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NOH themes - Being on the Outside - Thirteen - Glorious Day for an Unknown Woman - Ho! - Mas Didik - Elsewhere Here - Lenni Basso & Baneto - Norton, I - Supergirl Power Activate - YooWho in the NOH |
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September 29th & 30th - 2003
NOH THEMES - Works in Progress Veteran artists Sachiko Nakamura, Hiroko Tamano and Winston Tong join together to offer theme and variations on Noh in their own unique styles. Sachiko Nakamura's new work is entitled The Red Line, The Blue Line and The Yellow Line and takes the audience on a journey through the subway systems of Tokyo, Japan. All names and places have been changed to protect the innocent. Winston Tong reads his translated version of Jean Genet's The One Condemned to Death taken from A Day for a Lay, Joffrey Gillard's compilation of gaypoetry. Jean Genet has long been hailed the "poet of the gutters". Tong rekindles the fire of Genet's text and highlights how "Genet's narrative lyrics fuse compassion for outsiders and outcasts with a fierce eroticism." Local Butoh legend Hiroko Tamano offers a new solo entitled Luna Tone. In her classic Butoh style Tamano collaborates with glass-designer Kana Tanaka and sound designer Reiko Hasegawa. |
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August 25th & 26th - 2003 Being
on the Outside Conceived and Directed by Alice Shikina Being on the Outside unites some of the Bay Area's most innovative writers to create a series of monologues about people who feel misunderstood and are somehow ostracized from society.Woven together through creative movement and music, Being on the Outside is a journey into the landscape of the exiled. American Dream by Melissa Klein, All Numbers Are Approximate by Tony Pisculli, Job Interview by Seana Magee, Holding by Margery Kreitman, Yellow Hair in a Fishbowl - Excerpts from Getting Matriarchal by Carl Thelin, Billy by Alice Shikina, Prognosis by Marilyn Krieger Hughes, In Myron's Defense by Melinda Fogle, Lily by Jane Chen, and Channel Surfing by Aoise Stratford Set Design by Michael Mckinley & Laurie Buenafe |
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 Photo: Kamala Dolphin Kingsley |
July 21st & 22nd - 2003 Thirteen Haruko
Nishimura Thirteen
explodes with cruelty and sweetness as it offers a glimpse into
the life of a thirteen-year-old girl. Soloist Haruko Nishimura explores
moments of emotional and spiritual awakenings, revealing the strong
undercurrent of the struggle between power and powerlessness. Time and
space are stretched as Nishimura dances the spirit of many young girls,
and lives through their moments of confrontation. Live music is provided
by Joshua Kohl and Jherek Bischoff, two members of Degenerate
Art Ensemble, a Seattle - based experimental music/dance/theater
company. The duo creates a rich soundscape, with Bishoff on the acoustic
bass creating unimaginable sounds, and Kohl on his self-made harp/violin/gong/percussion/kalimba
contraption. These musicians are razor sharp, serious and not to be
missed! Haruko Nishimura studied classical Japanese dance with
master Fujima Fujimine (disciple of the late Fujima Fujiko, a National
Treasure of Japan). She has also studied Butoh with Yumiko Yoshioka
and Shinichi Momo Koga, among others. She has developed a unique style
through her own explorations of performance art, music and movement
theater. She is the Director and Choreographer of Seattle's Degenerate
Art Ensemble. Her most recent major works include Nymph and Scream!Liondogs
which were both commissioned by On The Boards in Seattle, WA. She has
performed as a dancer in Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Netherlands,
France and Slovakia. This winter her latest work-Dreams From Wounded
Mouth- will debut in Berlin at Orph Theater and in Lublijana, Slovenia.
She is also a member of the San Francisco-based Butoh company inkBoat.
She performed in inkBoat's Onion at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
(The Forum) in November 2002. Haruko loves to escape the formal settings
of theater and regularly performs in nightclubs, the streets and other
unusual environments. She is constantly inspired by all of the ruthless
underground artists and visionaries around the world. More information
about her work at: www.degenerateartensemble.com and www.inkboat.com.
