Choreographed and
directed by Maxine Heppner, this first incarnation is created and
previews with a distinguished group of collaborators. Japanese guest
artists are: Takako Segawa: award-winning international dancer, Fujimoto
Takayuki: pioneer in high tech light design for such groups as DumbType
and recently changing the face of even Kyoto’s traditional Noh Theatre
Company, contributing music to the score are the Yoshida Brothers,
traditional shamisen musicians who have become international pop stars.
Canadians are Gerry Trentham one of Toronto’s outstanding veteran
dancers, composer for dance and theatre Sarah Shugarman, origami artist
Alex Yue, DROO (leading photographer of cos-play), media artists Jerome
de la Pierre, Elysha Poirier, Raveesh Nagpal and Alex Moakler, performer understudy
En Lai Mah and Kate Alton (outside eye).
FROM JAPAN:
Takako
Segawa: dancer (Japan)
trained in traditional arts and contemporary Japanese movement styles in Kochi (youth)
and Nippon Sports Science University, Tokyo, London Contemporary Dance School.
Awards include the All Japan Kobe Dance Festival Award in 1994 and 1998 and in
2005 she was recognized at the Stuttgart International Solo Dance Festival. From
1999 she danced with leading companies in England, Italy, Slovenia and Greece
in annual seasons, notably International Athens Dance Festival, Kalamata
International Dance Festival, and Mediterranean Dance Festival. In Canada,
working with Maxine Heppner, Takako has also danced with Hiroshi Miyamoto, Xing
Ballet Theatre, Corpus, Cube3, Buyaku, Keiko Ninomiya, Nuit Blanche and
independent projects. She continues to perform and choreograph across Japan as
guest artist and directing Sphanic Arts Dance Theater, funded by the Kochi
cultural art foundation for " Sod", collaborating with Tokyo Dance
and Media Japan and producing five shows in Kochi and Fukuoka. Since 2005
Takako has trained and worked with Maxine as principle artist in Moments in
time, and the Memory, Cycles, and Krima projects in Canada, Greece, Singapore,
Japan, and Indonesia. >
acrossoceans.org/collaborations/takakosegawa
Fujimoto
Takayuki light artist and media: has created a unique staging method using LED light systems and
installations to manipulate all colours of the spectrum. His aim is to create
new “circuits” to connect directly to the audience with no less strength than
the connection created by the stage performer communicating directly to the
audience in a live stage experience. He brings to the project an intense
Japanese digital aesthetic. He is principle designer for the Japanese performance
group Dumb Type. Independently his work “True”, created with Tsuyoshi Shirai
(AbsT/BANETO) and Takao Kawaguchi (Dumb Type) has been touring since 2007. He
has worked with Ryoji Ikeda on the videomusic concert series “formula”, with
Hong Kong choreographer Daniel Yeung, Vietnam-French choreographer Ea Sola,
Singapore’s video artist Choy Ka Fai, on the installation/concert path with the
guitarist Kazuhisa Uchihashi and singer UA, and with dance company Monochrome
Circus. He is currently designing for Kyoto Noh Theatre’s 2011 production.
> //www.true.gr.jp
> //performingarts.jp/E/art_interview/0907/1.html
> //www.refinedcolors.com > //dumbtype.com
The Yoshida Brothers musicians (Japan) The Yoshida
Kyōdai’s music is a major element of the score. Their music has become a
fusion of the rapid and percussive Tsugaru-shamisen style along with Western
and other regional musical influences. In addition to performing songs that are
only on the shamisen, they also use modern instruments such as drums and
synthesizers. The Yoshida brothers Ryōichirō and Ken'ichi began to study and play the shamisen
from five years of age under Koka Adachi, in Noboribetsu in Hokkaidō
Prefecture, Japan, learning the Minyō-shamisen style; from about 1989 they
studied the Tsugaru-jamisen style under Takashi Sasaki. They debuted in 1999.
Their first album sold over 100,000 copies and made them celebrities in Japan,
a fact that surprised the Yoshida Brothers themselves. They have since attracted
a huge international audience.
