This is a long-term project of international collaboration between Japan and Indonesia. Choreographer Akiko Kitamura began research in 2010, and this is the third year to create and present pieces in theaters. The theme is the here and now of the human bodies in Japan and Asia, and the sense of belonging. The project examines how to approach in our everyday lives nature, religion and science, by focusing on Indonesia where the Javanese, Malaysian, and Hindu cultures co-exist, and on Tokyo as cultural crossroads. It is a dramatic interpretation of the artists’ own unique views on life and death as well as the way modern technology and traditional arts are connected.
It is in some ways a documentary that sketches a multilayered interpretation of the commonalities and differences among artists with varied nationality, religion, and ideology. The project questions the way of international collaborations in an era in which so many forms of long-distance communications are available. It also creates a collage of narratives to seek out of processes in which artists attempt to find the best means to communicate long-distance in this modern period.
Akiko Kitamura
Choreographer and dancer. Akiko Kitamura has taught in Faculty of Arts at Shinshu University, Nagano, as an associate professor. After entering Waseda University, she formed Leni-Basso. In 1995, she spent a year in Berlin as the resident artist sent by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan. Her 2003 piece for the American Dance Festival, Enact Oneself, won the Independent Weekly’s Dance of the Year. Finks (2001) won the Montreal Hour’s best dance award in 2005, and ghostly round, commissioned by Berlin In Transit 2005, has won high marks all over the world. She has been a solo artist since 2010.
Akiko Kitamura
4-12-15-#405 Takanawa, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-7744
Tel: +81-(0)90-6115-7744
E-mail: contact◆akikokitamura.com
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National University of Singapore, Singapore