One week ago Jherek Bischoff weighed 431 pounds; however, after
joining up with the Degenerate Art Ensemble's, the dead science, (www.thedeadscience.com)
xiu xiu (www.xiuxiu.org) and Tokyo sex whale , among other side projects
that now occupy his eating time. . . he is off to a great start on trimming
down and feeling happy. Joshua Kohl has studied composition
with internationally renowned composers Bright Sheng, Bern Herbolsheimer,
and Jarad Powell. Kohl received a fellowship from Artist Trust in 1998,
and has been awarded commissions from Seattle, King County and the Washington
State Arts Commission. Concerts including his works have been performed
throughout the US, Germany, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Netherlands and
France. The Northwest Symphony premiered his Concerto For Clarinet And
Orchestra in 2000. He is a founding member, Conductor, Co-Director and
Composer for Degenerate Art Ensemble. Under his direction, the Ensemble
has grown to become a leader in contemporary performance. He is also
a performing member of the San Francisco based Music and Butoh Dance
Theater troupe inkBoat.
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June 16th & 17th - 2003 Micheal Sakamoto Glorious Day for an Unknown Woman In August of 2002 Sakamoto was a featured soloist in the San Francisco Butoh Festival's Grand Finale performance of American Butoh: New Visions. Sakamoto returns to Noh Space with Glorious Day for an Unknown Woman, which depicts through text, dance, expressionistic lighting and indelible stage images, the story of a mysterious benshi (Japanese silent film narrator) and the beautiful female personae that he loved and glorified. Glorious Day takes as its main character a benshi - men who interpreted, narrated and acted out silent films for audiences in Japan. Inspired by the careers of such silent film masters as Charlie Chaplin, Abel Gance and Eric von Stroheim, Sakamoto travels the world, attempting to express characters searching for a pure, transcendent love. Glorious Day is the third part of Sakamoto's The Cinema Trilogy, three performances which deal with society's historical relationship to cinema in three countries chosen as primary exemplars: Japan as the East, France as the West and the US as popular culture. Each part of The Cinema Trilogy is a melancholy yet playful expression of dreams and idols- real and imagined. Inspired by the dark, spare style of such artists as the Brothers Quay and Tom Waits, Sakamoto takes the audience on a dark and magical journey into a dream-like world where experience is measured in the smallest gestures, and time by the faintest heartbeat. Haunting, with melodramatic contrasting the understated, Glorious Day, combines Butoh classical and popular music with Japanese, French and English text. Background details for the show's character are presented through extensive program notes, adding to an air of historical realism. Sakamoto's multidisciplinary stage work presents a simultaneous attraction to passionate intellectual discourse and wistful dreamlike images and experiences. His work lies squarely between the mythically pop, subversive tradition and collagist sensibilities of such artists as Andy Warhol, Jean-Luc Godard and John Zorn and the haunting dreamscapes of Kazuo Ohno. Sakamoto addresses the subconscious through disturbing, iconic, yet highly emotional imagery as well as concrete details via fictional characters fully contextualized within history, culture and language. Sakamoto has created over a dozen performances caught in an absurdist, dialectic purgatory between East and West. His fascination with film culture led to the critically acclaimed Cinema Trilogy. The Los Angeles Times hails Sakamoto's performance as "seductive, poetic, transformative, wistful, a commanding performer... a dramatic tour de force." Michael Sakamoto lives and works in Los Angeles and received his BA in communication from UCLA. Michael has written, produced and performed numerous solo and collaborative shows since 1995 and has toured extensively throughout California and Arizona. As a visual artist he shows in solo and group art exhibitions. In 2001 Michael was awarded the Irvine Foundation's California Dancemaker Award. In 2002 he was a Djerassi Artist-in-Residence in Woodside, California. Michael teaches mind-body movement with a focus on presence and expression. He also teaches introduction to performance art, both history and practice.
