Noh Reimagined Festival, Kings Place in London

Description

Ami Skånberg Dahlstedt was invited by the visual artist Wiebke Leister (University of the Arts, London), and the curator Akiko Yanagisawa to perform a new piece based on the Noh drama Atsumori.

mu:arts is a London-based independent creative producer/curator specialising in culture and arts primarily of Japan. They aim to deliver excellent artists and productions and are keen to promote cross-cultural and inter-disciplinary collaborations.

HERO A new dance- and music piece based on a Noh drama story and dance by Ami Skånberg Dahlstedt music by Palle Dahlstedt For this piece, Ami builds her storytelling dance on a de/reconstruction of male roles in Noh starting from the classic Noh drama Atsumori and on her knowledge of Japanese dance in both Noh and Nihon Buyo, which she has studied extensively with Nishikawa Senrei, and later with Shinji Takabayashi, Richard Emmert and Akira Matsui. She decided to continue her work with the composer Palle Dahlsetdt, and build it on their past cooperation, the acclaimed and award winning A Particular Act of Survival (Atalante, Gothenburg, 2015). Palle Dahlstedt bases his music from his knowledge of Noh's structures and materials construction, but with completely different sounds and instruments, and in that he builds instruments on acoustic-electronic processing of Ami's voice so to challenge the dominance of male voices in Noh's soundscape. The result is a narrative dance based on a re/deconstruction of the classical Noh drama Atsumori. The play was written by Zeami in the late 1300s but looks back on the battle of Ichinotani in 1184. There, the young flutist Atsumori is beheaded by general Kumagae. Kumagae, deeply regretting that he killed the young Atsumori, becomes a Buddhist monk, and spends the rest of his life to pray for Atsumori’s soul. In Hero, we place Atsumori’s parent on the battlefield. The parent tries to take vengeance on the slayer, but realizes that it is futile. Created with support from the City of Gothenburg Pronto, the Swedish Arts Grants Committee. Thanks to: Wiebke Leister, Akiko Yanigasawa, Torbjörn Alström, Kristin Johansson-Lassbo, Åsa Holtz, Nishikawa Senrei, Shobukan and University of Gothenburg.

Period	14 May 2016