TPAM Direction
Directors, whose activities are unique, are appointed by TPAM as the directors of this program. They freely propose concepts and new points of view in their directions, through which we can share contemporary ideas and issues to contemplate on the possibilities of performing arts.
Masashi Nomura Direction
What could be the contemporary theater of Asia that the whole region could share? We don’t know yet. Each of the three programs I propose this year, however, may suggest a lead to tackle this big question from two angles.
In today’s global system of capitalism and highly developed information society, the whole region of Asia has come to have a common ground of urban society to a certain extend. While Hickey Cancun Tornado and Girl X talk about the independence of an individual in a mature society, I believe they both may hint at the “now” of the entire Asia.
On the other hand, the more common ground we share, the more important and critical it must become for us to be aware of the cultural diversity and traditions of different areas in Asia. The word “contemporary” does not necessarily mean it’s all the same across Asia although we live in the same present time. In an attempt to fully understand this aspect of the issue, no play is more thought-provoking than the SCOT’s production of The Trojan Women that layers the ancient Greece with today’s wars, and reflect the Japanese traditional values upon the present realities of the world.
Photo: Hideto Maezawa
Masashi Nomura
(Producer)
Born in Nagano Prefecture in 1978. After working at public theater, Nomura joined the production division of the Seinendan Theater Company and Komaba Agora Theatre in 2007. In parallel, he worked as dramaturge for young directors. Currently a steering committee member of Asahi Art Square, he also teaches at Obirin University. Since October 2014, he is a program officer of Okinawa Prefecture Foundation for Cultural Promotion.
The Trojan Women Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Hall 2.10 Tue 17:00 * A post-performance talk by Tadashi Suzuki is held With English-Japanese interpretation • Presenters ¥1,500 購入リストに追加 Add to Basket • Audiences ¥2,500 ※ Registration / Ticket Since its premiere in 1974, this production has revealed the brutality of war — unchanging since the times of ancient Greece — through the visceral performances of the actors, trained in Suzuki’s signature method that combines traditional techniques from Japan and other world cultures. Adapted and Directed by: Tadashi Suzuki Based on the original text of Euripides Translated by: Chiaki Matsudaira Cast: Yasuhiro Fujimoto, Maki Saito, Aki Sato-Johnson, Yoichi Takemori, Daisuke Ueta, Haruo […]
Hikky Cancun Tornado Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Large Studio 2.7 Sat 19:00 2.8 Sun 16:00 * A post-performance talk by Hideto Iwai is heldWith English-Japanese interpretation •Presenter ¥1,500 購入リストに追加 Add to Basket 2015年02月07日 19:002015/02/07 19:00 2015年02月08日 16:002015/02/08 16:00 • Audience ¥2,500 ※ Registration / Ticket Premiered in 2003. Peace and the growing economy may be necessary for people to be happy but only those cannot make people happy. Through the eyes of the social withdrawals (Hikikomori), hiding in corners of society still today, Hikky Cancun Tornado puts humorous light on missteps, conflicts and contradictions contained in day-to-day communications within families. http://www.performingarts.jp/E/play/1108/1.html Written and Directed by: Hideto Iwai Cast: Kentaro […]
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Fumi Yokobori Direction
I would like to look at the work of “dancers” in my program. Within the strict bindings of choreography, or in a highly improvisational structure with some given rules, how do the dancers make “moments of dance” happen? Those moments, created by the dancers who have chosen this art as profession for their life, are to be appreciated. The choreographers construct and deconstruct their philosophy and methodology of inducing the “moment of becoming dance”, and repeat the process through their body. Then, at the present, how do they perceive the world through their body? This program shows the works of Pichet Kulunchun and Mika Kurosawa, choreographers who, based in Thailand and Japan respectively, have been creating new contexts of dance free from any conventional idea or methodology. At the same time, can they be free from the proposition that dance can be useful for society, and from the reasons why they dance?. I would like to examine how dance can be free from meanings and personal reasons, or in other words, how dance can be just dance. The two works I present this year are the ones that I firmly believe stand on the point where the two above-mentioned ideas cross.
Fumi Yokobori
Program Director, NPO DANCE BOX
She has been engaging in DANCE BOX since 1999. A trainee under the study program for upcoming artists of the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2006. Researched the situation of performing arts in six Asian countries and New York as a fellow of the Asian Cultural Council from 2008 to 2009. Based at Art Theater dB Kobe, she has been experimenting on programs that connect “dance,” “local communities” and “theater” and aiming to build network with a focus on Asia.
