(cross talk)
Please take a moment before we begin
to silence your cell phones and pagers.
Thank you, and enjoy the show.
♪ ("Queen of the Night" by Mozart) ♪
♪ (orchestra playing, opera singer) ♪
♪ (music continues) ♪
(laughter, applause)
(silence)
(scattered laughter)
(applause)
>> Good evening, and welcome to Dance Works Laboratory.
I'm José Bustamante, the artistic director of the Sharir-Bustamante Dance Works.
And I'm here to make a little bit of an announcement and have
a little bit of a conversation with you.
I'm going to, first of all, I want to make a note about a program order change.
The second piece that you have there in the program, "Sola,"
will be performed third, and "Hall Spirits" will be performed second.
I would like to explain a little bit how this evening is going to work.
At the end of each of the works in progress that you're going to see,
there is going to be a ten-minute conversation with you, the audience
where we will either explain or point out certain things that we are working on
with each of these segments,
and then you can also bring up any questions
or comments that you may have about the dances.
The main goal in this laboratory for us is really to take the opportunity
to look at the choreographic process and its intersection with lighting
and design and the use of new technologies.
And it's very important for us to be able to have the opportunity
to be up on stage where we can try these technologies and learn,
and hopefully find ways in which this learning can inform the way
that we make work, or the way we investigate movement,
or we continue creating work.
So for-- in this evening in particular, we have the very important contributions
of Amarante Lucero, our lighting designer, and Amy Burrell, costume designer.
And I would like to invite Amarante Lucero
to come and talk a little bit about the catalyst.
>> Hello.
We have very purposely left a piece of technology out here
for you guys to see.
What you're looking at, and by the way, this is Autumn Casey,
I don't know if you want to turn around. Autumn is a first year graduate student.
She's driving the machine. (applause)
What you see before you is something called a catalyst.
A catalyst primarily is software.
And it lives on that very fast Macintosh (inaudible).
That software comes with 800 different images
or pieces of material that we can work with,
450 of which are QuickTime movies.
And some of which you saw in this dance was off those live records.
We have the ability to add to it, we can manipulate it.
The catalyst allows us to have up to eight different layers of video,
and then we can manipulate those each individually.
We actually have split this up into four layers.
We have four layers going to the front projector, which is right over here.
We have two other projectors backstage, one in the stage right lane,
and one overhead coming down, which you'll see throughout the evening.
But we do-- we also have the ability to input signal line.
If you'll hold the camera up.
You will see the camera used in the second half in particular,
and the movie that you just saw came off the camera.
We used it as a playback device.
So we manipulate all these things through a conventional board.
This is-- well, it's not so conventional.
It's one of the better (inaudible) lighting boards called Hog II,
that she has mastered.
And between these devices, we can create the visual environment
in which the movie can exist.
And the movement will change based on the kind of choices we make.
So the movement informs our choices, the choices inform the movement,
and we have this conversation going back and forth.
So basically that's the catalyst in a very rudimentary form.
I'll open it to questions if you have any.
Since you're on first, you generally don't, but it's open.
Thank you.
(laughter)
>> Just a quick note regarding the video that we just saw.
The core dance was created in the lobby of the First Night building,
and it was commissioned by First Night Austin,
and it was premiered this past New Year's Eve.
And what-- I thought it would be interesting for you to have a reference
of where the piece was created.
And what we've done this evening is we've taken excerpts from that piece
and basically put something together here with the assistance of Amarante
and experimenting with what might be interesting to bring in
from that perspective, with also at the same time making the translation
onto the stage.
The lobby of the First Night Building is about three to four times
the size of this stage, at least the area that we use.
And so it, um...
We had to make also adjustments to those pieces.
Okay, so we will continue. Thank you.
