PRESS RELEASE:
Yasuko Yokoshi

DANCE THEATER WORKSHOP
presents
Yasuko Yokoshi
in the world premiere of
Tyler Tyler

Mar 17 - 20 at 7:30pm

New York, NY, December 23 - Dance Theater Workshop presents Yasuko Yokoshi in the world premiere of Tyler Tyler and the U.S. debut of Japanese performers Kayo Seyama, Kuniya Sawamura, and Asaji Naoki. Tyler Tyler resumes Yasuko Yokoshi’s artistic partnership with Masumi Seyama, revered master teacher of Kabuki Su-Odori dance and the heir to the legacy of Kanjyuro Fujima VI, one of the renowned Kabuki choreographers of the 20th Century in Japan. Together they deconstruct new choreographic material from Fujima’s classical dance repertories. Yokoshi and Seyama dare to face boundaries of different training, cultural code and social hierarchy yet simultaneously desire to cherish the forms and beauty of universal language of dance.

Tyler Tyler features the oldest disciple and member of Seyama Dance Family, Kayo Seyama; a young Kabuki actor, Kuniya Sawamura; and an actor from the Bungakuza Theater Company, Asaji Naoki. In the United States, Yokoshi collaborates with American contemporary dancers Julie Alexander and Kayvon Pourazar, and musician Steven Reker who toured the world as a guitarist, singer and dancer with Everything that Happens will Happen Today, a musical performance composed by David Byrne and Brian Eno. Tyler Tyler is produced by MAPP International Productions.

“Every small act seems burned onto the space and onto your retina. A violent emotion is reduced to a single controlled look or gesture…restraint creates an almost painful drama of its own - like an exquisite glass vase that might shatter from the force of its contents.” - Village Voice

About the  Artist
Yasuko Yokoshi was born in Hiroshima, Japan and lives and works in New York City. Her works entwine cultures and personal insights to create radical dance performance. Commissions for directing and/or choreographing include: P.S.122, Danspace Project, The Kitchen, Dance Theater Workshop, the Guggenheim Museum, the Japan Society, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Festival a/d Werf (Holland), the Festival Sommer SIZEN (Austria), the Frascati Theater (Holland). Awards include: 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship, 2008 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Fellow, 2007 BAXTen Award, Two New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards (2003 and 2006). She is a curatorial adviser at the Kitchen and she serves on the board of Movement Research.

Masumi Seyama is the head of the Seyama Dance Family and leading teacher and practitioner of Kanjyuro Fujima’s dance tradition. Ms. Seyama’s brother-in-law, Kanjyuro Fujima VI (1900-1990), a Japanese Living National Treasure, was one of the most celebrated Kabuki dance choreographers in 20th Century Japan. He was known for refining Kabuki “Su-odori” into an art form with bare and subtle dance movements that are simultaneously expressive, deep and profound. Ms. Seyama began her training with Kanjyuro Fujima at age six and by age fifteen she succeeded to the Seyama family name. Ms. Seyama went on to assist Kanjyuro Fujima’s choreographic process through his prime, and notated all of his dance repertories. She is widely considered one of the few remaining heirs of the late Kanjyuro Fujima’s dance works. Ms. Seyama coached many major Kabuki stars and dancers, such as Tamasaburo Bando and Yaeko Mizutani.  She also trained young Kanzaburo Nakamura (who appeared at Lincoln Center Summer Festival in 2004 and 2007) through his formative period.  An exquisite dancer herself, she appeared at Kabuki-za numerous times to present Kanjyuro Fujima’s dance works. Retiring from performance simultaneously with Kanjyuro Fujima’s death in 1990 (stating that she had “lost the eyes”), Masumi Seyama now devotes her life to teaching.  The Seyama Dance Family has a small, exclusive dance school in Tokyo where she teaches young professional Kabuki actors and stage performers.

About MAPP International Productions
MAPP  International Productions based in New York City, works in close partnership with diverse artists and arts organizers throughout the world to develop functional and sustainable environments for artists to create, premiere and tour performing arts projects. MAPP provides support and opportunities for challenging artistic voices to be fully heard and engaged by bringing together arts, humanities and public dialogue. MAPP International is co-directed by veteran arts producers and managers, Ann Rosenthal and Cathy Zimmerman, who have developed 27 multi-disciplinary projects and produced well over 50 multi-city tours with U.S. and international artists from 23 countries in Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe and the Caribbean. Working on behalf of artists and their organizations, Rosenthal and Zimmerman have raised and managed nearly $5 million from foundations, corporations, government agencies and co-commissioners for the realization and distribution of new work.   

Funders
Tyler Tyler is commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop’s Commissioning and Creative Residency Program with support from the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Jerome Robbins Foundation.

Tyler Tyler is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund project co-commissioned by DiverseWorks in partnership with Dance Theater Workshop and NPN. Tyler Tyler is also commissioned by Theatre de la Ville, Paris.

Tyler Tyler was developed, in part, during a creative residency provided through a partnership between Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at The Florida State University and Dance Theater Workshop with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.  It was also developed, in part, at a residency hosted by the Banff Center for the Arts, Alberta Canada.

The creation of Tyler Tyler is made possible with the generous support of The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, The MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation; The New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project (NDP) with generous support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the MetLife Community Connections Fund of the MetLife Foundation; The Japan Foundation, through the Performing Arts JAPAN Program; and the Asian Cultural Council.  Tyler Tyler is funded in part through Meet The Composer’s MetLife Creative Connections Program.

*   *   *

Dance Theater Workshop is the preeminent U.S. based center for dance and performance that maintains an uncompromising mission to identify, present, and support independent contemporary artists and companies to advance dance and live performance in New York and worldwide. Dance Theater Workshop supports innovative artists through all facets of their creative process and offers audiences the opportunity to experience and engage with artistic expression in bold and evocative ways.
Dance Theater Workshop’s 2009-2010 Season Supporters   (as of July 1, 2009)

Private support provided by: American Masterpieces: Dance Initiative of the New England Foundation for the Arts; The Carnegie Corporation of New York; Chervenak-Nunnalle Foundation; The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; The Ford Foundation; French United States Exchange in Dance of the New England Foundation for the Arts; The Howard Gilman Foundation; The Mertz Gilmore Foundation; The Greenwall Foundation; The William Randolph Hearst Foundations; The Jerome Foundation; The Lambent Foundation; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts; National Performance Network; The New York Community Trust; New York State DanceForce; The Jerome Robbins Foundation; Rockefeller Brothers Fund; The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; The Scherman Foundation; The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation; The Shubert Foundation, Inc.; The Trust for Mutual Understanding; and The Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund.

Corporate support provided by: Bloomberg L.P. and Consolidated Edison Company of New York.

Public support provided by the following government agencies and elected representatives: National Endowment for the Arts; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; Kate D. Levin, Commissioner; Speaker Christine C. Quinn; New York City Council; New York State Council on the Arts; New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; Senator Thomas K. Duane, New York State Senate.

PRESS KITS AND DIGITAL IMAGES AVAILABLE
DANCETHEATERWORKSHOP.ORG/PRESS
Login: DTWPress

PASSWORD: pressphotos

#     #     #