EN: a raincity street dance - the work has begun

We are working on a new piece for the Dancing on the Edge Festival – which is an extension of EN (circle/fate) the piece we did for the Procession of Performing Circles (LIVE Biennale) in March 2010. Composer and taiko master Eien Hunter-Ishikawa and TomoeArts director Colleen Lanki have been working on creating the music and shape of the piece…meeting and improvising movements and music.

And we are featuring projections using photos of people and places in Vancouver's downtown eastside, commissioned from five community photographers connected to Hope in Shadows. We met over a week ago and they are busy taking photos now...The Pivot Legal Society wrote about our first meeting: http://pivotlegal.org/node/307

We're going to post updates as the process continues - about the music, the movement, the text, the photos...and the rain (the show is about rain after all...)

Shin-buyoh & Koten-buyoh

I went to see a happyôkai (recital) of the Otowa-ryû Japanese Dance Group on Sunday.  Otowa Hinaaki has been teaching in the Lower Mainland for 40 years and was celebrating with a fabulous concert featuring her students and two guest teachers from Japan.  Hinaaki-sensei is a fabulous force for Japanese dance and culture in BC, and her students are a fabulous team.  TomoeArts collaborated with her on the All Over the Map presentation “Summer Odori” last July, and two of her students performed in with us in the Procession of Performing Circles last March.

Most of the pieces were shin-buyoh 新舞踊 or “new dance” which is a more contemporary style of Japanese dance that uses many of the same movements as kabuki dance, but the pieces are shorter, and the music combines western and Japanese rhythms and instruments.  The repertoire is quite different thought the fundamentals of body position gender and energy is the same as koten buyoh 古典舞踊 or “Classical Dance.” The many categories of this form we cal nihon buyoh! 

Jiuta Mai

a tenbei fan often used in jiuta mai

Last Sunday I performed at the "In the House Festival." They did a themed event called "The Joys of Japan" and had a dinner made by the fabulous Kikuchi Shozo.  It was delicious!!! and he (and his wife) worked miracles in a small kitchen. Other performers included Alcvin Ramos and Uzume Taiko.  It was a pretty interesting evening.

I decided to dance two pieces that were created to be danced in a small concert situation.  One of them was a jiuta-mai called Kurokami. Jiuta is a kind of music from the Kansai region of Japan (Kyoto and Osaka area) and mai indicates that the dance is slow and circular rather than the lively odori of the kabuki theatre. More info on these styles of nihon buyoh are at an earlier post: http://tomoearts.blogspot.com/2010/03/odori-vs-mai-and-how-it-can-all-be.html

I am not sure whether everyone in the audience appreciated the slooooowwwwneeeessss of the piece, but I know a few did.  It was great to get a chance to perform one of these pieces - and I may need to create some more opportunities to dance jiuta-mai pieces!

Summer Odori – Free Performance on Granville Island

TomoeArts teams up with Otowa-ryu Japanese Dance to do a fun, outdoor concert of many kinds of Japanese traditional dance with summertime themes. Also featuring taiko by Eien Ishikawa-Hunter and yokobue (flute) with Alcvin RyuzenRamos.

July 18 – 2-3pm in Ron Basford Park – Granville Island (next to Performance Works).

FREE!!!!

More information on the New Works’ “All Over the Map” site: http://www.newworks.ca/?page=alloverthemap

Or join our facebook group to get updates.

And we made it as “the draw” of All Over the Map in the Georgia Straight’s profile of Summer Festivals: http://m.straight.com/s?s=60&fid=25&a=329347&f=arts&sp=true

Photos of Odori on FLICKR

Another thank-you to everyone who supported TomoeArts in our landmark project Odori. It was a huge success on all counts. Messages from the artists in Japan say they are all back to their regular busy lives in Japan working, teaching, and performing. They had a wonderful time here, and say they miss Canada!
Take a look at some photos from the show – taken by the amazing Trevan Wong and a few photos of the workshops too. Check out the new Odori: The World of Kabuki Dance photostream at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46550780@N03/sets/72157624348511596/show/with/4734721079/

It would be great to hear some feedback on Odori – so if you have any comments or thoughts – please let us know. We really want to hear what you think. We hope to do another large-scale traditional performance in the future, so any input is welcome to help us plan for the future!

