Support for Collaborative Creations between Japanese and International Artists
International Creations in Performing Arts 2022

About International Creations in Performing Arts

What is the Observer System?: This is a new method in which third parties from various backgrounds follow the production process of a particular project as observers and publicize their observations through reports etc. By sharing this process, the international collaboration in performing arts can be widely communicated to the general public, at the same time, promoting international collaborations by more performance groups and artists in the future. In addition, we aim to promote awareness of new forms of international exchange by showing behind-the-scenes of creation process that people normally do not encounter.

Observers

MORITA Kazuyo

Project covered: “Ctrl L” “A Difference of Beauty” by BIRD Theatre Company TOTTORI & Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB)

Dancer and actor
Completed the master’s program in the Department of Human Development at the Kobe University Graduate School of Human Development and Environment. With her disabled body, she conducts expressive activities and research, and in recent years, she has taught workshops and been involved in choreography and directing. She appeared in the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. She also has a regular column, “Kazuyo Morita’s Creation Notes,” in Co-coco, a creation magazine that explores questions about welfare, and she was named a “Good Workista” in the Diversity category of the PERSOL Work-Style AWARD 2020.

KWON Sanghae

Project covered: “A Conversation with the Sun (VR)” by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand) & SAKAMOTO Ryuichi

Born in Korea in 1990. Curator and Japan correspondent for Korean monthly, Public Art. He completed the doctoral program in curation in the Department of Arts Studies and Curatorial Practices at the Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Global Arts. Focusing on curation that traverses contemporary visual art and performing art, platform management, and research activities, he explores the capacity of performance to bring people together. Major projects include The Awakening and the Illusion: Dialogues with the Invisible (Goethe Institut Tokyo, 2022).

MORIYAMA Naoto

Project covered: “Merzbow, Balázs Pándi & Richard Pinhas with Lieko Shiga ‘Bipolar’” by SHIGA Lieko, Merzbow, Balázs Pandi (Hungary), Richard Pinhas (France)

Theater critic. Born in 1968. From October 2001 to March 2022, he was a professor in the Department of Performing Arts at Kyoto University of the Arts, Senior Researcher at the university’s Kyoto Performing Arts Center, and a member of the Editorial Committee of the Center’s journal, Performing Arts. From 2012 to 2019, he served as the Chair of the Kyoto International Performing Arts Festival (Kyoto Experiment) Executive Committee. He has written several books, including Butai Geijutsu no Miryoku [The Appeal of the Performing Arts] (co-written; Foundation for the Promotion of The Open University of Japan). His published articles include “Nihongo de ‘Utau Koto,’ ‘Hanasu Koto’: Engekiteki-na ‘Koe’ o Meguru Kosatsu [‘Singing’ and ‘speaking’ in Japanese’: A study of the theatrical ‘voice’], (Performing Arts, Vol. 24).

Photo by Yasuyuki Emori

SHIBATA Takako

Project covered: “Goodbye, and good wishes for your success ― a response to Annihilation of Caste ― a speech prepared by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar at the invitation of Jat-Pat Todak Mandal of Lahore in 1936 but NOT DELIVERED owing to the withdrawal of the invitation because the organising committee found the contents of the speech unbearable.” by WADA Nagara & Sankar Venkateswaran (India)

Completed the doctoral program in the Graduate Course in Cultural Studies on Corporeal and Visual Representation at the Gakushuin University Graduate School of Humanities and earned her Ph.D. (Cultural Studies on Visual Representation) in 2013. After working as a part-time lecturer at Azabu University, Chuo University, and elsewhere, and as Assistant Professor at Gakushuin University Graduate School of Humanities, she is now Associate Professor at the School of International Communication at Senshu University.
She is a member of the International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC) Japan Center and, since 2021, has served as Editorial Representative of its journal, Theatre Arts. Her review of the Venkateswaran-directed Water Station was published in the online edition of Theatre Arts, and her own book, Oskar Schlemmer: Bühnenkunst [Oskar Schlemmer―Bauhaus Performing Arts] was published by Suiseisha in 2021.

SUZUKI Rieko

Project covered: “Hourglass” by Company Derashinera & Lee Ren Xin (Malaysia), Liu Juichu (Taiwan), Jung Young Doo (Korea)

Editor and writer. After working in the Editorial Department of theater magazine, Theater Guide, she turned freelance in 2009 and now edits performing arts-related pamphlets and books, as well as working on her own writing. She is a founding member of the non-profit organization, Arts Commons Tokyo, and lectures part-time in the Arts and Cultural Administration Course in the Faculty of Humanities of Seikei University. Her edited publications include “Gendai Engeki” no Ressun [Lessons in Contemporary Theater] (Film Art, Inc.), and her own published writing includes Takarazuka-fu Myujikaru Gekidan no Orijinariti [The Originality of Takarazuka-like Musical Theater Troupes] (in “Chiiki Shimin Engeki no Genzai―Geijutsu to Shakai no Atarashii Musubitsuki [Local Community Theater Today―New Ties Between the Arts and Society]) (Shinwasha). She is also the supervising editor of the ACL Archive of Contemporary Theater Reviews and Nihon no Engeki: Koen to Gekihyo Mokuroku 1980-nen–2018-nen [Catalogue of Japanese Theater Performances and Drama Reviews, 1980–2018] (Nichigai Associates, Inc.)

[Contact Us]

Performing Arts Section, Arts and Culture Dept., The Japan Foundation
Tel: +81-(0)3-5369-6063
E-mail: pa＠jpf.go.jp
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What We Do

Support for Collaborative Creations between Japanese and International Artists International Creations in Performing Arts 2022