Vol. 76 Updated May. 1, 2012  |
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 Fifteen years after gathering fellow creators in video, sound, lighting and costume to launch the performing arts company Nibroll in 1997, Mikuni Yanaihara has continued activities as the group’s representative and choreographer. In the ongoing quest for her own artistic reality, she launched the “Mikuni Yanaihara Project” in 2005 and commenced activities in theater. In 2012, her play “Maemuki! Taimon” (Hey Timon, Let’s Think Positive!) won the coveted 56th Kishida Drama Award. In this interview we ask Mikuni Yanaihara to retrace the career that has made her the straightforward, positive artist as she is today, using words and physicality to shout out against the world’s disturbing realities. |
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 Makoto Nomura is a composer and pianist who pursues unique forms of collaborative composing by reaching out to the communities to involve groups of townspeople, the elderly, children, people with disabilities, dancers and even animals and paintings, in a process that employs improvisation with “non-musicians” and “non-musical forms of expression.” In this interview we learn about Nomura’s working method and how improvisation keeps him on the borderlines of various types of expression and helps him discover beautiful new music in the everyday life. |
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 Launched in 2005 and held annually just prior to the Association for Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) meeting in New York that gathers presenters and producers from throughout the country, the Under The Radar festival seeks to focus attention on cutting-edge works that aren’t performed at the major theaters. In this interview we spoke with the founder of Under The Radar and one of the most influential presenters in North America, Mark Russell, about his vision and activities. |
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 In 2011 Brazil’s contemporary dance Panorama Festival celebrated its 20th anniversary, having been launched in 1992 by the still-active choreographer Lia Rodrigues. Here we speak with the festival’s second director, Nayse Lôpez, to learn about Brazilian contemporary dance from its origins to the present and the role that the Panorama Festival is playing. |
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This is a play created by the drama club of the Iwate Prefectural Fukuoka High School, a school in the region struck by the devastating Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 2011. The play emerged from discussions between the drama club’s faculty advisor, Atsushi Okabe, and one of the club members, Ryo Dendo, regarding the things Dendo experienced and felt during the disaster. With its direct depiction of the experiences of a high school student, this play won the Award for Excellence and Encouragement Award for an original script in the 44th Tohoku District High School Theater Performance Competition. |
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This is a play written by Pelican Onobu, leader of the Fukushima-based theater company Manrui Toriking Ichiza that experienced the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and ensuing nuclear power plant accident. The play uses sequences of monologue fragments along with quotes from existing poems and newspaper articles to depict the events of that fateful day in Fukushima and the uncertainty and confusion following the earthquake and tsunami. |
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The Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture was founded in May of 2004 with an investment of 30 billion Korean won (approx. US$ 2,650,000) for the purpose of elevating the level of the arts in the South Korean capital (officially Seoul Special City) and stimulating its economy. The foundation engages in a wide range of programs including grants for the arts, arts education, arts/culture programs and the organizing of arts festivals. Another distinguishing aspect of the foundation’s activities is its use of historical buildings to provide artists with residence facilities and studios for creating works. |
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International Dance Artists Service NRW (iDAS NRW) was founded in July 2009 with the support of the Ministry of Family, Youth, Culture and Sport of the state of North Rhein-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen), a region recognized both in Germany and internationally for the quality and vitality of its contemporary dance scene and large number of dance companies. The mission of iDAS is to intensify this development by helping to bring more attention to dance and promote its appeal, while at the same time helping to build a more beneficial environment for dance artists and companies. To this aim, it provides dancers, choreographers, companies and presenters (organizations, groups, etc.) with services to assist in creation and performance tours. |
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 | Singapore Arts Festival opens (May 18 – June 2, 2012) New! (May. 15, 2012) |
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| 10th San Francisco International Arts Festival (May 2 – 20, 2012) New! (May. 17, 2012) |
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| Soliciting participants for the “Truth is concrete” 24/7 marathon camp at Austria’s Steirischer Herbst Festival (May 15 deadline) New! (May. 15, 2012) |
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| International applications solicited for “Asian Arts Theatre, 2012 Project Development Initiative” in Gwangju, ROK New! (May. 10, 2012) |
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| ROK hosts numerous Japanese theater productions in 2012 New! (May. 6, 2012) |
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| Kunstenfestivaldesarts Program Announced (May 4–26, 2012) Apr. 25, 2012 |
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Teita Iwabuchi in collaboration with Kaori Seki choreographed the work that drew the most attention (Dance Composition Division) out of the 140 entries from eight counties in the 2012 Yokohama Dance Collection EX, a contest widely known as the gateway to success for progressive new contemporary dance artists in Japan. After studying theater and Japanese traditional dance at university, Iwabuchi participated as a dancer in productions by such well-known groups as APE, Nibroll, Kim Itoh + the Glorious Future, Co. Yamada-Un and Ko & Edge. Co. Since 2005, he has presented works that have made him one of Japan’s most-talked about emerging choreographers. In this interview he talks about the directions he wants to pursue as an artist.