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May 19th & 20th - 2003 Ho! Mauro ffortissimo, with members of Half Moon Bay's OHM ensemble in an evening of poetic sounds and sculpted musical compositions. Led by Mauro ffortissimo, the group includes Ander Meyer, Jarem Basserman and Robert Sopper and features the upright bass, cello and theramin, acoustic and amplified guitar and ffortissimoÕs trademark "Piano Liberado" Š the front and back string-side of an upright piano. Ho! is a translation of the word "tototsu", a kind of challenging cry uttered at the moment of enlightenment. The groupÕs compositions take the shape of sound poetry, including vocals and experimental uses of instruments. ffortissimo oftens strums and plucks the exposed strings on the back side of the piano while simultaneously blowing on a mouth organ accordion. OHM Š the Order of Half Moon Š is a musicianÕs collective which seeks to understand and deliver ancient and primal responses to sound through exploration and sound experiment. Their work draws from an eclectic assortment of sources - from Bach to Brahms, Astor Piazzolla to Villa Lobos, and from Basho to John Cage. Mauro Di Nucci A native of Argentina, Mauro studied piano as well as visual arts at the Escuela de Artes Visuales in Buenos Aires, and moved to San Francisco in 1980 where he began performing under the pseudonym of Mauro FF (Fortissimo). He was a co-founder of San FranciscoÕs Folsom Music/Experimental Sounds Laboratorium, and has performed/recorded with India Cooke, Kash Killion, Liz Lamatia, Glenn Spearmin, Armando Perazza, Ralph Carney, Reggie Workman and Don Cherry. He has performed at KimballÕs West, YoshiÕs, Theatre Artaud, Cafˇ Babar, SOMA, Cafˇ du Nord and Concepts Cultural Gallery, and annually at The Mel Mello Center for the Performing Arts. With partner Carrie Hollister he founded and operates the ENSO Arts Collective, dedicated to providing economically viable opportunities for lively, alternate artistic expression to audiences in Half Moon Bay. Also a sheetmetal and copper sculptural artist, his work (as Mauro efef) can be seen at www.nextmonet.com and www.medusa.org. |
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April 7th & 8th - 2003 Javanese and Balinese dance by Mas Didik DIDIK NINI THOWOK is one of the most frequently requested multi - talented artist in Indonesia (performance artist , choreographer, dancer, teacher, mime, actor, make-up artist, comedian and singer who appears regularly on National Television). Didik Nini Thowok's fame propelled him throughout Indonesia for his unique style; combining classical, folk, modern and comedic dance form. He is one of the few artist who continues the long tradition of " Traditional Cross Gender " in the dance form. His talent in impersonating female characters as well as his incredible skill in various dance traditions such as topeng (mask dance), Sundanese, Cirebon, Balinese, and of course Central Javanese; has on many occasions dumfounded the audience in determining the gender of the artist. Didik Nini Thowok has performed for the highest dignitaries throughout the world. Didik Nini Thowok Dance Studio teaches many styles of dances, including Javanese, Sundanese, Cirebon Mask Dance, Balinese and Original Choreography. He has performed for dignitaries and recieved awards from Japan, Britain, Belgium among others. |
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March 10th & 11th - 2003 Butoh performer
Ledoh and musician Reverend Markus Hawkins in Together, these artists have surfed the San Francisco arts scene, riding the waves from one Bush administration to the next! Their history is rooted in the local underground arts movement. Ledoh recalls in the early years that they conducted guerilla performances on art school campuses as "a reaction against institutionalized creativity". They have performed annually in the Tenderloin's Cohen Alley as a highlight of the In the Street Theatre Festival and have been featured at numerous warehouse events throughout SOMA and the Mission District. In the course of their journey the pair have been joined by a steadily growing San Francisco cult following. Their creative partnership was the seed for the performance collective Ledoh & Salt Farm. Elsewhere Here creates a minimal sound and movement landscape. A deep energetic connection forms between body and violin. Ledoh and Hawkins communicate without the traditional tools of sight or score. This new work honors the aesthetic they have honed over the past decade. Prepare for bone chilling music accompanied by fluid instinctive movement. Ledoh - Dancer and Choreographer Ledoh was born into the Ka-Ren culture, one of the largest hill tribes in Burma and Northern Thailand. After moving to the U.S. as a young adult, he trained in the martial arts and bodywork, including Breema. In Kyoto in 1989, Ledoh discovered Butoh via master performer Katsura Kan, with whom he recently performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to five-star reviews. Ledoh's site-specific collaborations with the musician Reverend Markus Hawkins have electrified audiences a: Dance Mission, Fort Mason's Cowell Theatre, the Marin Headlands Center for the Arts, Theatre of Yugen, Yerba Buena Gardens, Justin Herman Plaza, the Tenderloin's Cohen Alley, Mendocino's Eel River, and at local