Odori vs Mai and how it can all be Nihon Buyoh

Welcome to the first of my entries on "odori" in wild anticipation of the show in April.  We are all VERY VERY busy preparing everything at the moment and I barely have time to practice...yikes!  But lots of ponderings to ponder on the art and performance of kabuki odori.  So welcome and I hope you find this all interesting.  I shall try to write about once a week and then daily during the whole event (with shorter entries I'm sure!) First pondering:  the difference between "odori" and "mai"

Nihon Buyoh literally means “Japanese Dance” and is a modern term. There are many words for “dance” in Japanese :
1)    dansu – for non-Japanese dance, eg: bari dansu (Balinese dance),  tappu dansu (tap dance)  etc.
2)    mai – slow circular Japanese dance
3)    odori – fast, lively Japanese dance

Mai is found in noh.  Mai is also the main kind of dance found in the Kyoto, Osaka regions. In nihon buyoh, there are types of dance like jiuta-mai or kamigata-mai which are predominantly the creation of the Kyoto/Osaka geiko (geisha) and are meant to be danced in a small room for a private audience.  They are slow and moody, with lyrics usually steeped in heartbreak and unattainable love.
Odori is the main form of dance in kabuki.  It tells stories and has characters.  It is usually lively and active, and although it is not always fast it has a certain energy or spirit that really separates it from mai.
The movement and techniques of odori and mai as they pertain to the world of nihon buyoh are similar – the music and moods are different, but the forms are similar.
Our upcoming performance focuses on ODORI…maybe in a future one we will do MAI!


image: Colleen Lanki dancing the jiutamai Kurokami. photo: Harry Brewster

Classes in Nihon Buyoh Start: January 14th, 2010

Start the new year by trying something completely different by taking movement classes from TomoeArts' artistic director, Colleen Lanki.

Nihon Buyoh is the dance form of Japanese classical dance performed in kabuki theatre and by the famous Geisha.

DATES: January 14 - April 1, 2010
TIMES: Thursdays at 7:00-8:00
LOCATION: Scotiabank Dance Centre - Marcuse Studio 7th Floor
COST: $180.00 plus GST for the sessions (12 classes). ** There will also be a $35 cost for the purchase of a dance fan.

The beginner course aims to introduce some of the forms, aesthetics and context of nihon buyoh. It is open to dancers, actors and anyone interested in Japanese dance or culture. No previous dance experience is necessary.

Beginner classes involve learning one or two short dances as an introduction to female form (onnagata) and male form (otokogata). There will also be some video-viewing of dance performances and an overview of the background of kabuki dance and nihon buyoh. Classes are taught in English with some Japanese.

Participants are required to wear tabi (Japanese split-toed socks) or white socks and, if possible, a yukata (cotton kimono).

For more details call 604.607.5978 or contact info(at)tomoearts.org.

Private lessons are also available. Please call to discuss details.

At the wigmakers

I went for a wig fitting with Shôgo-sensei, and Izumi Tokuho (who is another dance who will be travelling to Vancouver in April for Odori: The World of Kabuki Dance).  Japanese kabuki dance wigs are extremely specialized things and to make them takes YEARS of study through apprenticeship with a master wigmaker. 

The wigs are made each time there is a performance and then taken apart and the pieces re-used.  The base sections are made from tin or copper, and are fitted precisely to the dancer’s head.  The wigmaker judges the size, shape and contours of the dancers head and face then takes pieces of pre-formed metal and using a small rounded anvil and a variety if hammers pounds and shapes the metal perfectly.  Depending on the style of wig to be made, a series of metal pieces are attached by punching small holes in the metal and then a small nail is pounded in to make a rivet. Bits around the edge may be cut away, or section’s added until the base fits perfectly to the dancer’s head.  Later, hair (usually real human hair) is woven through the many small holes in the metal frame and then meticulously dressed to match the dance to be performed.  There are many details to consider in the choice of hairstyle, hair decorations etc. as each choice gives a great deal of information about the character.

Professional dancers generally use the same wigmaker for all their performances, and have their own metal wig bases, so the wigmaker doesn’t have to change as much.  Though if the dancer has gained weight in the neck, or their face has changed in any way, the headpiece then needs to be reworked.
It was amazing how quickly and accurately the frames could be fitted.  And incredible and magnificent art.  And I found it very ironic that the wigmaker was really treated like a tradesman rather than an artist.

