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One-Day Butoh Workshop by Yukio Waguri

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One-Day Butoh Workshop by Yukio Waguri

Yukio-WaguriThis one-day workshop introduces Butoh Fu or Butoh Notation, based on the Hijikata method created by Tatsumi Hijikata, one of the founders of Butoh and is taught by butoh master Yukio Waguri.

Time: 10am – 5pm, with a break for lunch
Date: Wednesday 30 January 2013
Venue: The Dance Studio at Rimbun Dahan
Fees: RM100 per person (limited to 20 participants), open to MyDance Alliance members only and by registration only.

About the Workshop

This workshop investigates the relationship between dance, the body, and possession. It trains the student to explore the importance of walking in Butoh, the physical body as a medium, a person who passes through, what is craziness, the crisis of the mind and the body, and the philosophies of Butoh. From the workshop, the students will investigate the power of transformation as a fundamental element of Butoh, also exploring the different body conditions from heaviness to lightness, from compression to expansion, and the relationship between space and time that is made by the body’s condition.

About Yukio Waguri

Born in Tokyo in 1952, Yukio Waguri was the disciple and main male dancer at Tatsumi Hijikata’s Asbestos-kan during 1972-1978. From this period he kept notes of the words Hijikata spoke while choreographing. These words are called “Butoh-fu”, a unique method for choreography. Waguri has made his own interpretation of these words and continues to use them as a method for his own choreographies and teaching. Over the past 34 years he has taught and choreographed around the world. He is the Artistic Director of the Kohzensha Butoh Company. When choreographing and teaching, his focus is on transforming oneself to become imagery rather than depicting this through movement. His rigid and flexible body, a good sharpness of beautiful model, and delicacy nuance, is able to express his dance delicately. The variety of the dance, mainly based on the change of the subject, shows the possibilities of the future of dance. In addition, to the physical imagery roused through attention to the words of the unique Butoh Fu Hijikata lineage, Waguri also concentrates on collaborations with the artist in other genres.

In 1998, Waguri published the CD-ROM of Butoh Kaden, which has been viewed worldwide and has received much interest from butoh dance scholars and practitioners as it unveils the essence of Hijikata’s Butoh notation and choreographic methods, and provides an opportunity to reevaluate Hijikata’s method.

Register for the Workshop

Individuals may join MyDance Alliance on the day of the workshop at the venue. Membership for MyDance Alliance is RM 50 regular, and RM 20 student, for one year, and entitles you to free entrance to Dancebox events, discounts to workshops and performances and other benefits. For more information about membership, see http://www.mydancealliance.org/become-a-member.html

To register, please send your name, age, email address and telephone number to contact@mydancealliance.org or +6017 310 3769.
This workshop is hosted by Soubi Sha and organised by MyDance Alliance.

Want even more from Yukio Waguri?

Check out the 21-hour workshop also taking place in January 2013, organised and hosted by Soubi Sha. More info here.

Work It!

admin Choreographers Residency, Dance, Projects , , ,
Work It!

Image: Doris Uhlich in 'Rising Swan', photo: Andrea Salzmann.

Work It! was a project bringing together female performing artists from Asia and Europe whose work revolves around the gendered depiction of the body on stage. For 10 days in November 2012, these artists met in Kuala Lumpur to share their artistic practice, create new networks and explore their diverse understandings of feminism.

Participating artists:

  • Cynthia Ling Lee (Taiwan/USA)
  • Rita Natalio (Portugal)
  • Donna Miranda (Philippines)
  • Joavien Ng (Singapore)
  • Cuqui Jerez (Spain)
  • Doris Uhlich (Austria)
  • Naomi Srikandi (Indonesia)
  • Mia Habib (Norway)
  • Geumhyung Jeong (Korea)
  • Un Yamada (Japan)
  • Margarita Tsomou (Greece/Germany)
  • Mislina Mustaffa (Malaysia)

Download: Work_It!_Press_Release
Download: Work_It!_Participant_Bios

Teater Garasi, in a play directed by Naomi Srikandi.Public Performances

2 nights of sharing their work and perspectives

Program A: 8.30pm, Friday 9 Nov
Program B: 8.30pm, Saturday 10 Nov

Venue: The Black Box, MAP @ Publika, Solaris Dutamas

How do you perform a woman onstage? How do you negotiate how a society regulates work, power, sex and truth? What is creativity’s reaction to convention? And how will women thrive in the performing arts in the current global climate?

The Work It! public showing tackled these questions with theatre, dance, music and good old fashioned women’s wit.

Entry by donation at the door
RM 20 regular, RM 15 for students, seniors & MyDance Alliance members.
Q&A session with the artists following the performance.

Cuqui Jerez, 'Croquis Reloaded'. Work It! Open Studio

The focus of the Work It! project is on the week of closed-door studio sessions for the participants at Rimbun Dahan, in which they will be sharing and developing their arts practice with each other. For one afternoon only, join the artists in an open studio session to get a taste of the Work It! project. All practicing artists, in visual or performing arts, and both male and female, are invited to attend.