FROM CANADA
Gerry Trentham, dancer: synthesizes dance, scripted text,
visual art, video and media design, and live commissioned music, bringing to
this project a great breadth of performance and creation experience. This
November 2011, his Four Mad Humours will simultaneously premiere in Toronto,,
Montreal, Buffalo, and Chicago, connected by internet2 technology. Other
creations include two full evening works, Autobiography: Chapters One through
Five (2003) and Cathedral (1998), listed in Toronto’s Globe and Mail and Now
Magazine as one of the top ten best new works of that year. Gerry has performed
extensively throughout North America and Europe, performing the works of many
of Canada’s most prominent contemporary choreographers including a seven-year
tenure with Serge Bennathan’s Dancemakers. Six works in which he has originated
roles have been nominated for and/or received Toronto Dora Awards. Gerry was acclaimed for his performance
in Bennathan’s Chronicles of a Simple Life. The New York Times dance critic
Anna Kisselgoff called his performance “remarkably lyrical” and Clive Barnes of
the New York Post wrote “…powerfully acted by the outstanding Gerry Trentham”.
DROO
photographer:
specializes in documenting “cos-play”. His portfolio includes over
10,000 portraits of youth all over the world, in their hand-made costumes that
mimic their favorite Manga and Anime characters. Portrait photographer at most
Canadian conventions, his fashion and art photos are in many magazines
including featured photographer and advisor for cosplay culture magazines
such as Super Kawaii. In 2012 he will be introducing Love Cosplay Magazine to
the world. The visual design of both the stage and front-of-house will be
peopled by a collection of his portraits. An exhibition of his photographs will
be open to the public during the run of the show.
www.facebook.com/pages/DROO-PHOTOGRAPHER/202146856498918?sk=wall
and http://droophotgrapher.deviantart.com <http://www.facebook.com/pages/DROO-PHOTOGRAPHER/202146856498918?sk=wall>
<http://droophotographer.deviantart.com/>
Sarah
Shugarman composer (Toronto- Japan) is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, interdisciplinary artist and
teacher. She has performed, arranged and composed for dance, theatre, and
internationally award-winning films in Canada, China, Japan, and the U.S. She
has worked with dance artists of the Ailey, Graham, Cunningham, and Limon
companies and the Toronto Dance Theatre, Cirque du Soleil, Pro Arte Danza,
Sapporo Ballet Seminar, Peggy Baker, Tapestry Dance Co., Andrea Nann, and
Dancemakers. Her commissions for dance include works for Hari Krishnan, Allan
Kaeja, Toru Shimazaki, Naoko Murakoshi, Reiko Matusuoka Ballet, Yuichiro Inoue,
Tasha Lawson, Ryerson Dance Department, Colin Connor, Deborah Lundmark. Her
collaborative installation work has been shown at the Diane Farris Gallery and
presented by the BC Festival of the Arts and the CBC. Her teaching experience
includes teaching in community settings in Cambodia, Costa Rica and the Pacific
Northwest as well as the department of Music and Dance at Kobe Jogakuin
University (Japan), the Shadbolt Center for the Arts, Canada's National Ballet
School, The Canadian Children's Dance Theatre, and University of Toronto
Schools.
