Echoes of Calling- Gushland –

Akiko Kitamura 

Collaboration Across Japan, Central Asia,  and  Ireland

Echoes of Calling – Gushland –

 

A heaven-sent body writhes on earth

To whom does the heaven-sent earth belong

After the map of avarice has collapsed

Those arriving at the land so barren

Hear the sounds of a small one crooning

All sorts of holes in the body turn into ears

Voices come in waves, surging  and  crashing 

The spirited body fights  and  resonates, again  and  again

The rhythm’s pulses turn into the land’s seeds  and  flowers

Announcing Cast Change

As part of the measures against COVID-19, the Japanese government has announced to maintain the current border restrictions until the end of February.

Accordingly, the following artists will not be able to join the performance in Japan in person:
 Dancer: Minte Wolde
 Musicians: Doimnic Mac Giolla Bhríde, Diane Cannon

Their appearance in the live performance will be limited to film  and  music. We appreciate your kind understanding.

 

 
Planning, Composition, Direction & Choreography: Akiko Kitamura
Music: Hiroaki Yokoyama (agehasprings)
Visual Director: Akihiko Kaneko
Dramaturge: Daisuke Araya
 
Dance: Minte Wolde, Tatsuki Okamura, Naoto Katori (Condors), Llon Kawai, Akiko Kitamura, Yu Kuroda, Ayaka Kondo, Yuki Nishiyama
Singing: Doimnic Mac Giolla Bhríde & Diane Cannon
 
Stage Direction: Makoto Kawaguchi
Sound: Yuichi Tanaka (Sound Wedge)
Light: Takeaki Iwashina (with Friends)
Costume: Michiyo Sato
Interpretation: Noriko Yamada
Production: Satoshi Fukuoka (Catalyst)
Graphic Design: GOAT
 
Organization: Office ALB 
Sponsorship: Embassy of Ireland
Venue Cooperation: Wacoal Art Center
 
Supported by Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan through the Japan Arts Council
Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History  and  Culture)
FY 2021 Minato Support Program for Arts  and  Cultural Activities
 
Fri, Feb 18 19:00
Sat, Feb 19 14:00 / 18:30
Sun, Feb 20 14:00   
  Lobby opens 30 mins before the show.
 
 
Location: Spiral Hall
3rd Floor, 5-6-23 Minami Aoyama, Minato Ward
5 min walk from Omotesando Station on Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, Hanzomon Line, or Chiyoda Line

https://www.spiral.co.jp/access

 
Tickets
General: ¥5,000
Student: ¥3,000
No reserved seating.
 * Please refrain from bringing children under the elementary school age.
 
Ticket Vendor
 
 
Minato Ward Resident*: ¥3,500
* Payment can be made at the door.
For reservation, email info@akikokitamura.com:
– Your Name
– Number of Tickets
– Performance Date & Time
We will contact you to confirm the reservation.
 
 
Contact
Office ALB
info@akikokitamura.com 
070-7528-7065 (Open Hours: 10:00 to 20:00)
About
Collaboration Across Japan, Central Asia,  and  Ireland
“Echoes of Calling”
 Echoes of Calling is a performing arts project that is part of a long-term international collaboration, which advances from Ireland to central Asia.
 How will Celtic traditional culture and Japanese traditional physical expression and sounds, which are intangible, speak to our memories?
 How will it be possible for something traditional and current to relate to each other past their differences in forms of expression, cultures, nationalities, and languages?
 We travel across “cultures of lands”, which tend to become obscured by globalizing societies, in time and in space for   a pulse of traditional cultures and to create a dance that opens to the future.
 We have taken on   “prayers” of communities, which have a strong connection to humans coexisting with nature in changing natural environments, as a modern theme, embodying   natural rhythms, breathing, and echoes of voices that transcend languages in a dance, leading to a hope that we are coexisting with something that is beyond us.

Profile

北村明子 Akiko Kitamura

Kitamura Akiko is a choreographer, dancer  and  director. Her background includes ballet, street dance,  and  Indonesian martial arts. She founded her dance company, Leni Basso, in 1994 while studying the Graduate School of Letters, Arts,  and  Sciences at Waseda University, from where she also received her MA. She stayed in Berlin as a trainee of the Agency for Cultural Affairs Overseas Training Program for Artists in 1995. Since her return to Japan, she has been implementing her own theory of choreography, the Grid System,  and  her own directing style that mixes  and  develops dancing, light, rhythm  and  image.

She was commissioned to present her work at the 2001 Bates Dance Festival  and  2003 American Dance Festival (ADF) in the United States. The “enact oneself” that she choreographed for the ADF, was selected the Best Dance of the Year in North Carolina. One of Kitamura’s masterpieces, titled “finks” (2001), has been performed in more than 60 cities internationally  and  awarded Best Dance Piece of the Year by the Montreal Hour Magazine in 2005. She also created “ghostly round” for Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin which was highly esteemed in many countries globally.

In 2010, Kitamura started her solo career  and  engaged in international co-production projects including “To Belong” with Indonesia  and  “Cross Transit” with South East   and  South Asian countries. These productions were also performed at the Japan Society in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.,  and  many other cities. Moreover, the “vox soil” presented in 2018  and  first performed at the Kanagawa Arts Theatre (KAAT), won the 13th Japan Dance Forum (JaDaFo) Awards Grand Prix. In 2020, she started a project titled “Echoes of Calling,” crossing the borders of Ireland, Central Asia  and  Japan.

Kitamura studies ‘the use of the human body as a medium’ in practical theatre, applying theories about the human body, direction,  and  dancing. Based on ‘physical thinking’ through the spread  and  deepening of dance expression, she keeps looking for the appeal of human bodies  and  the good communication generated from creative activities  and  art performance.