(applause)
(silence)
(man vocalizing)
(droning sound, percussion)
(whispering, sounds continue)
(voice yelling)
(droning continues)
(whistling, squealing sound)
(voice yelling)
(droning continues)
(electronic sounds, water dripping)
(whispering, droning continues)
(voice yelling)
(fading)
♪ (sweeping synthesizer, long chords) ♪
♪ (synthesizer continues) ♪
(man yelling)
♪ (synthesizer continues) ♪
(silence)
(applause)
(silence)
(applause)
>> My name is Marsha Mann, this is of course Toshiko Namioka.
And um, I'm a very dear friend of Toshiko's.
And we have a strange kind of simpatico.
I do not speak Japanese, she does not speak English very well,
but we understand each other perfectly.
So we met in 1993 when her husband and herself moved to Portland, Oregon
as my husband and I had just moved there.
And we became fast friends.
And about a year ago, my husband and I moved to Austin
and we convinced her and her husband that they needed to move to Austin too.
So now they're in Austin.
And very shortly after arriving, I was put in touch
actually by someone who's here in the audience, Chris Brown,
with José Bustamante.
And he very graciously extended himself to Toshiko,
immediately wanted to include her in this upcoming choreographer showcase,
and to welcome her to the dance community of Austin.
So Toshiko is very grateful, appreciative of that, and um...
So, we wanted to allow you to ask questions if you have questions,
and I will answer the questions according to, you know,
my knowledge of Toshiko's work, and she might want to say something
in her particular way of speaking English as well,
so we'll see how it goes.
So are there any questions?
Yes.
>> I'd like to make a comment, and also I should mention,
this is one of the most powerful dramatic pieces I've seen here.
Wonderfully powerful.
And I felt the expression, demonic forces, followed by great suffering.
(inaudible)
And it made me think of the Holocaust.
But it was very archetypal.
>> Yes.
>> And I wonder if the music was specifically created for this,
or it was something found.
>> Okay, so there are sort of two points to that.
It's very interesting that you mention the Holocaust, because I don't know
how many of you are familiar with the form of butoh,
which is a movement that has now spread around the world.
And butoh, as well as Toshiko's dance, and this is kind of an important point,
because although it says in the program that her work is an amalgam
of modern dance, martial arts, and butoh,
she was not influenced by butoh,
as much as she grew out of that, evolved organically from that era,
which was post-Holocaust Japan,
and a total reexamination by the Japanese people
of their personal power and identity.
Because it's mentioned in the program, Toshiko comes from a family of samurai.
And when an atomic bomb is dropped on your country,
all of that incredible dignity and power that the samurai felt that they had
was obliterated.
So out of that rose the article on the butoh,
and then Toshiko being influenced by modern dance,
and of course western culture was sweeping over Japan,
and yet trying to find that individual unique voice
that was truly Japanese.
The second part of this question, or comment, was about the music.
I just want to comment, her husband Kurt Nebel,
composed music for many years.
He's composed all of Toshiko's music.
He can't even explain to you exactly how he does it.
Because he's not an electronic composer, per se,
but he comes up with just these amazing things
he runs by her, she says yes or no, he goes back to the drawing board
if it's no, racking his brain and screaming and complaining
and whatever, and then he keeps just coming back
until she says, "Yes, this is perfect."
And usually cries.
So, that's how that works. Yes?
>> Marsha, if you'd like, (inaudible) is a Japanese interpreter.
>> Okay, I'm having trouble hearing the question.
>> Our friend, he speaks Japanese, so if you want the interpretation--
>> Oh, it's not-- Yeah, it's actually easier this way.
We've had long conversations about this sort of stuff,
but thank you very much, that's really nice. Yeah.
>> One thing.
My English is-- my English have very strong accent.
Some people say, "Toshiko, you have very strong accent."
No, I don't have, just is me.
(laughter)
And sometimes I cannot communication to (inaudible).
And so my creative (inaudible)
My image, my taste, my smell, outside of buildings, ranch,
forest, stone, (inaudible) people, everything, my teacher.
And memory. And (inaudible)
And you have that memory.
And I would communication with--
And not only the stage, everywhere, just energy through...
