Gilles Kennedy - The Japan Times

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Gilles Kennedy

For Gilles Kennedy's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Sep 20, 2007

Butoh flowers of life and decay

There is a muscular eloquence to Junichi Kakizaki's constructions. He describes himself as a floral artist — not an ikebana (flower arrangement) master — and has won awards for his interpretation of the traditional Japanese art form. He considers his works to be contemporary art — either installations or performances.

CULTURE / Stage

Mar 27, 2001

Movement that weaves an otherworldly spell

It's not often that a dance production lives up to an ambitious title, but "Luminous," by Saburo Teshigawara and the dance company Karas, certainly does.

CULTURE / Stage

Mar 3, 2001

Wake us for the next dance

The abundance of new dance and theater available in Tokyo during the months of February and March is a sure indicator of just how profoundly new work in this city depends on grants and other handouts from funding bodies. These budgets, such as they are, must be used by the end of the fiscal year, and venues are booked solid for weekends in the runup to April. In itself, this condition has effectively established a sort of season for nonimported performance.

CULTURE / Stage

Feb 3, 2001

Suzuki's view of the stars

Of the many categories of dance in Japan, from traditional ballet to so-called neo-butoh and beyond into the unmapped territories of performance installation, Minoru Suzuki is the only ballet choreographer with the potential to be a contender internationally. To celebrate 35 years in the business, Star Dancers Ballet Company commissioned a work from Suzuki that stands head and shoulders above his previous works, such as the character-driven "DragonQuest" or the more abstract, unfortunately named "Yonk."

CULTURE / Stage

Jan 16, 2001

Time for Ide to stop looking back over his shoulder

The word furimukuto describes the action of looking over your shoulder, as if suspicious that somebody is watching you, or perhaps just to check what's going on around you from all visual angles. Choreographer Shigehiro Ide chose it as the title for his newest dance work at Theater Tram in Tokyo's Sangenjaya Jan. 11-14.

CULTURE / Stage

Dec 23, 2000

Anything but ordinary

With the title "Raj Packet -- Everything But Ravi," you can't help but be curious about the performance. "Raj" possibly indicates something to do with British sovereignty over India in the last century;"packet" could be compendium, maybe a selection box of performance chocolates; "everything" as in "everything but the kitchen sink" and Ravi presumably refers to performer Ravi Deepres.

CULTURE / Stage

Dec 10, 2000

The stuff that memories are made of

The performance company Dumb Type, based in Kyoto, has always been a bit of a political animal, an in-your-face shape-shifter through dance, the visual and plastic arts, text, conceptualized performance, mime, puppetry and film. And because it has been an enthusiastic investigator of gender politics, transvestitism and the sex industry, it has provided the rest of the world with contemporary commentary on issues both general and particular to Japan.

CULTURE / Stage

Dec 2, 2000

Movement at its purest

The only international production in the dance section of the continuing Tokyo Festival of Performing Arts turned out to be a heavyweight contender, a collaboration betweentwo of the German dancers and choreographers who, with Pina Bausch, have formed the representative triangle of German dance for the last two to three decades. Susanne Linke and Reinhild Hoffmann debuted "Ueber Kreuz" Nov. 22 at Park Tower Hall in Shinjuku.

CULTURE / Stage

Nov 17, 2000

Skirting the gender issue, H.Art excels in the abstract

H.Art Chaos is a clued-up modern dance company of women. The myriad questionnaire forms it distributes after every performance help it to read prevailing audience moods well enough to know that you can never generate as much enthusiasm for a full-length work as for two short snappy pieces bisected by a chunky interval.

CULTURE / Stage

Oct 28, 2000

'International' festival is dominated by national talent as budgets pared

Tokyo International Festival of Performing Arts 2000 kicked off Oct. 13 with the production "Melancholy Baby" at Aoyama Enkei Gekijo, one of the main venues hosting the festival. In truth, though, there is little "international" about this year's festival, through mid-December.