http://www.db-dancebox.org/
Black & White Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Large Studio 2.14 Sat 15:30 2.15 Sun 17:00 • Presenter ¥1,500 購入リストに追加 Add to Basket 2015年02月14日 15:302015/02/14 15:30 2015年02月15日 17:002015/02/15 17:00 • Audience ¥2,500 ※ Registration / Ticket Inspired by the battle scenes of the ancient Ramayana murals which is also the origin of Kohn, the piece was created after two years of work. The Kohn techniques are fully employed while, based on the ideas of Buddhism, equilibrium is sought after among the conflicting forces of life, emotions, good and evil, Performed by six Kohn-trained dancers including the choreographer himself, the piece has toured around the world, and now arrives in Japan for the […]
jazzzzzzzzzzzz-dance Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Large Studio 2.14 Sat 17:30 2.15 Sun 19:00 • Presenter ¥1,500 購入リストに追加 Add to Basket 2015年02月14日 17:302015/02/14 17:30 2015年02月15日 19:002015/02/15 19:00 • Audience ¥2,500 ※ Registration / Ticket A new version of Mika Kurosawa’s masterpiece Jazzz Dance, performed by Mika Kurosawa and Kobe Dancers, will be restaged at TPAM right after its premiere in Kobe on February 7, 2015. Given some dance phrases rules, the dancers play the game of showing, withdrawing, layering and waiting t their own discretion, and create a one-time-only performance. It is a feast of dance by thirteen dancers, all charming and unique, based in the Kansai Region. Kurosawa says, “This title […]
Takuo Miyanaga Direction
For the last two years as I have been working on the subject of “extension of the definition of theater and its limit”, I have come to ask how a theater can make theater art grow. But this point of view, I have realized, is missing in today’s theater. How can a theater restore its function as a common place for all people to gather freely again? Can we truly share the essence of the art of theater with the audience within this rigid frame of the conventional theater that divides “watcher” and “watchee”? In my proposal at last year’s TPAM Direction program, the space where works were exhibited functioned as a salon where theater and life merged, and I thought that’s something theater should be like. History of the place provides the base of the play, and people who live there are the actors and the audience at the same time. Only in such a space is it possible that theater can be within the life of people. My choice for this program this year is a unit of two who are professional critics/editors. The drive of their work is in their strong interest in the land, and the lives of the people who live there. I believe their approach is capable of opening the theater up even wider to the public where theater can form more diverse relationship with the audience.
Takuo Miyanaga
Presenter/Producer
Born in Tokyo in 1981. Producer of the theater company Mamagoto, Miyanaga also runs his own production unit ZuQnZ. After working for Seinendan, he founded Mamagoto with director and playwright Yukio Shiba in 2009. In recent years, Miyanaga has been earnestly producing outdoor performances as well as theater pieces.
ENGEKI QUEST – Yokohama Twilight Ver. Recepiton: Yokohama Creativecity Center (YCC) 1F 2.9 Mon ‐ 2.15 Sun Reception 11:00 – 13:00 (Turing time until 17:00, free to exit) ※No performance on 2.10 Tue “Miyanaga Direction – Salon Talk” 2.11 Wed 11:30-12:30 Kaori Nishino (Bird Park) 2.12 Thu 11:30-12:30 TPAM Director’s Talk Masashi Nomura、Fumi Yokobori、Tang Fu Kuen 2.13 Fri 11:30-12:30 Noriyuki Kiguchi (Akumanoshirushi) 2.14 Sat 12:30-13:30 Shinta Wibowo 2.15 Sun 11:30-12:30 ENGEKI QUEST Talk: Chikara Fujiwara (BricolaQ), Makiko Ochi (BricolaQ) Admission free Guided by the “Book of Adventure” with some options to choose from, the audience is invited to walk around freely within a large but designated field, get lost in […]
Tang Fu Kuen Direction
Southeast Asia – a geographically compact but culturally dense region – is formed over a century-long experience of colonization, nationalism, military dictatorship, urbanization and neo-liberalisation. This history of epistemological violence has produced a rich offspring of contemporary practices that address the dislocations of place and self. From this edition onward, TPAM will identify artists and works that capture the inheritance of a chequered past and the realities of the complex present. Through the lens of contemporary independent artists, we will experience the multiple iterations and mobility of identity that arise inevitably from the transcultural processes of constructing bodies, gestures and languages.
The triptychal works of Eisa Jocson (Philippines) and Melati Suryadarmo (Indonesia / Germany) offer readings into female performativity as their bodies shift from one cultural space into another, creating embodiments and affects that are deep and also unstable. Eisa Jocson moves her professional pole dance practice into an artistic milieu and disavows her own image, then attempts to incarnate as a macho dancer from the subcultural Manila club, and finally grafts her body into a ‘japayuki’ entertainer from the Philippines working in the Japanese salaryman bar. Melati Suryadarmo subjects her body into a regime of repetition in EXERGIE – butter dance and then a durational performance of I LOVE YOU, chronicling her displacement from Indonesia to Germany, and returning to a ritual body where self-possession is re-examined in ‘Borrowed’.