This share, this is (inaudible).
>> Last night she made a comment to a particular question that was answered
that she sometimes will spend days, weeks just finding a particular movement
that is just right.
She also spends hours in front of the mirror,
just tilting her head a slightly different way,
or seeing exactly how she wants to extend, you know, her leg,
just getting the angle just right.
She has an amazing outside eye.
And somebody else asked, isn't it hard to do a solo piece like this
and know what you look like.
She has worked for many years without an outside eye,
and so she developed this ability to, by working with the mirror,
and also just experimenting over and over again,
knowing what something is going to look like
and how it is going to impact the audience.
And it's something that I greatly admire about her process. Her ability.
Anybody else?
That's it? Yes?
>> What's the history of the mask that's 150 years old?
>> The 100-- maybe 200 too.
(inaudible) -- first time I saw, I cannot-- smell, skin smell, everything.
This skin color. How many people used, I don't know.
First time, I can't, very (inaudible) smell, and everything.
And I kept dancing.
And two months, three months, (inaudible) and talking,
and sometimes three of my-- both my house.
And communication, after three months, I used this mask.
Now I used it ten years.
This is from my (inaudible), my (inaudible).
>> And we don't know exactly the origin of the mask,
but she has looked for other masks like this,
and they can't be found.
It's a very, very rare mask.
She carries it around with her.
(inaudible) performance, she wanted to leave it in the dressing room.
She carries it in a little box with her, and it stays with her
because it's irreplaceable.
Yes?
>> When is your next performance?
>> Well, we know that she'll be doing the performance in May
which will be a more developed version of this piece.
She's going to have other dancers in this piece.
She chose to do this as a solo for tonight's purpose,
but there will be two or three other dancers in this piece,
and it will be extended, it will be about 15 minutes long,
something like that. About 15 minutes long.
She does do-- we've started to meet people, you know, here in Austin,
and so she has been asked on occasion to do, you know, other performances
for the Asian America Cultural Center, or the Japan America Society,
so periodically she's been doing, you know, small solo performances.
So it's coming along.
But in May, watch out for the one in May.
Which will be, you know, with José Bustamante.
Is that it? Okay.
>> I just (inaudible) her husband (inaudible).
>> (laughs) My husband.
>> He is most dedicated people (inaudible).
>> Okay. >> Thank you!
>> Alright, thank you very much.
(applause)
♪ (electronically altered violin, soft) ♪
♪ (music continues) ♪
(silence)
(applause)
>> Hi. I'm Andee Scott.
I forgot to put my name in the credits, so just so you know, it's me.
And this is Amy Burrell,
costume designer-- (applause)
And also (inaudible)
I'm just going to talk a little bit about this--
talk a little bit about this piece and the process of how it kind of came to be.
In October of this past year, I went to Mazatlan, Mexico
and worked with Claudia Lavista.
And she has a dance company there who are actually going to be performing
in Austin next week as well in the Payne Theater, just a heads-up.
I went down, and I talked to classes, and I worked with her on this solo,
and the solo is actually part of a bigger project,
and we're interested in trying to find different women from around the world
to work with and create solos with an idea,
a kind of concept of identity.
And so this is the first... the first piece of that project.
I went down there, and we started with...
Claudia had a number of poems dealing with silence.
So for her, at the place that she is in her life,
silence is a very interesting concept.
A place of stillness, a place of silence, and a place of reflecting,
and just the concept of silence is very, I think, rich as well.
So she had me write my feelings about that.
She came to rehearsal with these poems and also her ideas around that,
and we just started working.
So we-- I would make a movement, she would make a movement.
And we just started-- she just started to kind of put it together in that way.
So um, I think it was a very organic process in a lot of ways.
Last night was the first night that I performed this solo,
and so this is only the second time, and it's a very rich experience
because it originally started with an idea of maybe kind of an enchanted forest,
that there was this kind of landscape of it.
And then it's kind of an interior place as well.