art-school campuses. In 1998 he founded the Butoh performance community Salt Farm with Hawkins and stage/ lighting designer Ruth Gumnit. In Autumn of 2003, Ledoh & Salt Farm will be artists in residence at the Marin Headlands Center for the Arts to develop and present a new piece that celebrates the sung poetry (HTA) of Ledoh's Ka-Ren culture. HTA-IN-MOTION will culminate in a multi-media dance theater production to be toured internationally. HTA-In-MOTION is perhaps the first contemporary expression of the traditional arts of this isolated Southeast Asian indigenous minority. Reverend Markus Hawkins - Musician and Composer Born in Texas, Markus is a conservatory-trained violist, violinist and composer, who has studied at institutions ranging from Meadowmount to the Saint -Louis and Cincinnati Conservatories of Music. In 1984 he came to San Francisco, at first teaching private students, freelancing in various orchestral ensembles, and offering numerous recitals, including Carnegie Recital Hall in 1985. In 1987 Markus and the Performing Arts Society of Contra Costa County commissioned a sonata for viola from Ernst Bacon, who began to lose his sight while working on the piece. Ironically, Markus himself experienced a loss in vision during this period, so the piece was premiered by the principal violist of the San Francisco Symphony. Markus soon moved to the heart of the experimental music community, working in genres ranging from American Folk to electronic. Markus is a master soloist who never fails to captivate his listeners with his soulful improvisations. He also composes provocative electronic music that weaves together the classical and the iconoclastic. Markus also maintains a bodywork practice in San Francisco. Salt Farm In 1998 Ledoh founded Salt Farm as a creative response to fundamental tensions between technology and the survival of the organic life force. Salt Farm is comprised of two composers and seven people from different walks of life whom Ledoh convinced to step onto the "stage" as dancers. Salt Farm has performed at several Bay Area venues. Recent shows include River, Rock, Sun at Camp Kunstoff 2002; a site-specific outdoor performance, where Ledoh and three company members enter the stage from the nearby river, emerging from icy waters. Last summer Salt Farm collaborated with sound installation artist Kitundu to present Reverberation at the Headlands Center for the Arts. Salt Farm also featured their piece Pause at The San Francisco Butoh Festival 2002- Grand Finale, where they performed to a sold out audience at Fort Mason's Cowell Theater (SF, CA). The process of Salt Farm is akin to that of a village that prepares for a local festival: by not only dancing but also cooking, eating, sewing, and managing all aspects of the company together, we create and share new forms of community. |
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Thursday-Sunday, February 20th through 23rd, 2003, 8:00pm
ODC Theater and Theatre of Yugen co-present
Leni-Basso & Study of Live Works BANETO Two of Japan's young contemporary dance companies in their first West Coast appearance The performance includes two dances: Finks by Leni-Basso and A Time Knit Sweater by BANETO. With support by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan and Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), this special weekend performance marks the first time the two companies have performed together on the West Coast. A unique perspective on contemporary Japanese dance Founded in 1994 by Akiko Kitamura, Leni-Basso is a contemporary dance company whose creations have been called "multimedia theater" productions. Featuring artistic stage lighting, computer graphics, intense sound effects and spatial design, these elements all freely intertwine then evolve. Known for its visual and physical stimuli, Leni-Basso performances build an interactive relationship between stage and audience. In Finks, created by Artistic Director Akiko Kitamura, Leni-Basso explores the theme of communication in dance. Dance Magazine Japan raves about Finks stating: "It could be said that a masterpiece is born!" Finks is performed on a simple space where four cameras are installed in four corners against the background of two huge screens. The actions of the dancers are so intense and violent that audiences immediately think of martial arts. Study of Live Works BANETO: Since its founding in 1996 by choreographer and video artist Tsuyoshi Shirai and musician and sound composer Yusuke Awazu, BANETO has gained an enthusiastic following for its sardonic wit and fresh use of movement and media juxtapositions. In BANETO's Time Knit Sweater, our firmly held perception of time as a dimension that is inescapably linear and irreversible is deliberately fragmented. The piece digests this time line, reprocessing it with interruptions and reversals until the sensation of progression itself becomes virtual. As the sequential order of events dissolves, video imagery combines with live movement, and pre-recorded sound combines with live voices to jumble the senses in an unexpected and delightful way. A Time Knit Sweater received an overwhelming response from a packed audience at its showcase presentation for the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Conference, and The New York Times proclaimed it "a clever, polished piece" that "becomes a sophisticated metaphor for modern society." Co-presented with ODC, this production is supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan and WESTAF. |