For Eko Supriyanto (Indonesia), it was a journey of discovery from central Java to remote Jailolo to encounter the youths of a marine paradise that is also a conflict zone of religious dogmas. Investing time and dialogue into a relationship – both artistic and personal – with his new ‘community’, Eko negotiates many layers of differences to create Cry Jailolo, a work that addresses ethics of ‘collaboration’ between ‘individual’ and the ‘collective’, and what is politically at stake in performance today.
Tang Fu Kuen
Independent Dramaturg, Producer and Curator
Tang Fu Kuen is an independent Bangkok-based cultural worker in contemporary performance and visual fields, working in Asia and Europe. He was the sole curator of the Singapore pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale. He has worked in the Singapore Arts Festival, Indonesian Dance Festival, In Transit Festival (Berlin), Bangkok Fringe Festival, Colombo Dance Platform, amongst others.
Eko Supriyanto
Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Hall 2.15 Sun 15:30 • Presenter: ¥1,500 購入リストに追加 Add to Basket • Audience: ¥2,500 (Students: Admission free, Student ID required) ※ Registration / Ticket ※ Free tickets for students are available at Peatix. A contemporary interpretation of traditional dance from Jailolo West Halmahera in the North Maluku, Eastern part of Indonesia. Inspired by “Legu Salai” dance from the Sahu tribe in Jailolo, West Halmahera. It is an expression of hope and optimism that the destruction of the coral reefs in the ocean of Teluk Jailolo will stop, that the fish will return once again to the coral, and that the silence in the ocean and the soul […]
Melati Suryodarmo
BankART Studio NYK, NYK Hall 2.11 Wed 13:00 – 18:00 *Re-entry unlimited • Presenter: Admission free, reservation not required • Audience: ¥500 (At the door only) ※ Registration / Ticket I LOVE YOU is a performance piece that interrogates the melting of the form of a language. The spoken language that represents the background of a human culture, the way of thinking and identity, is a formed structure that we use to communicate with others. I LOVE YOU is provoking the meaning of a language and the bias of its use. I LOVE YOU was created in 2007 and is a durational performance in which the artist moves and carries […]
BankART Studio NYK, NYK Hall 2.13 Fri 18:30 • Presenter: Admission free, reservation required 購入リストに追加 Add to Basket • Audience: ¥1,000 ※ Registration / Ticket BORROW consists of fragments that are put together in a performative presentation based on different influences and backgrounds that led her to create Sisyphus, an ongoing research for a choreography piece, which focuses on the body as a container of memories and how the body can remember its movements that appeared when it was under the condition of shamanistic possession. The presentation will include demonstrations of movements and parts of Suryodarmo’s previous works, including EXERGIE – butter dance. Concept: Melati Suryodarmo Dramaturgy: Melati Suryodarmo Music: […]
Eisa Jocson
Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Small Studio 2.8 Sun 18:00 2.9 Mon 18:00 • Presenter: ¥1,000 購入リストに追加 Add to Basket 2015年02月08日 18:002015/02/08 18:00 2015年02月09日 18:002015/02/09 18:00 • Audience: ¥2,000 ※ Registration / Ticket Death of the Pole Dancer interrogates the way we look at what we think we look at. The audience is brought to reflect on what they witness: a woman during the act of pole dancing. The performance renegotiates notions such as voyeurism and restraint, vulnerability and violence, sexuality and power. Concept, choreography and performance: Eisa Jocson Coach and dramaturgical advice: Rasa Alksnyte Commissioned by: In Transit 2011 performance art festival, HKW Berlin Supported by: Nadine, Brussels Eisa Jocson […]
Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Middle Studio 2.8 Sun 19:30 2.9 Mon 19:30 • Presenter: ¥1,000 購入リストに追加 Add to Basket 2015年02月08日 19:302015/02/08 19:30 2015年02月09日 19:302015/02/09 19:30 • Audience: ¥2,000 ※ Registration / Ticket Macho Dancing is performed by young men in nightclubs for male as well as female clients. Its specific movement vocabulary and physicality seem to be a Philippine phenomenon. It is an economically motivated language of seduction, using notions of masculinity as body capital. Macho Dancer is a solo piece of a woman performing a macho dance. Her becoming a macho dancer challenges our perception of sexuality and questions gender as a tool for social mobility. The performance generates a […]
Yokohama Creativecity Center (YCC) 3F 2.14 Sat 19:30 • Presenter: Admission free, reservation required 予約リストに追加 Add to Basket • Audience: ¥1,000 ※ Registration / Ticket In the hostess clubs of Tokyo, Filipino female and transgender hostesses engage in “affective labour” by performing a version of femininity that caters to the Japanese context. Diving into the world of these professional latter-day geishas, Host unravels entertainment strategies, labour and body politics. It is a one-woman-entertainment -service-machine. Rituals of hosting, codes of conduct and forms of representation are tested, as the relation between host and guest is re-negotiated. Concept, Choreography and Dance: Eisa Jocson Dramaturg: Arco Renz Coach: Rasa Alksnyte Sound Design: Marc […]