Performing Arts Japan
List of Awardees 2006-2007
The Japan Foundation is pleased to announce grant awards totaling $258,000 to 10
organizations in the United States through the PAJ Program for the fiscal 2006-2007. The
grant recipients are listed below. (Please contact the Japan Foundation, New York for further
information and finalized performance dates.)

PAJ Touring Grant 2006-2007
Total projects: 5
Total funds allocated: $150,000
Grant amounts: $2,345 - $60,000
Arts Midwest (Minneapolis, MN) for a four-city tour of the Bamboo Orchestra(www.world-bamboo.com), with a week-long residency in each visited community in theMidwest. The Orchestra’s tour is a part of the Midwest World Fest, a global education andoutreach performing arts initiative that provides inspiring arts enrichment and instills
awareness and appreciation for other cultures.
Tour Dates: March 10 – 30, 2007
Tour Locations: The Whiting (Flint, MI); The Midland Theatre (Newark, OH); The Commons(Columbus, IN); Capitol Theatre (Rock Island, IL)
Music From Japan, Inc. (New York, NY) for a five-city tour of Junko Tahara Biwa Ensemble,
with related educational events. Junko Tahara (http://naks.biz/biwa-jun) is a virtuoso playerof biwa, a short-necked lute, used from the 7th century in gagaku (Japanese ancient courtmusic) and also by biwa hoshi (itinerant lay-priest entertainers). The program will feature
both classic heikyoku (the age-old art of telling stories from the Tale of the Heike about thebattles between the Genji and Heike clans) and modern katarimono (narratives with biwa),
alongside a newly commissioned piece.
Tour Dates: February 22 – March 5, 2007
Tour Locations: Freer Gallery of Art & Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (Washington, DC);
Converse College (Spartanburg, SC); Middle Tennessee State University (Murfreesboro, TN);
Merkin Concert Hall (New York, NY); Yasuragi Center (Mahopac, NY)
Providence Productions International, Inc. (New York, NY) for a two-city tour of Knock on
the Sky, a butoh-based evening-length work created by choreographer Dawn Akemi Saito,
composer and musician Myra Melford (www.myramelford.com), and architect and sculptor
Michael Haberz. The work is inspired by the book and film classic Woman in the Dunes,
Kobo Abe’s retelling of Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus.
Tour Dates: May 12 – 20, 2006
Tour Locations: Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN); Flynn Center for the Performing Arts
(Burlington, VT)
6Seattle Theatre Group (Seattle, WA) for an eleven-city North American tour of Kagemi –Beyond the Metaphors of Mirrors, created by Ushio Amagatsu for Sankai Juku
(www.sankaijuku.com), one of the leading butoh exponents. Premiered at Theatre de la Ville,
Paris in 2000, Kagemi is a mature and complex work in which Amagatsu has choreographedhighly diverse sections for his company which appear in strong contrast to meditative solo
sections by Amagastu himself.
Tour Dates: October 10 – November 21, 2006
Tour Locations: National Arts Centre (Ottawa, Canada); Theatre Maisonneuve de la Place desArts (Montreal, Canada); Hummingbird Centre for the Performing Arts (Toronto, Canada);
Williams College ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance (Williamstown, MA); Brooklyn Academyof Music (Brooklyn, NY); Dance Affiliates (Philadelphia, PA); University of Minnesota(Minneapolis, MN); ASU Public Events (Tempe, AZ); Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (SanFrancisco, CA); UCLA Live (Los Angeles, CA); Seattle Theatre Group (Seattle, WA)
The Society for the Activation of Social Space through Arts and Sound (SASSAS) (LosAngeles, CA) for a three-city West Coast tour of an internationally acclaimed experimental
improviser, Tetuzi Akiyama (www.japanimprov.com/takiyama). In each city, Akiyama will
not only perform concerts but also hold workshops and other outreach activities, thereby
bringing the fresh perspective of a new generation of Japanese improvisers to the local
experimental music community. The project is part of Akiyama’s North-American tour,
visiting more than twenty cities in the U.S. and Canada.
Tour Dates: June 20 – 28, 2006
Tour Locations: Voz Alta Project (San Diego, CA); Schindler House (West Hollywood, CA);The Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock (Los Angeles, CA); New Langton Arts (San Francisco,CA)