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Monday
January 13th & Tuesday 14th, 2003, 8:00pm
Theatre of Yugen presents workshop productions of Norton, I (The Fall and Rise of the First Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico) by Lluis Valls and An inspiration for many writers of the time, such as Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce, Norton was both ridiculed and pitied, and made his way through an insane world the best he could, with dignity, humor and more than just a touch of grace. Drawing from his own proclamations, written accounts from the time and the writings of William Drury and other scholars, the piece is a journey through time and space, utilizing modern theatrical techniques, mixed with classical Japanese visual aesthetics and forms. The haunting images and music of a golden era, mixed with modern audio/video techniques, and healthy a dose of the theater of the absurd are needed to portray the world within, and without, of the man who would be King, or rather Emperor. |
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"...[a] traveling showcase of glitter, humor and supremely surreal performance..." -OutNow Magazine, San Francisco, 2001
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Monday 25th & Tuesday 26th, November 2002, 8:00pm Yugen Presents - features an evening of dance, performance art, video, and theater by superheroines from across the country!! "Quite the vision to behold..." Dance Insider P Power Performance Project's SUPERGIRL POWER ACTIVATE!!! an evening of dance, performance art, video, and theater by superheroines from across the country Women of extraordinary power from across the country are revving up for a spectacular evening of super-powered performance. P Power is a muti-year touring event fueled by the desire to create a worldwide legion of super women, superheroines, supergirls, their friends, fans and lovers. P Power kicks off their 2002 season with their second San Francisco performance. Showcasing the sublime talents of: Fuji Maid-Onna (Roko Kawai, Philadelphia) -A feminist parody of the Wisteria Maiden classic, "Fuji Musume," considered the ultimate kabuki depiction of beauty and sensuality in a young Japanese woman for nearly 200 years. La Sirena (Martha McDonald, Philadelphia): Called a "solo sensation" by TimeOut New York, this mezzo-soprano/performance artist uses Baroque arias, personal narrative, humor and video to explore the sexually-charged myth of the siren. Accompanied by guitar and cello, La Sirena plumbs the depths of this half-woman/half-beast who's seductive and deadly voice speaks the truth men don't want to hear terrifying and titillating us all. An excerpt from Girls on the Rocks, an evening length multi-media performance spectacle exploring the myths of mermaids, sirens and harpies. The world famous Ms. Exposia (Lindsay Sworski, San Diego) is a freak of nature alien creature unlike any other being on earth - she only tells the truth. Caged and soul-naked, ask her any question you want about her inside self, and get more honesty than you paid for. A simple woman-person, like any you may meet on the street - yet for these few staged minutes she has no secrets. Get your piece. Pasta Girl (Jessica Dellecave-Philadelphia); P Power's founder and curator will hostess the evening performing four shorts of diverse genres. Described by and Philadelphia Weekly as "Fascinating...for utter conviction as flying feminist in sequined pasties and satin cape." Also with special vocally modulated guest Kathryn Matzen (San Francisco) performing "the Soft Underbelly of Language," choreographed by Lisa Fay (Illinois). The P Power Performance Project is a multi-city event committed to expanding images of women and power within the context of performance. P Power's mission is to rally, unite and ally artists working with the theme of woman/girl as ultra-powerful super being. P Power's vision is to present a series which showcases artists of diverse performance genres from different cities. P Power is a multiple year touring project which curates different artists into each venue. |
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Monday & Tuesday,October 14th & 15th, 2002 at 8:00 PM world class clown Moshe Cohen is YooWho in the Noh Moshe Cohen blends elements of European clowning with a Yiddish-absurdist sense of humor and influences of Japanese theater. Transforming traditional skills of magic, juggling and mime into moments of absurdity and insight, he interacts and improvises with the audience, creating fantasies with floating plastic bags and sonatas with whirling tubes. As the US representative of Clowns Without Borders - a humanitarian organization that sends performers to zones of conflict worldwide - Cohen also performs in refugee camps, collective centers, prisons and schools. Locally, Moshe Cohen directs and performs with Clown Conspiracy, and with Derique McGee and Wendy Parkman (ex-Pickle Family Circus) in Circ Do Something. This December he will collaborate with A Traveling Jewish Theater, performing with Joan Mankin and Eric Miller in Moonwatcher, directed by Corey Fisher. |
