bamboo props in A Lightness of Being were not the only elements that influenced Takeshi and his fellow performers movements; the garments from TOAST’s latest collection, worn during filming, also shaped the choreography. Each dancer wears two outfits during the film, “one that’s more practical, and shows the functionality and detailing of the garments, and another that was more loose, free flowing, and colourful,” explains Kerr. “They are very kind to the moving body,” says Takeshi, noting the freedom that the TOAST garments gave him and his fellow dancers to experiment physically. “I also noticed the quality and longevity of the fabric,” he adds. “They’re clothes that can last and that could be worn by my children or grandchildren.”

This concern for future generations is deeply personal to Takeshi. The artistic collective he co-founded, Seven Circles, which produced Club Origami, is built upon the seventh generation principle - an idea practiced by the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, an alliance of six Native American nations. “The principle is that the decisions we make today must consider the next seven generations. Our actions don’t just affect our immediate sphere; they have an impact on the future,” Takeshi explains. “It’s about connecting to something greater than ourselves - whether that’s other humans, nature, animals, the earth, the environment, or society as a whole.”

With this in mind, Takeshi and Kerr carefully considered the impact of A Lightness of Being would have beyond their immediate circles. On an environmental level, “we were conscious about the props we used, keeping it minimal and simple,” says Kerr, explaining that they only worked with natural materials, mirroring the TOAST approach to circularity. The film’s emotional impact on viewers was also a key consideration. “When I perform for children, I always want them to take part of the show with them and continue playing with it at home,” says Takeshi. “That’s what I hope happens with this film. I hope it manifests calmness and lightness, inspiring people to have a moment of stillness, peace, or quiet. To recuperate, recover, rest, or feel energized.” Kerr agrees. “I just love the idea of communicating the simplicity of being playful,” he says. “By using your body, dancing, stretching, and moving, you can transform your mindset in an immediate way.”