Maxine
Heppner choreographer and artistic director: has been creating and producing since the early 70’s. Since 1990 her
career has included international collaborations particularly in the
contemporary arts of Asia. She is known for foundation building in local
community and international networks. Her intimate chamber creations and
massive big-vision projects have gained recognition worldwide with performances
across Canada, the USA, Asia, Australia and Europe. Most recently, KRIMA for
140 performers in the lobby of the Young Centre was named in the top 10 dance
shows of 2009 by NOW. Her chamber work “Moments in Time” was described as “
exposing the very heart of the human condition”
(Globe&Mail). Her work in visual media includes dancevideos screened in Toronto,
Montreal, Melbourne, Singapore, Tokyo, Yokohama, Jakarta, and Athens and
photographic exhibits in Berkeley California, and Toronto. Support over the years has come from many individuals and
organization including the Toronto Arts Council, the Canada Council for the
Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Canadian Department of Heritage and
Culture, The Laidlaw Foundation, the Chalmers Foundation, DFAIT, and
international organizations. Awards include: a senior OAC-Chalmers Fellowship,
two Dora Mavor Moore/TTA Awards for collaborative creations, and 2 Dora nominations; an International
Puppetry Association Citation for Excellence (choreographer and performer for
InXanadu), a audeince favorite athe Jogyakarta Bienalle 2006
Maxine’s
creation, education and community service is characterized as collaborative in
nature, with a “deeply humanistic thrust”. In 1996 she founded the
Toronto-based Across Oceans: international collaborations in contemporary arts
producing events that highlight connections between artists, individuals and
communities in Canada and worldwide; in conventional theatres, galleries, fields,
harbours; symposia, seminars, for individuals or with many 100’s. Of note: The
AtHOME project (2001-3) brought over 200 artists to Toronto for
research, production and public symposia to explore the nature of collaboration
within dance and across disciplines. The Resources Online page, video-films and
the book/dvd collection “writings on collaboration” showcase research in
collaborative process. The Choreographic Marathon provides in-depth research
environments for creators and interpreters.
Kate Alton outside
eye: award winning dance artist, former member of Toronto Dance
Theatre and is Artistic Director of Crooked Figure Dances. Her work has been
presented across Canada and in Europe. Highlights from recent years include
performing James Kudelka's works In Paradisum and 15 Heterosexual Duets for
Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie in China, Mongolia, the USA and Canada, and
choreography and performance in firstthingsfirst productions' Namesake and
Namesake:Three. Kate was choreographer and co-creator/director with Ross Manson
of the dance and sound poetry production The Four Horsemen Project, which
garnered four Dora Mavor Moore awards including Best Direction and toured
nationally and internationally.
En Lai Mah performer understudy: is a graduating student from the UC Drama Program at University of Toronto. He is an actor, physical performer, and martial artist of the Shaolin form.
Jérôme Delapierre visual artist and interactive designer: studied Computation Arts and Interactive design at Concordia University as well as Contemporary Arts and new media at IMUS University in France. Currently the artistic director of Active media inc and Anartistic, and a freelance visual designer and researcher at Topological Media Lab. He has collaborated with differents artists and researchers, like Pk langshaw, Sha Xin Wei, Michael Montanaro and Jean Derome, and have been presented at festivals and events in various countries. His research is based on the relationship between human and technology and non linear interactivity, focusing on the experiences of urban social behavior. Jérôme work on graphic and web design, responsive video, interactive installations, performances and scenography.
Elysha
Poirier media artist: is a Toronto-based artist, designer and
illustrator creating with a diversity of artists working in genres of
electronic music, film, dance and performance arts including Dreamwalker dance
(Andrea Nann), William Yong, and Kaeja d’Dance. Her video art encompasses stop-motion animation and attempts
to translate the essence of painterly and handcrafted techniques into a digital
environment. Her work is best described as organic and playful and embraces
strong relationships to sound and design. Elysha has a diploma in graphic
design and photography and she was a manga artist in her early years.
Arun
Srinivasan: production manager (Toronto) has worked
extensively in the performing arts industry for the last 17 years in dance,
theatre, music and special events. Dance collaborators include Robert
Desrosiers , Peter Chin, Danny Grossman, inDance, COBA and Tiger Princess Dance
Projects. Theatre credits include The Canadian Stage Co., The Globe
Theatre, The New World Stage, fu-GEN, Cahoots Theatre Projects, k’Now Theatre
& Buddies In Bad Times Theatre. He has received two Dora Mavor Moore Award
nominations for Outstanding Lighting Design. Recently, Arun has had the
privilege of teaching lighting design at both York and Ryerson Universities.
For Maxine, Arun has designed Nine
Bronze Pieces, North
of Java and Krima and
is pleased to be production managing my
heart is a spoon. Productions have taken him to Ukraine, Malaysia,
Singapore, India and across North America. When not working in the dark, he can
be found at the park on the monkey bars with his wife and kids. Arun is a
member of the Associated Designers of Canada.