Artists & Projects Directory

• Africa Consortium
• Boyzie Cekwana
• Dan Hurlin
• David Roussève/REALITY
• Dean Moss
• Gregory Maqoma
• Los Muñequitos
• Marc Bamuthi Joseph
• Ralph Lemon
• Stories Left to Tell
• The America Project
• Yasuko Yokoshi

Yasuko Yokoshi

The sound of the Gion Shôja bells echoes the impermanence of all things;
the color of the sâla flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline.
The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night;
the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind.
- from the opening of The Tale of the Heike (translated by Helen Craig McCullough)

Yasuko Yokoshi's art-making explores the complex interconnectedness of culture and history that frames our perspective of contemporary life.  Her inspiration for Tyler Tyler comes from The Tale of the Heike, a classic 12^th century Japanese epic of warring clans that documents the intense desire for domination and the inevitable fall from power.  The central theme of the stories - the Buddhist law of impermanence - has special resonance for Yokoshi; born and raised in Hiroshima, she was often reminded as a child of the ephemeral nature of human life. These stories continue to resonate in our own times as ambition and pride continue to spawn war and greed.

As a contemporary dance artist, Yokoshi is also driven by the question of how much culture within an art form is transferable, particularly in a fluid, mobile world where the merging of cultures is more prevalent than ever.  Tyler Tyler continues Yokoshi's unique collaboration with her revered master teacher of Kabuki Su-odori dance, Masumi Seyama.  Their previous work together, the critically acclaimed what we when we, won a 2006 "Bessie" Award.  Tyler Tyler will be performed by a cast of six including two U.S. dancers, a U.S. musician/singer and three Japanese dancers/actors, each of whom trained for many years with Ms. Seyama.

The heart of Tyler Tyler's choreographic process is Yokoshi's partnership with Ms. Seyama, who has given her several pieces of classic repertory for the project.  Following Kabuki tradition, as Ms. Seyama teaches the repertory to Yokoshi and the Japanese performers, and as Yokoshi teaches it to the U.S. dancers, subtle shifts are made to suit each performer.  With both Japanese and U.S. dancers, Yokoshi is deconstructing and rearranging the classic repertory using postmodern techniques, and creating original choreography that reflects and references the traditional repertory.  Observing how bodies trained in one rigorous form interpret the specific techniques, physical qualities and aesthetics of another, Yokoshi's goal is not to have the performers exchange their respective forms, but to examine the nature of cultural identity by experimenting with cultural form.

Steven Reker's original music, performed by the composer on voice, toy piano and bass guitar (referencing the sound of the Japanese shamisen), is inspired by specific Japanese folk songs filtered through Reker's own idiom of "experimental folk music."  The music also includes works by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Cat Power and Lou Reed.