Nagauta Practice

I have been taking a few lessons on nagauta singing with Kineya Rokufue.  Nagauta is a form of music that is generally played for kabuki dance pieces, and I wanted to learn a bit of Shiki no Yamamba to help me learn the dance as nihon buyoh choreography is generally set to the lyrics.  I am not ever intending to be able to perform the singing, but just working through the lyrics has really helped me recognize musical/lyrical cues and will help me learn the dance.  Dancers should all study at least one type of dance music.

Kineya Rokufue (her professional nagauta name) is Yûko-sensei’s sister-in-law.  She has been studying shamisen and voice since she was a child, and has been teaching for over 60 years.  Her teacher was her mother, and was apparently pretty strict.  Rokufue-sensei told me she began teaching when se about sixteen years old when – without warning – she came to the keiko-ba one day and her mother simply told her that she was teaching all the students that day. Trial by fire or what!  She said she was totally terrified, but did it, and although she hated it for years came to realize how very lucky she was to be given such skills.
Since Yûko-sensei’s death many of my ane-deshi (sister-students, fellow dance students) have been taking music lessons.  It is one way that we have all managed to keep in contact and get together for concerts or events. 

Visiting Yûko-sensei's Grave

(image: Fujima Yûko dancing Kiyomoto no Yamamba, date unknown...but probably about 1980) 


I went to pay my respects to my first nihon buyoh teacher, Fujima Yûko 藤間由子(1929-2002).  She is the one who granted me my natori (professional) name, Fujima Sayû 藤間左由.  The "fujima" part of the name indicates the "ryû" which means school or tradition. All natori of the Fujima-ryû have the same "family" name.  The "yu" part of my "given" name comes from my teacher's name, so that the artistic lineage can be easily recognized.  The "sa" part was an individual choice. Yûko-sensei created the name, and when it came time to have the natori ceremony, we had to apply to the school head office to make sure it was available and appropriate.

Everytime I am in Tokyo I visit her grave, bringing flowers andan offering of a small can of beer.  Yûko-sensei loved beer!  She was an incredible dancer, a generous teacher and I miss her deperately. She began her lessons when she was only 4 years old, so had been dancing for over 70 years when she passed away.

She was absolutely open to teaching a non-Japanese, and in fact had started a group called "The Japan Cross Culture Association" to be able to perfrom at embassies in Japan, and to do workshops and performances abroad.  She didn't speak a word of any language but Japanese, but was the ultimate communicator through her heart and spirit.  I hope I can carry her spirit with me wherever I go.

Zombies at the Kabuki-za?

Went to Kabuki-za again this time with a colleague of mine from graduate school. It was an array of pieces ranging from dance plays to a new piece about zombies...really...I am not kidding.

Ayatsuri Sambaso  - a fantastic dance play where the main actor dances as a puppet.  Utterly astounding movement technique.  My legs hurt just thinking about it!
See : http://homepage3.nifty.com/NAHKI/senwaka-kai/eng/descriptions/ayatsuri.htm

Nozakimura - and act of the piece I worked on at the University of Hawaii. Really fun to see it with Lei - who had played Osome - the lovely daughter of a pawn broker...Really interesting to see it live at the kabuki-za!

Migawari Zazen - a dance play from a kyogen farce...with the fantastic Toziwazu Mozibei as #1 shamisen player!  Very funny - if a bit sexist!

Oedo RibbinguDeddo (The Oedo Living Dead) - say "living dead" with a heavy Japanese accent and you get "ribbingudeddo"- I am all for experiments and fusion...I love it and support the whole idea even if the experiment fails.  Kabuki has always been about the "new" and "different" but this was...well...just really really bad.  Written and directed by Kudo Kankuro (who is a famous writer, actor and director for shogeki and TV) it featured an incredibly talented kabuki cast who spent 90 minutes shuffling around the stage and grunting as zombies.  A total waste of amazing talent.  Kabuki is all about dance and music and heightened language - and this had bad pop tunes, VERY facile choreography and text with the sophistication of a quickly slapped together highschool play.   I felt sorry for all those brilliantly trained actors.  Can't see that this director/writer had even seen a kabuki - or cared to use the skills these artists have.  Rantrantrant. I hate to see such a wasted possibility!