CULTURE / Stage

Oct 6, 2000

Strange thing happened while crossing the bridge

Strange things, collaborations. Much admired by the devout acolytes of grant-dispensing foundations in the interests of "crossing cultures" and "mutual understanding," these unfortunate buzz phrases have thrown together more than a few unwieldy alliances in the fields of dance and theater.

CULTURE / Stage

Sep 16, 2000

A gentler, softer Dairakudakan

It is tempting to look at the new Dairakudakan production, "Kanzen-naru Hitobito (Complete People)," as being in some way connected to the title. Searching for meaning in butoh performances has always been a mad sport, though, and the premiere by the largest butoh company extant, at Tokyo's Art Sphere on Sept. 7, increased the odds against.

CULTURE / Stage

Apr 28, 2000

A powerful show of grace fit for royalty

History was made in the world of ballet in Japan with the gala performance of the two Nederlands Dans Theater companies at Saitama Arts Theater April 23. For the first time ever, the young and veteran companies, NDT II and NDT III, performed together, in this case to commemorate the 400 years of bilateral ties between Japan and the Netherlands in the ongoing "Holland Week" of special events celebrating diplomatic, business and cultural links.

CULTURE / Stage

Feb 29, 2000

Anti-glamor Idevian Crew hit the stage

Shigehiro Ide is back on stage with his dance company Idevian Crew after all too long an absence from performing. His comeback in "Which," the piece he choreographed to open the Next Dance Festival at Shinjuku Park Tower Hall Feb. 18, establishes him as the most promising dancer/choreographer on the scene.

CULTURE / Stage

Feb 13, 2000

'Seasons' marks 35 years of Tokyo Ballet

On Feb. 4-5, the Tokyo Ballet premiered a new ballet by John Neumeier of the Hamburg Ballet in Germany. "Seasons -- The Colors of Time" was the latest in the company's series of commissioned works to celebrate the 35th anniversary of its establishment.

CULTURE / Stage

Feb 4, 2000

Dance fests spotlight solo performances

Tokyo is awash with festivals of dance this month, mostly by solo dancers, which is not surprising since the majority of performers here prefer the controlled environment of one-man shows. But what is surprising is that even with all the organization involved in planning these events, the sudden accumulation of small and more ambitious dance "festivals" in February indicates a grave lack of communication in the dance community.

CULTURE / Stage

Jan 23, 2000

Process of progress; idea to performance

There's a new wind blowing through the performing arts this month, with two companies showing the fruits of "works in progress" instead of finished productions, although any difference in quality seems to be marginal.

CULTURE / Stage

Nov 19, 1999

Buto-sha Tenkei dances the idea

Buto-sha Tenkei has picked a dark vision for its new work "Kanata," which premiered Nov. 10-11 at Kitazawa Hall in Tokyo and will tour the U.S. in February. This group has a revolving membership. Ebisu Torii and Mutsuko Tanaka, performers with more than 25 years of experience in Dai Rakudakan and their own choreography, lead the company of two female dancers, this time Kaori Saito and Yukari Ueda, who also danced with Tenkei in "Nocturne."

CULTURE / Stage

Oct 15, 1999

Kim Itoh puts the future on the map

This year's Tokyo International Festival of Performing Arts, ongoing through Oct. 31, is a scaled-down version of previous festivals, with only six official participants and few of international interest. While this shifts the onus to domestic dance companies such as Min Tanaka and Kenshi Nomi, expectations of trail-blazing productions on the home front have so far been disappointing, with the partial exception of Kim Itoh's "On the Map" at Park Tower Hall in Shinjuku, Sept. 30-Oct. 2.

CULTURE / Stage

Oct 2, 1999

Dancing in the footsteps of Ailey

Alvin Ailey was an American choreographer with a seismic impact on modern dance in this century. He revolutionized the way African-American rituals, experiences, music and literature were presented through dance and carved a niche for the voice of that community that continues through his company 10 years after his death.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.

The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 34: Tokyo, a vanguard city for sustainability

Vol. 34: Tokyo, a vanguard city for sustainability

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