For RESTEP, the memories of her own cultural Japanese past play a role. Based on the movements and music of the different region-specific Japanese folk dances BON ODORI for the Buddhist summer festival OBON, Emi Miyoshi would like to explore dance, rhythmic and musical elements in a playful way, so that a separate contemporary perspective unfolds.

The folk dances, as part of religious and social rituals, are inscribed with collective memories and stories of an ethnic group and function as a common revival of a shared cultural past. So also the dance BON ODORI in Japan, which reconciles the ancestors when their souls return to their families from the afterlife in this world for the Buddhist festival OBON (お 盆, 御 盆). When individuals return to their place of origin at OBON, movements and chants that have been repetitive for centuries are practiced in a large circle with members of the family and local community, and the bond between the cultural group in the past and the present is remembered and renewed. BON ODORI has a multitude of different site-specific characteristics and is sometimes performed with singing, sometimes with gender segregation or with certain accessories. The dance is always characterized by incisive foot and leg movements towards the floor, which symbolize the connection with the spirits (as a kind of funeral prayer) and nature. Love is often the content of the lyric texts, so the dance performed in a large community also serves to search for a partner. As much as dance celebrates community and the connection to the hereafter, its content is always shaped by the topic of loss.

In RESTEP, Emi Miyoshi researches the multifaceted characteristics of the traditional folk dance BON ODORI and tries to transfer the energy and atmosphere into a contemporary modern variant. In doing so, she reflects and works critically with the symbolic meanings and hierarchies of the movements, which are shaped by everyday, cultural, ritual and religious enrollment.