News/Press
“WHEN DREAMS ARE INTERRUPTED…” EVOKES STARK MEMORIES OF WWII INTERNMENT EXPERIENCE OF BAY AREA JAPANESE-AMERICANS THROUGH DANCE, MUSIC, ART & SPOKEN WORD
World Premiere is in Berkeley on October 9,10, and 11, 2009 more...
Artist Bios
Jill Togawa, artistic director, is an accomplished dancer and choreographer whose career spans more than 30 years. She has added to her Western dance training (B.A. in dance from the University of Hawai’i) by studying traditional Japanese, Indonesian, Middle Eastern, and Hawaiian dance. She has worked with the Martha Graham Dance Company in New York, Asian American Dance Performances, Virginia Matthews Dance Company and numerous other choreographers in San Francisco. Togawa has received three California Arts Council residencies, an individual artist commission from the San Francisco Arts Commission and a residency from the Gaea Foundation. In 1992, she founded Purple Moon Dance Project (PMDP) and as its artistic director her work has been presented in Hawai'i, New York, throughout California and the northwest, New Mexico, Michigan, Indiana, Vancouver, BC and Beijing. The New York Times has called her work “radiant;” the Los Angeles Times describes it as “diversity made physical;” and Togawa has been honored by the Commission on the Status of Women for her commitment to community building. Togawa is the choreographer of “When Dreams Are Interrupted….”
Ellen Bepp, collaborating artist, is a visual and textile artist, as well as principal taiko (Japanese drum) performer with Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble. She has studied at the Pacific Basin School of Textile Arts in Berkeley as well as art and textiles in Mexico, Peru, Guatemala and Japan. She has previously collaborated with Togawa and PMDP in recent productions TransMissions (2006) and Mahina (2007). Exhibitions, collaborations, and commissions include (among others) “Issho/Together: Japanese American/Japanese National Artists in America 1941-Present,” Meridian Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2004); and “Ghosts of Little Boy, Artists for Peace,” National Japanese American Historical Society Peace Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2005). Bepp created the visual arts installations for of “When Dreams Are Interrupted….”
Principal/guest artists (dancers): Michelle Fletcher has an MFA from Florida State University and has danced for Dan Wagoner, Gerri Houlihan and Benoit Pouffer. Ruth Ichinaga, 74, has studied improvisational dance with Terry Sendgraff for 10 years, and has studied and played taiko for 12 years. Arisika Razak is an African-American performance artist who has performed nationally and internationally as a solo dancer, choreographer, guest lecturer and workshop leader, with work featured in the films A Place of Rage and Fire Eyes. Sharon Sato studied music at the University of Oregon and has performed with the Pearl Ubungen Dancers and Musicians and with Theatre Artaud.
Musicians: Claudia Cuentas is a multi-instrumentalist, bilingual storyteller, youth educator and performing artist with Samavesha. She studied at the National Music Conservatory of Lima, Peru, the Tamalpa Institute and the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). She has performed in several projects with renowned Bay Area artists such as Anna Halprin, Soto Hoffman, Barbara Borden, Lucia Comnes and Lulacruza. Her musical approach is a somatic experience, where movement, sound and story are interconnected. She currently works with immigrant women, children and families in San Francisco and East Bay communities using music, theater and drama therapy to teach diversity and wellness.
Laura Inserra is a multi-instrumentalist, performer, composer and teacher from Sicily. Her style is a fusion of different musical genres from the classical to the electronic. “My vision is to unite in one time and space different art expressions and to create an occasion for both performers and audience to immerse themselves in that which is being created. Samavesha is the current manifestation of this understanding. Samavesha is a sanskrit word for divine union, perfect merging of consciousness. The word holds a double meaning/power: to immerse yourself in something and already to be immersed in it.”