Yasuko Yokoshi: Tyler Tyler October 28, 2010

Offering a rare opportunity to experience a contemporary perspective on Kabuki Su-odori dance, The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago presents the Chicago debut of Hiroshima-born choreographer Yasuko Yokoshi with her work Tyler Tyler.

Yokoshi’s inspiration for Tyler Tyler comes from The Tale of the Heike, a classic 12th century Japanese epic of warring clans that documents the intense desire for domination and the inevitable fall from power. The central theme of the stories—the Buddhist law of impermanence—has special resonance for Yokoshi; born and raised in Hiroshima, she was often reminded as a child of the ephemeral nature of human life. As a contemporary dance artist, Yokoshi is also driven by the question of how much culture within an art form is transferable, particularly in a fluid, mobile world where the merging of cultures is more prevalent than ever.

Tyler Tyler continues Yokoshi’s unique collaboration with Masumi Seyama, heir to the legacy of Kanjyuro Fujima VI and revered master teacher of Kabuki Su-odori dance (a stripped-down form of Kabuki revered for its purity and simplicity, performed without the facial makeup and dramatic gestures of traditional Kabuki). The cast of six, including two U.S. dancers, a U.S. musician/singer and three Japanese dancers/actors, each trained for many years with Seyama, who has provided several pieces of classic Su-odori repertory for the project. Following Kabuki tradition, as Seyama teaches Fujima’s repertory to Yokoshi and the Japanese performers, and as Yokoshi teaches it to the U.S. dancers, subtle shifts are made to suit each performer. With both Japanese and U.S. dancers, Yokoshi is deconstructing and rearranging Fujima’s classic repertory using postmodern techniques, creating original choreography that reflects and references the traditional repertory and examines the nature of cultural identity by experimenting with cultural form.

The piece features sections of original music performed live by Steven Reker, inspired by Japanese folk songs filtered through Reker’s own idiom of “experimental folk music,” as well as recorded works by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Cat Power, Lou Reed and The Carpenters.

Official Website: http://www.colum.edu/dancecenter