Kyoto performance reviews

July 9th 2022    Cutting Edge 狂言: God & Demon Shigeyama kyogen youth fooling around with new kyogen and sketch comedy (performances ongoing in August ) https://kyotokyogen.com/schedule/0820cek/ Kyogen programs are usually one-time only events. Three or four plays are put together according to seasonal appropriateness and variety, as well as technical ability to change costumes and casting balance. While single kyogen are the requisite filler between the somber noh, all-kyogen programs have been an increasing part of the post-War theatrical scene. Annual family shows spotlight brothers or fathers and sons, or celebrate receiving an award or honoring an ancestor’s death anniversary. These well-publicized programs often feature rare, large-cast plays, and newly created plays that  stretch the abilities of the extended family members. Held on noh stages but also civic and prefectural halls, their leaflet designs have recently features colorful montages of photos of previo...

--> Antibodies’ Collective (Kyoto) with Tactile Bosch (UK) May 25 th 2019 Seibu Kodo Kyodai Kyoto The Antiodies Collective( http://antibo.org/  ) created an installation performance piece of the post-Fukushima era took place in Kyoto, creating a retro- and post-modern atmosphere of a tangible alien planet. Stepping into Kyoto University Seibu Kodo   was a time-slip of its own. This a venerable space near the French and Italian Institutes adjacent to Kyoto University was originally a central performance space, part of the student union, but has fallen into disuse, a puddly,sloppy parking lot and debris surrounding the old structure. But inside it is magic: high ceilings, with a stadium-sized concrete and dirt floor, sloping downward. It has hosted all sorts of vanguard troupes since the 1960s, and continues to be the occasional meeting homeground for old hippies and new artists. The Antibodies Collective, performed on Inushima in the Inland Sea last y...

Kata as convenient shortcuts to Japanese traditional performance culture  http://www.miyagawacho.jp/pdf/kyoodori_leaflet_2019.pdf The highly-codified dance forms, Kata, found throughout Japanese traditional dance and theatre, and even some modern theatre, are shortcuts. They are highly refined and defined, capable of infinite varieties of combinations, at a wide range of levels of energies and paces. They are pre-fabricated material ready to be enlisted to quickly and beautiful put up new creations, lego blocks of beauty and power. This was evident in the annual dances of teenage maiko and middle-age geisha in the Miyagawa-cho Kyo odori held April first in rainy, sakura-strewn Kyoto. The small strip of teahouses just east of the Kawabata Avenue south of Shijo in Kyoto is home to the Miyagawa-cho, one of the “Five Geisha Districts” that includes its more famous neighbor Gion. http://miyako-odori.jp/english/  The Miyako Odori is a pillar of Kyoto’s spring to...