Um, hmm... I don't know what to say.
Let's see, I'm losing my train of thought.
I still have a little adrenaline right now.
Then we brought it back.
And the reason why it says work in progress actually
is because there is a video that we are going to be making next week
when she comes to town that will actually be a book end of sorts.
So there will be a little video at the beginning and a
little video at the end, trying to set up this landscape a bit.
So then, when I got back here, José Bustamante actually
is collaborating with the set.
And so he's watching it, trying to create things because it's a very
abstract piece, we're trying to find a way to ground it a bit.
And then my friend Amy, who I've danced with and have been
beautifully clothed by a number of times, I called her out because
she's just moved back from Brazil.
And I said, "Please please please help me, I need to have a costume."
And she did, so I'm going to let her talk a bit about it.
Well, um... Well, Andee gave me a budget.
(laughter)
Which is nice, you know, so we started there.
I'm living in Indiana actually, right now, so we're doing this by phone.
She sent me a video of the piece, and she gave me a few thoughts on it.
And the main one that stuck was smoke was one of them, something like
smoke, and going inside. So we decided on the color right away.
She told me, "I keep seeing white." You know, so that wasn't an issue.
Even though I kept trying to do purple, I don't know why, like,
I kept seeing purple things, but it-- we came back. But then, I made it
when I was here for First Night working also with the company, and
it was also, I think, very organic, you know, I went out and I bought
a scarf, and I just had Andee stand for me, and I just put it on her by piecing--
The scarf had this panel one end, and this panel on the other end.
Which is exactly the same, and I just put one hand on
one part of her body. I wanted something that was structured
that you know, maybe kind of like bones, and a military like thing.
Coming from her background, her family, so I kept seeing something
that had a little bit of structure, almost a little bit like a suit,
but I wanted it to be almost invisible also, and just very light.
And I just thought that this worked very well.
and I wanted to work up the neck.
For some reason, just, she has such a beautiful neck, and it's just
something very important for me. So, she had this necklace added to it.
And I think the legs were also something that were very simple for me to come
up with, because I wanted volume, but lightness, and a lot of movement.
It just has that lightness and that movement.
And I wanted to accentuate that. So, it just happened in
one afternoon, it was just great. But of course, since, I've been stitching
for hours and hours, little details because of course once it comes
to the stage, then we see, well maybe-- we couldn't really
see that was a triangle from where you were sitting.
So we put some fringe, Jose actually had that idea.
And it kind of brought it out a little more, you know,
just little details, but it took being where
you're sitting for me to kind of decide on a few of the last minute things.
I don't know if you guys have any questions for Andi,
or for myself (inaudible).
>> I do. Actually, this isn't about the costume, it's about the music.
I was just wondering, I don't know if you were making the decision with music
or part of that, but I was just wondering what the relationship was with the music
and how you decided to work with it. >> That's a really good question.
This piece of music is actually written by Claudia's father,
who's also a very well-known composer in Mexico City.
So we actually started with a piece... Meredith Monk, Come Facing North.
So she actually came into rehearsals knowing that this was a piece of music
that she wanted to use, and we actually created the solo to that.
But I don't know if you're familiar with that score at all,
but it gets a little bit heavy, I think, sometimes,
and so we-- she just brought in this one day, and we tried it,
and it does something, I think, very interesting to
it actually creates a landscape in a way that was very helpful for me
in the performance of it.
There-- the only connection that I have to the music, to be perfectly honest,
when I'm performing it, is that I'm hearing it.
I don't-- I don't know the music very well,
I don't-- there's nothing that's set to timing or cues in that way,
but it's a very, very rich chunk of sound, I think, for me.
And there's enough space, enough silence if you will,
to create something else.
I don't know if that answers your question, but yeah. Yes?
>> I'm curious about something about what's going on for you
in your experience of it as you're performing,
because there's a lot of times where you're involved in a gestural space,
you seem to be perceiving the environment,
and then there are times when you move into a more sort of kinesthetic
and sort of physical, large body.