2-5pm, Wednesday 14 November 2012
The Dance Studio at Rimbun Dahan

Free entry, but attendance is limited, so please register by emailing bhijjas@gmail.com with your name, phone number, and brief bio.

Donna Miranda. Photo: Brendan Goco.

Work It! Panel Discussion

At the conclusion of the 10-day project, the participants of Work It! will present a public panel discussion to discuss the process of the closed-door discussions at Rimbun Dahan and to share their findings.

2-5pm, Saturday 17 November 2012
Annexe Central Market
Free Entry

Work It! was co-produced by Bilqis Hijjas of Rimbun Dahan, Anna Wagner (Germany) and Fumi Yokobori (Japan).

Main Sponsors

tanzconnexionsGoethe_institutCreative-Encounters

Supported by

JFKL  wao

Public performance venue sponsor

map_publika

 

Oct 2012 — New Planting

admin Nature Notes
Oct 2012 — New Planting

Sometimes the garden gets away from us, and periodically we focus on different areas to clean up, prune and remove things. This was the objective in the front area, between the house and the front fence in October. Although we frequently lose trees, others are growing well and developing tall trunks and good canopies. An area of new planting is replacing old rambutan trees that are gradually all being removed from the front area.

To see the list of new plantings since June this year, go to Plant Lists and check out the ones with the label NEW! Many thanks to University of Malaya intern Nur Syafik Maskawi for help with updating the Rimbun Dahan websites with our new plantings.

Left: The area of new planting of Dipterocarps sourced from Tunas Harapan in Tanjung Malim.

Sangeeta Sandrasegar

admin Hotel Penaga, Resident Artist ,
Sangeeta Sandrasegar

Sangeeta Sandrasegar works within a research-based practice, building narratives in which every new work connects to previous projects. Her practice consolidates postcolonial and hybridity theory, exploring her context within Australia and its relationship to migrant communities and homelands. Her work concerns itself within the overlap of cultural structures – sexuality, race and identity, in contemporary society – and interpreting and representing these shifts. These themes are explored through a visual language concerned with shadows. From installations of paper cutouts, material works and/or sculpture, the constructed shadows of the installation become a motif for themes of self-hood, otherness and in-between spaces. By extending the scope of the art object the cast shadows simultaneously engage with the history of the shadow in Art, and hint towards cognitive alternatives and sites of transformation.

In 2004 Sandrasegar completed a Doctorate of Philosophy across the Victorian College of the Arts and the Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne.  The content of the exegesis was to formalize a visual practice centred on the creative space of shadows into a theoretical tool.  She proposed that the shadow subject could be re-examined and liberated from its historical representations and to be employed as both a positive and salient visual device for representing the ideas being examined in post-colonial and hybridity studies.

Sandrasegar has been represented in group and solo exhibitions since 1996, and is the recipient of several fellowships and prizes. In particular, national showcases for emerging artists: Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NEW04, Australian Centre of Contemporary Art, Melbourne. As well as the Auckland Triennial and SCAPE: New Zealand Community Art & Industry Biennial in New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 05, Gallery of Modern Art Queensland. Last year her work was shown in the Incheon Women Artists Biennale in Korea, and Slash: Paper Under the Knife, Museum of Arts and Design, New York.

Sangeeta was in residency at Hotel Penaga from October to December 2012.

Links to Sangeeta’s work
http://sangeetasandrasegar.photoshelter.com/
http://sangeetasandrasegar.blogspot.com

You Ask Me About That Country
You Ask Me About That Country

August 2012 — Tree Felling, and a Musang

admin Nature Notes
August 2012 — Tree Felling, and a Musang

We had to fell a 23-year old Hopea odorata in July as it was threatening to fall on either Kak Putih’s house or the spare staff cottage: the main trunk had split into two leaders, neither strong enough to carry the weight of branches and wind. Soon after palnting these we realised that rainforest trees must be planted well away from buildings. Girth was 2 meters, and we are keeping the trunk to mill into timber. If anyone knows of a portable mill that could come and do the necessary, do let us know!

Another smaller tree had to be felled to enable the hired cherry picker to access the Hopea odorata, manoeuvring into position in the tight space between the buildings. After Raya we will hire the cherry picker again to remove all split trunks along the driveway, retaining just the strongest.

In other news, a juvenile Asian palm civet fell into the middle well of the underground gallery at Rimbun Dahan and had to be rescued. The glass doors of the well were opened, and it escaped into the gallery, where it quickly found a nice dark space in the storage area, and was difficult to persuade to leave. Angela has given instructions that if it happens again, a ladder is to be put down into the air well. It works for snakes, so it should work for musang too!