But...tickets for the day program are COMPLETELY sold out for the entire month.  Average price about $100.  So the producers knew what they were doing. There you go.

Also see: http://www.kabuki-za.co.jp/english/program.html

Buying fans in Asakusa

I was wandering through Asakusa yesterday buying rehearsal fans at Iida-ya (飯田屋).  This is a crazy shop with all kinds of kimono goods and fans and nihon buyoh props.  Upstairs has a wonderful selection of fancy kimono for Taishu-engeki performance.  It is a great place and the rehearsal fans are very reasonable. I alos love the fact the staff all look at me like I am a crazy woman when I buy ten fans.  But this is "shitamachi" and the merchants mean business...so they are always pleased to take my money!


Also indulged in an age-manju and looked around at all the second-hand kimono shops.

Shiki-no-Yamamba

I have been having lessons almost everyday.  And I have to say that my knees are killing me.  I am learning a piece called Shiki-no-Yamamba　（ 四季の山姥）Yamamba is often translated as "Mountain Witch"  though the character of Yamamba is not a "witch" but a supernatural being, female, very strong and the mother of Kintaro who becomes a famous warrior.  This being kabuki, she was a beautiful courtesan in her life previous to living in a mountain hut...and this dance describes that past life. And of course - as it is kabuki - though the dance takes place in the mountains, she is dressed in a long silk kimono and brocades. This is NOT realism!


I foolishly thought that this dance would be rather quiet and sedate, as the character is a "middle-aged" woman.  Hah. It describes everything from the courtesan district in the spring, shamisen playing, gather clams on the seaside, a boatman, the flgight of crows, the vista in the mountains...lots and lots of charcters and movement.  I hope I can make it!


http://www.kabuki21.com/yaegiri_kuruwa_banashi.php

Antique Booksellers in Tokyo

Jimbôchô - the area where there are dozens of second-hand booksellers.  I was hoping to find some good books on kabuki and nihon buyô but was very dismayed to find my favourite bookstore GONE!!! I thought perhaps I have just been gone to long and getting old...fogotten which direction to go from the station...but no...I think there is a construction site where the shop used to be.  I am hoping it has just moved...and I will find it on a backstreet somewhere.

Another favourite, TakayamaHonten, was still there.  Though couldn't find the book I was looking for.  I'll have to go back!


See:
http://jimbou.info/

Kabuki Marathon – Ten Hours of Chûshingura!

OK.  I’m not a total lunatic, but I have never seen the whole play done at one time and it was the last day.  All kabuki performances tend to run from the first of the month to the 25th or26th and everything closed today…so this was the last chance I had.  Stood in line for an hour and got 4th floor cheap seats at the Kabuki-za for the entire day…11am to 9pm…with breaks.  I was practically on a first name basis with all the staff by the end of the day.

(picture of the Kabuki-za countdown clock)

And incredible performance. Chûshingura is a very special play, and the historic Kabuki-za in Ginza will be torn down in April, so this was the last time they will perform this play in this space.  The energy was palpable – even on the fourth floor, and I feel as though I participated in something rather monumental. The silence during the seppuku scene (Act 4) was breathtaking – literally – and during the breaks audience members were chatting to each other like party guests. 

Lots of kakegoe (audience calls to the stage) – in fact I ended up talking to one of the kaegoe “pros” named Yamamoto-san.  He attends kabuki every second day, trains in kakegoe with one of the main kabuki actors, and is pretty incredible.  A kind of “star” on the upper balcony as it were.  He was there all day as well, calling out the actors’ names at precisely the right moments.  It was a rather tour-de-force performance and he was is so involved in the play he was exhausted by the end. He himself said he actually “plays” all the characters and has to breathe with the actors. All this and he’s a volunteer…I think he may have even paid for his ticket!  Talk about a die-hard fan.

check out:
http://www.shochiku.co.jp/play/kabukiza/theater/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%ABshingura

Danjûrô and Tôjûrô at the National Theatre

Kabuki at the National Theatre of Japan. Two of the most famous and historic names in kabuki are performing together until Thursday: Ichikawa Danjûrô XII and Sakata Tôjûrô II.  Kabuki actors names are a kind of credential or degree and they are passed down through generations usually from teacher to student.  Both of these names stem from the Genroku period and the current actors carry the performance traditions of these names. It was pretty incredible to see them performing together.

