Article Summary: Swarthmore Taiko, the student and community performance group directed by Dance Professor Kim Arrow, and the Dance Program’s Taiko repertory classes, will launch into the next phase of their development with a gift of a set of Taiko drums handcrafted by Miyamoto, one of the most respected family names in Taiko-making. This gift from Tamagawa University and Cornell Visiting Professor Isaburoh Hanayagi, director of Tamagawa’s Taiko Drum and Dance Ensemble, is one result of an enriching nine-year cultural exchange between the two institutions. These drums will be featured in a score of performances by both Swarthmore Taiko and the Dance Program’s repertory classes this spring, including appearances for the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia’s Subaru Cherry Blossom Festival and Swarthmore’s Spring Student Dance Concert.
Tuesday, February 24 • Sheuer Room • 4:30 pm (reception at 4:15)
The 1970 Osaka Expo was the first world’s fair in an Asian country and, with over 64 million visitors, the most heavily attended world’s fair in history. Harnessing the talents of many of the most innovative Japanese architects, designers, artists, and intellectual leaders of the postwar period (including writers, critics, and scholars), the Expo presented an eye-popping vision of a “future city,” with new paradigms for daily living, including public and private space, transportation systems, media environments, and computer-aided infrastructure. Yet despite its official theme of “Progress and Harmony for Mankind,” the Expo also revealed the limits of the postwar ideals of social harmony and economic development, and harbored a undercurrent of apocalyptic imagination. Focusing on the themes of “future city” and “hidden apocalypse,” my faculty lecture will give a preliminary report on my research into the conceptual background, contemporary reception, and ongoing cultural resonance of this event.
The base of Okamoto Tarô's iconic "Tower of the Sun," in the Festival Plaza of the 1970 Osaka Expo. Photo from Minami Nakawada, ed., Expo '70: Kyôkagu: Ôsaka bankoku hakurankai no subete (Daiyamondosha, 2005).
"The Origins of Butoh in post-WWII Japan"--Katsura Kan Lecture with Video
Thursday, Oct. 30 • 7-9 pm • Lang Performing Arts Center (LPAC) Cinema
Katsura Kan, a master teacher and Butoh dancer, will visit campus to give a special lecture on "The Origin of Butoh in post-WWII Japan" on Thursday, Oct. 30, 7-9 pm. The lecture will include video examples, as well as anecdotes from Kan's 29 years of Butoh performance and teaching. A question & answer period will follow the lecture. Watch excerpts from a recent performance by Kan at Naropa College here.
Based in Kyoto, Japan since 1979, Master Butoh artist, choreographer and teacher Katsura Kan (b. 1948) is a Butoh artist among the ranks of Japan’s first generation of Butoh. He performed with the seminal Butoh troupe Byakkosha (1979-1981). For the past 29 years, Kan has worked with dancers in remote locations throughout Africa, Europe, and South East Asia, in addition to performing his creative works in cosmopolitan cultures. Katsura Kan seeks to spread knowledge of the art and practice of Butoh globally, while educating students, artists and audiences about the links between Butoh and classical Japanese Noh theatre.
Sponsored by The Cooper Serendipity Fund; The Department of Music and Dance; The Department of Theater; Asian Studies; the Japanese Section of Modern Languages.
Japanese Dance in Fall Dance Concert!
Friday December 5 at 4:30 pm, and Saturday Dec 6 at 8:00 pm • LPAC Pearson-Hall Theater
Students from the courses "The World of Japanese Drama and Performance" (JPNS 017) and "Dance Repertory-- Japanese Folk Dance," (DANC 049), led by Visiting Cornell Professor Isaburoh Hanayagi, will perfrom in Swarthmore's Fall Dance Concert. The JPNS 017 students will perform a piece based on noh and kabuki movements, while the DANC 049 students will perform a folk dance from Okinawa.
Photo: Isaburoh Hanayagi demonstrates a fan movement for students in JPNS 017.
Student iMovie Projects Screening Party
Wednesday, December 10, 2008 • 11:00 am • Kohlberg 115
Join us for our Fall Semester end-of-semester party, featuring screenings from iMovie projects presented by our First Year and Second Year Japanese Language students!
JET Program Information Session
Monday, October 20, 2008 • 4:15pm •Kohlberg 226
Are you interested in living in Japan?
Are you interested in getting international teaching experience?
If your answer is ‘YES!,” come to the JET (Japan Exchange & Teaching) Program Information Session.
Representative of the program will be there to provide information and to answer any questions you might have.
Refreshments will be served!
Study Abroad Info Session
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 • 4:15 pm •Kohlberg Rm 226
Students interested in studying in Japan for a semester or academic year are cordially invited to attend this meeting, speak with members of the Japanese Language Section and former study abroad participants, and enjoy some refreshments!
Swarthmore Students to perform taiko and dance at Philadelphia's Sakura Sunday
On April 5, Swarthmore students will perform as part of Sakura Sunday, the main event of the 2009 Subaru Cherry Blossom Festival of Greater Philadelphia, at the Horticulure Center in Fairmount Park. The students will perform both taiko (Japanese drumming) and Japanese dance, under the direction of Cornell Visiting Professor Isaburoh Hanayagi and Swarthmore Dance Department's Kim Arrow.
Cornell Visiting Professor Isaburoh Hanayagi will perform the dance Ryusei (A Shooting Star) from the nihon buyo (Japanese classical dance) tradition. This dance is set during the tanabata star festival on the 7th of July, when the cowherd star and weaving girl star are said to meet in the sky. As they enjoy their once-a-year meeting, a shooting star approaches and tells them the latest gossip about a domestic spat between a thunder wife and thunder husband. As he tells their story, the shooting star transforms into multiple roles using masks, including the wife, husband, a child, and an old woman. Outstanding features of this dance include the meticulous gestures typical of the nihon buyo style, together with the transformation of characters using masks. Professor Hanayagi will also make some explanatory remarks about Japanese dance, and will take questions from the audience.
Photo: Cornell Visiting Professor Isaburoh Hanayagi
