Parade/Traces

CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) presents new solo works by Japanese Butoh artist and Dairakudakan veteran Mariko Endo and American Butoh-inspired dance and theatre artist Leigh Evans.

Endo’s new work “Parade” looks back to Tatsumi Hijikata’s practice of making dance out of the physical presence of the weak bodies of those in poverty, those who labored in the rice fields, which are usually not seen in dance on the stage. Created with musical collaborator Gregory Reynolds, “Parade” also looks forward to the day when we may see the parade of human beings praising each other simply for being who they are.

“Traces,” created and performed by Leigh Evans, investigates the residual memories embedded in the tissues, muscles, skin, and cells of our bodies. Memories of our past experiences as well as those of our ancestors’ dwell within our physicality. Combining Butoh, sound, song, and text, “Traces” plunges deeply into the interior body to unveil ancestral, cellular, and archetypal memory. Dissections of mind states and memories through anatomical gestural collages set the stage for the live performance. "Traces" also features collage by Leigh Evans, set design by Claire Falkenberg, and music by Miguel Frasconi & Peter Whitehead.

"Leigh Evans ...was stellar. She is truly amazing. She's not "good". She's amazing. I think the power in her art owes a lot to the years of work she has done in several different Asian movement forms, and to her ability to synthesize those into a style that has continuity and individuality, rather than just pasting someone else's culture onto some western work like a condiment to dress it up." — Pamela Z, pamelaz.com (reviewing The San Francisco Butoh Festival August 5-8, 1999).

About the Artists

Mariko Endo is a butoh dancer and a healer who uses a combination of Ki (healing energy through hands) and other massage techniques. She has studied psychoanalysis, bodywork, and Noguchi seitai. In 1999 she started to learn butoh dance with Master Akira Kasai in his open class. She began training with Akaji Maro of Dairakudakan and from 2001-2004 performed all of the pieces of Dairakudakan as a principal dancer, including performances all over Japan and the US. Mariko spent 2006-2007 working with Akira Kasai at his private dance institute. She thinks of a human being as having soul, spirit, as well as physical attributes. This informs her approach to dance as a sculpture of consciousness. Since moving to New York City in the summer of 2007, Mariko has been involved in a variety of New York-based projects such as Robert Wilson's Water Mill Center, the New York Butoh Festival, and the CRS performance series. She was an Artist in Residence at CAVE in 2007 and now is an Artist in Residence at CRS (Center for Remembering and Sharing). A description of her new piece can be found on the CRS artist web site.
http://www.crsny.org/drupal/en/artists/Mariko-Endo

Gregory Reynolds is a dynamic musician whose drive to investigate and explore the dynamics of modern sound making has shaped his unique identity as a performer, composer, listener, and thinker. At the root of his practice is an attempt to present a personal vocabulary of sound events and spaces that challenge and re-orient the listener by emphasizing a new relationship to acoustic phenomena outside the usual context of 'historical' listening particular to well worn tropes and styles. He endeavors to facilitate an experience of heightened sensitivity and awareness of physical, architectural, and spiritual qualities by leaving enough room to engage each listener in a unique dialogue.His unlikely vehicle in these pursuits has been the alto saxophone, on which for many years he has been developing an astonishing variety of acoustic extended techniques drawing from such influences as water, white noise, cd skips, and the complex drones of industrial and domestic machinery.

Leigh Evans' dance theatre work is fed by her fascination with the performance and meditative traditions of Asia. At the intersection of dance, visual art, theatre and meditation, her work explores the nature of perception by re-inventing our relationship to viewing the body. The root of her work is an intense exploration of Asian awareness and performance practices that awaken the energy body-Indian Odissi Dance, Butoh, Suzuki Theater Method, Balinese dance, and yoga. Leigh's work has been presented in New York at the Ontological Theater, PS122, CRS, Tribute to Butoh, New York Butoh Festival @ CAVE, and the Manhattanville College Women’s Theater Festival. Leigh performs and teaches classes in yoga and performance nationally and internationally.
http://healthyarts.tempwebpage.com/leighevansyoga/index.htm

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