Uirô Uri  (The Medicine Peddler) – Danjûro as Soga Gorô in disguise as a medicine peddler, villains and courtesans (one of whom was played by Nakamura Gannosuke, a friend of mine).  Fantastic aragoto –style tongue twisting monologues, comic battles…much fun.

Keisei Hangonkô (Matahei, the Stutterer) – by Chikamatsu Monzaemon - Danjûro as Matahei and Tôjûrô as his wife Otaku.  I love this story. Matahei is so desperate to succeed as a master painter and held back by his speech impediment.  Danjûro was lovely as Matahei – charming and lovable. 

Ôtsu-e Dôjôji (Five Ôtsu-e Pictures) – by Kawatake Mokuami, choreography by Fujima Kanso II – OK.  This was the most interesting from my point of niew as I have never seen this dance play and it was BIZARRE.  It was created as a parody of the famous shosagoto (dance play) Musume Dôjôji inserting characters from Ôtsu-e, or small cartoon paintings sold as souvenirs.  It was first staged in 1965, reconstructed form a script written in the late 1800s: Fujimusume dances bits of Musume Dôjôji (but at Miidera, a different temple!), there is a bind masseur dancing with a dog, a falconer, a demon that looks like she’s right out of Momijimgari, then Benkei shows up, followed by Soga Gorô in his costume from the play Ya-no-ne Gorô. CRAZY!

Check out:
http://www.naritaya.jp/english/compendium/18_12.html
http://www.ntj.jac.go.jp/english/
 

Keiko-ba (the practice space/studio)

Exit Hon-Komagome station turn right then left cross the main street walk right turn left down a narrow path between an office building and a temple graveyard turn right walk to the dark red building turn left into the small cul-du-sac and the keiko-ba (studio) is on the left. If they ever paint that red house a different colour I will never find this place again.  I swear.

Like most traditional keiko-ba it is in a private home.  This one is the main floor of Shogô-sensei’s mother Fujima Shôho.  She was his teacher and when she retired he took over her studio and students and she still lives upstairs. It is an older wooden home, with a narrow hall leading to a small changing room and a larger practice room on the left.
The studio/practice room is partially tatami and mostly a perfectly smooth unpolished hinoki (Japanese cypress) floor.  Whoever is having a lesson is of course on the wooden floor.  Those waiting sit on the tatami and watch. Watching is a huge part of the learning.

Photos of Shôgo-sensei’s teacher, teacher’s teacher and the iemoto (head) of the Fujima school are on a small table; there’s a container of various rehearsal props in the corner; a shelf of books and a sound system.

We work for two hours as this is a private lesson and I need to learn all of Shiki-no-Yamamba in three weeks.  A 15-minute dance (shortened for this performance from it’s original 24 minutes)  More on that in the next few days.

Arrival in Tokyo

I have arrived, and it feels like home.  I am truly happy to be back in a place I spent so many years. I lived here from 1995-2002 - studying nihon buyoh (Japanese classical dance) and noh, and working in contemporary theatre. I have tried to return every year to study and visit friends.

I am off to my first o-keiko (practice) with Fujima Shôgo-sensei in a few hours and am certainly looking forward to it. The next few days will also be full of KABUKI!  There are three performances all closing in the next few days.  I am going to try to see at least two of them.  Hopefully all three.  Reports on all activities daily!

Welcome to TomoeArts!

Hello and welcome to our new blog for TomoeArts. We are a Vancouver-based production company that specializes in performing all styles of traditional nihon buyoh, or Japanese classical dance and theatre.

We create new pieces based on classical forms and aesthetics, working across traditions and disciplines. We explore contemporary creations of dance, theatre and interdisciplinary performance based on Japanese aesthetic principles, working towards projects that will
expand the contemporary performance vocabulary.

TomoeArts wants to make the aesthetics and principles of Japanese classical dance part of the cultural vocabulary of our community, and by doing this, foster connections between languages, cultures, methodologies and disciplines. Thus, TomoesArts is committed to education and outreach, offering courses, private classes, workshops, lecture-demos and performances for special events.

As an extension to this we hope this forum will help to educate our audiences further by providing you with information on the beauty, the history and the contemporary applications and fusion of nihon buyoh and other theatrical styles.