And what is the sort of pathway between those for you,
and how do they fit into the story of the dance session you have
grown to understand? >> That's a really good question too.
Um... it's actually very difficult for me to go from one to the other.
My tendency as a performer is to find a way to link them.
I need to find my transitions, how do I get from this place to that place,
and for this it's been very-- it's been a very good challenge for me,
because there are points where I have to simply break
and go somewhere else.
Which is the choice that I would really probably not make myself.
So what I'm trying to do and continue to try to do is to actually
break them apart even more, and to have those faces
be kind of, here's this, and then oh.
Then I move into that.
Because it seems if it-- I have a tendency to smooth it all out.
And I will make it even.
And it loses the timing of it, becomes very even,
so over the course of the piece, I think it would become more
like a metronome rather than what I hear when I listen to this music.
So-- so that's a challenge for me.
And Claudia has a very different movement style than I do.
So a lot of the-- for me as a performer and in terms of growth and learning,
it's a really amazing place to try to do something that I will normally do one way,
in a different way.
And to see if it works.
And to see if-- I don't know, maybe exposing myself a little bit more
than I would, because I tend to want to look really good all the time.
And it's nice sometimes to maybe not be so tied to that.
I mean, I look good.
(laughter)
Any other questions? Yes?
>> Um, I was just curious about this object in the downstage right corner.
>> Yes.
>> It was kind of-- my reaction to it was that it was so interesting,
and I was kind of waiting the whole dance for you to touch it or (inaudible).
And there was this fascinating moment where you sort of teased me by
seeming like you almost did, and then not.
And I was wondering if this a relatively--
(inaudible)-- but this is a relatively new element to the dance,
how does this sort of fascinating object your affected your um...
your work with the dance and your process.
>> It's, uh, it's grounded, I think the performance of it, in a way
that I didn't have before.
Like I said, it's a very abstract solo, so I'm looking around this space,
and I could be seeing pink elephants for all you know, right,
but it's very real for me,
but there's also an element that I have to create that.
So much of that I have to create and kind of make up as I go along,
and this-- this becomes something very solid that I can relate to.
And so-- and it really did happen, I think, on Tuesday or Wednesday.
We-- like, we need an object on stage, and we don't know what that object
needs to be, but the image is grass.
The image is some kind of terrain that would be created from that.
So I haven't gotten to the point yet where I actually touch it.
Like, every day I get a little closer, today I almost touched it.
Yeah, I think I brushed it today.
But it's this very-- like, I don't know what to do with it either. So--
(laughter)
But I like it. And I like this. I like looking at it.
But I don't-- I don't really know, I don't really know beyond that as well.
So if you have any suggestions, if you have-- you know,
and it's completely open.
Please, yeah, show me, and I will-- yeah, it's...
I don't know. And also the same thing with the curtain.
We were looking for a projection screen that I would walk through
in some ways for when Claudia comes next week
and we're going to create this video.
So the idea of straws actually is based on,
there's a designer, Richard Isaacs, which he did a number of years ago,
which was he created a three- dimensional projection surface.
So it's-- that's our low budget answer to that,
it's a bunch of straws on a string. But um... yeah.
Seriously, any suggestions, I would really--
I don't know if I want to touch it, really.
I don't know if I want to necessarily go there,
because then it's this thing, like oh, well you only kind of brushed it.
Like, do you not like it, how do you--
You know, and I don't know. I don't know (inaudible) yet.
But I do like it, and I love the color as well.
I'll take one more question, and then we will (inaudible).
Please feel free, you can email me with your feedback.
Because this is-- this is brand new for me,
and so every night that I do it, I'm finding something different.
And it's a very rich place.
But it's-- as of now, only I really know what's going on in there,
and I'd like to (inaudible) some extra stuff too, so...
Alright. Um, we have a ten-minute intermission,
please enjoy yourselves and return.
Thank you so much.
(applause)
(cross talk)