Jumaadi

admin Hotel Penaga, Resident Artist , ,
Jumaadi

Jumaadi, an artist of Indonesian origin but practicing in Australia, completed a three month residency at Hotel Penaga in 2012 with a stunning performance of wayang kulit, the traditional shadow play of Southeast Asia.  This one, though, stretched tradition in a new direction, being based on a Chinese folk tale about the Moon Cake, a timely performance as the festival is just around the corner at the next full moon on 30th September, when children parade through neighbourhoods carrying candle lit lanterns in animal and fantasy shapes. Jumaadi’s wayang was produced with the help of the curator of the Penang State Museum, Puan Haryani Muhamad. Developed with students from KDU and with the puppets made by one of the museum’s janitorial staff, and the gamelan music was provided by museum staff, it was a wonderful collaboration of talent from all directions.

July 2012 — Python Returns to Henhouse

admin Nature Notes
July 2012 — Python Returns to Henhouse

This morning we had a snake alert: python in the hen house, again! This time three dead birds, one already consumed, two lined up ready to be eaten. When the snake was bagged, Lubis estimated its weight at 6 kilograms, including the eaten chook, as it didn’t have the amazing foresight of our last python who realized if you chuck it up, you might escape. This one was captured and released near a local stream with dinner to digest.

Marcia Ong & Hilary Schwartz

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Marcia Ong & Hilary Schwartz

Born and raised in Singapore, Marcia Ong is a filmmaker whose experience covers almost every aspect of the filmmaking process. Her short film, Kristy, has won awards at Kids First! Children’s Film Festival and Pittsburgh International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. It has screened internationally in Amsterdam, Melbourne, Seoul, Paris, Berlin, Brussels and Singapore. In 2010, Marcia completed her latest film, Standing Still, which premiered at the 33rd Mill Valley Film Festival. Marcia Ong recently shot a feature documentary titled Ten Eleven O Two, directed by Mackenzie Mathis and Jellyfish, an independent short film set in Borneo directed by Rosie Haber.

Coded within the domestic spaces, scenes, and objects that I create are traces of intimacy. Susan Stewart identifies narrative in On Longing as a structure of desire that is suspended in impossibility. My own experiences of displacement, nostalgia for intimacy and longing for an imagined home and family, as well as a larger queer narrative of dislocation and isolation, lead me to the subject of domesticity and the making of a “home”. While queerness is not easily read in all of my pieces, it is coded throughout. Coding originates from within a context of marginalization, but moves beyond this in its role as a language of identity and a signifier of shared experience.

Hilary Schwartz is a sculptor engaged with concepts of domesticity, displacement, temporality, and queer desire. She received her MFA in 2009 from San Francisco Art Institute and her BFA from California College of the Arts. She has exhibited internationally. Most recently, her work has been seen in Etiquette at the Substation Gallery in Singapore, Feeding Ghosts at Kitsch Gallery in San Francisco, and Domestic Materials at PLAySPACE Gallery in San Francisco. Hilary’s work has been featured online on KQED, Art Practical, and SFGate. She is currently a fulltime lecturer at Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore. Hilary recently conducted a workshop entitled Play with Your Food at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

Hilary and Martha collaborated on a series of video pieces reflecting upon living together in Singapore. They undertook a short one-month residency in Hotel Penaga in June 2012.

Contemporary Mask Workshop by Agung Gunawan

admin Arts, Dance, Workshops ,
Contemporary Mask Workshop by Agung Gunawan

workshop_panorama

On Saturday 26 May 2012, MyDance Alliance in collaboration with Nyoba Kan presented a workshop at Rimbun Dahan by visiting Indonesian dancer and choreographer Agung Gunawan.

For three hours, Agung led a group of 15 dancers through various elements of his artistic practice. He started with a rough and ready taster of tarian topeng klono, a mask dance from the royal court of Jogjakarta. He then encouraged the participants to get to know their own masks, in a series of exercises involving looking at the mask, feeling the mask on the face, free movement and moving while focusing upon the mask.

The workshop culminated in a group improvisation with all the masked participants exploring their own and each other’s developing characters, before a final wild return to the tarian topeng klono. As a finale, Agung performed the tarian topeng klono wearing his mask, to the delight of the group whose appreciation had deepened through their brief encounter with the art form.

For more images of the workshop, see the album on Rimbun Dahan’s Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.373531749362522.83693.109567465758953&type=1

About Agung Gunawan

Agung Gunawan was born in 1971 in Klaten, Central Java. After graduation from the High School of Arts in Yogyakarta, he continued studies of Yogyakarta classical dance in Surya Kencana and at the Kraton (Palace) where he continues to perform. He studied Sumatranese, Betawian and Kalimantan dance with Bagong Kusudiharjo and contemporary dance with M. Miroto. He is presently Assistant Choreographer of the Miroto Dance Company and has toured with them in Holland, Belgium, Germany Africa and of course Indonesia. He has performed with other groups in USA, Romania, Italy, South Korea, Australia and Japan. He is actively involved in contemporary music and has also choreographed for movies. Agung is director of Manisrenggo Culture Festival and he is also conceptual director of The Arts Island Festival which tours through Java and Bali.