PAJ Collaboration Grant 2006-2007
Total projects: 5
Total funds allocated: $108,000
Grant amounts: $15,000 - $30,000
Inta, Inc. (New York, NY) for a collaboration between dancers/choreographers Eiko & Koma
(www.eikoandkoma.org) and pianist Margaret Leng Tan(http://home.earthlink.net/~margaretlengtan) to create an evening-length dance work,
provisionally entitled Mourning, that will examine in theatrical terms Eiko & Koma’s evolving
thoughts on the topic of death. The work will be premiered at Montclair State University(Montclair, NJ) during Winter 2006/2007.
Project Period: June 2006 – March 2007
Ragamala Music and Dance Theater (Minneapolis, MN) (www.ragamala.net) for acollaboration with Wadaiko Ensemble Tokara (www.tokara.net), a taiko group based inNagano, Japan, to create a new work inspired by the complex percussion, driving athleticism,visceral joy, and powerful grace inherent in Japanese taiko and Bharatanatyam, an ancient7

classical dance form from southern India.
Project Period: September 2006 – March 2007
7 Loaves, Inc. AKA GOH PRODUCTIONS (New York, NY) for a collaboration among New
York-based choreographer Yoshiko Chuma (www.yoshikochuma.org), composer Richard
Marriott (www.richardmarriott.com), sound designer Jacob Burckhardt, film curator Kyoko
Hirano, Tokyo-based vocalist Sizzle Ohtaka (www.songbirds.ne.jp/sizzle), as well as dancers
and musicians from Japan, Manipur, Macedonia and the U.S., to create a new work, A PAGEOUT OF ORDER, that deals with issues of cultural isolation, employing the technique ofbenshi, the narrator popularized during the silent film era in Japan during the early 20th century.
The work is scheduled to premiere at Dance Theater Workshop (New York, NY) in January
2007.
Project Period: May 2006 – March 2007
Spoleto Festival USA (Charleston, SC) for a collaboration with The Theatreworks(www.theatreworks.org.sg), to produce a new piece Geisha, directed by Ong Keng Sen. The
production includes performer Karen Kandel, Nihon-buyo dancer Gojo Masanosuke(www.gojo-ryu.com), shamisen player Katsumatsu Kineya, soundscape composer Toru
Yamanaka (www.plate90.com) and costume designer Mitsushi Yanaihara (www.nibroll.jp).
After its world premiere in Charleston, the production will tour to the Singapore Arts Festival
and the Lincoln Center Festival (New York, NY).
Project Period: April 2006 – May 2006
Trisha Brown Dance Company, Inc. (New York, NY) (www.trishabrowncompany.org) for acollaboration between choreographer Trisha Brown and Japanese visual artist Kenjiro
Okazaki to create a new piece, for which Okazaki plans an interactive robotic set. The work
is scheduled to premiere at Montclair State University (Montclair, NJ) in January 2007 and tourto several cities in the U.S.
Project Period: April 2006 – March 2007

The grant applications for the fiscal 2006-2007 were reviewed by the PAJ Advisory Committee,
comprising one Japanese consultant and eight performing arts specialists from throughout theUnited States. The committee made its recommendations to the Japan Foundation
Headquarters in Tokyo.

PAJ Advisory Committee Members (as of December 2005)


Ms. Elizabeth Boone (Artistic and Executive Director, Miami Light Project)
Ms. Rachel Cooper (Director, Cultural Programs and Performing Arts, Asia Society)
Mr. Lane Czaplinski (Artistic Director, On The Boards/Behnke Center for Contemporary
Performance)
Mr. Charles Helm (Director of Performing Arts, Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio
State University)

8



Ms. Margaret Lawrence (Director of Programming, Hopkins Center for the Arts,Dartmouth College)
Ms. Cynthia Patterson (Program Manager, Performing Arts Center, The University ofTexas at Austin)
Ms. Julie Voigt (Senior Program Officer, Performing Arts, Walker Art Center)
Mr. Martin Wechsler (Director of Programming, The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc.)

PAJ Advisory Committee Consultant (as of December 2005)
Prof. Tadashi Uchino (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, TheUniversity of Tokyo)

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