The Japan Foundation Performing Arts JAPAN 2003-2004
LIST OF AWARDEESThe Japan Foundation is pleased to announce the grant awards of $300,000 to 13 presenters
and artists in the United States through the Performing Arts JAPAN (PAJ) Program for fiscal
2003-2004. The awards are made in the following two categories:
1. Grants to support touring projects of Japanese performing arts in the United States (andCanada) organized by American presenters.
2. Grants to support collaborations between American and Japanese performing artists.
The Performing Arts JAPAN (PAJ) Program, created in 1994, seeks to facilitate better
understanding of Japanese culture in the United States by providing geographically diverse
American audiences with greater exposure to Japanese performing arts. PAJ also encourages
collaborations between American and Japanese artists, which will enhance the understandingof Japanese culture when presented to American audiences.
The 2003-2004 grantees are listed below. (Please contact The Japan Foundation New York
Office for further information about finalized tour dates.)
PAJ Touring Grant awards 2003-2004
Total projects: 7
Total funds allocated: $224,000
American Dance Festival (Durham, NC) for a three-city tour of the legendary Japanese butohcompany, Dairakudakan, founded by Akaji Maro. The tour will introduce a new generation ofbutoh, by presenting the Kochuten series created and performed by young members of thecompany. Excerpts from Akaji’s own piece, Ryuba, will also be performed. While in residence
at ADF, the company members will conduct master classes and seminars for the community.
Tour Dates: June 24 - July 19, 2003
Tour Locations: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco, CA); American Dance
Festival (Durham, NC); Japan Society (New York, NY)
Arts Midwest (Minneapolis, MN) for a five-city tour of the Japanese ensemble, The BambooOrchestra. Through week-long residencies in each community, the orchestra will conduct
public and school performances, multiple workshops, as well as a number of outreach activities,
thus enabling local audiences to experience Japanese culture in an intensive way. The tour ispart of the Midwest World Fest, a global education and outreach program of Arts Midwest.

Tour Dates: February 19 - April 2, 2004
Tour Locations: Eau Claire Regional Arts Center (Eau Claire, WI); Fairmont Opera House(Fairmont, MN); Sioux City Orpheum Theatre (Sioux City, IA); Aberdeen Community Theatre(Aberdeen SD); Jamestown Fine Arts Center (Jamestown, ND)
California Institute of the Arts (Valencia, CA) for a three-city tour of the Kyoto-based
multi-media performance ensemble, Dumb Type, one of the world’s most influential andpopular contemporary companies, known for its innovative mixture of dance, theatre,
mixed-media projection, and electronic music. Although the group has held performances inseveral cities in the U.S., this is the first time they will be presented to a Los Angeles audience.
Tour Dates: October 16 - November 16, 2003
Tour Locations: REDCAT/CalArts (Los Angeles, CA); Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (SanFrancisco, CA); Byham Theater/Pittsburgh Dance Council (Pittsburgh, PA)
The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago (Chicago, IL) for a six-city tour of Fagaala(formerly known as The Human Tragedy of Genocide, Rwanda and Tomorrow?), a dance
production resulting from a two-year collaboration between Japanese choreographer Kota
Yamazaki and Germaine Acogny, artistic director of Compagnie Jant-Bi of Senegal. Taking theRwandan genocide as a point of departure, the piece looks at all tragic historical events and theneed to take measures to prevent the occurrence of further genocide.
Tour Dates: January 19 - May 1, 2004
Tour Locations: University of California, Riverside (Riverside, CA); California StateUniversity, Monterey Bay (Seaside, CA); New Jersey Performing Arts Center (Newark, NJ);
Miami-Dade Community College (Miami, FL); Arizona State University (Phoenix, AZ); The
Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago (Chicago, IL); Cuyahoga Community College(Highland Hills, OH)
Japan Society, Inc. (New York, NY) for a seven-city tour of Hachioji Kuruma Ningyo Puppet
Theatre Company, accompanied by live Japanese traditional narrative songs featuring theshinnai master Wakasanojo Tsuruga, the 11th Iemoto of the Tsuruga School of Shinnai Musicand Living National Treasure. Following the success of the U.S. debut tour in the fall of 2002,
the company will make another tour focusing on the East Coast.
Tour Dates: September 20 - October 14, 2003
Tour Locations: Towson University (Towson, MD); Japan Society (New York, NY); Copley
Theatre/Japan Society of Boston (Boston, MA); Dartmouth University (Hanover, NH);
Hamilton College (Clinton, NY); University of West Florida (Pensacola, FL); Florida
International University (Miami, FL)
The New York Foundation for the Arts (Maureen Fleming) (New York, NY) for aseven-city tour of a multi-disciplined performance work entitled Decay of the Angel, involving
choreography by Maureen Fleming, photography by Tadayuki Naitoh and Lois Greenfield,
video by Jeff Bush, and light, set, and visual design by Chris Odo, with stage art by ikebana
artist Gaho Taniguchi. The tour is the outcome of their collaboration funded by PAJ 2002-2003.
Tour Dates: July 12, 2003 - April 4, 2004
Tour Locations: Roxbury Arts Center (Roxbury, NY); Flynn Center for the Performing Arts

(Burlington, VT); University of Minnesota/Minnesota Dance Alliance (Minneapolis, MN);
Emerson Majestic Theatre/Japan Society of Boston (Boston, MA); University of Massachusetts
Amherst (Amherst, MA); Vancouver International Dance Festival (Vancouver, BC); La MaMaExperimental Theatre Club (New York, NY)
Theatre of Yugen (San Francisco, CA) for a three-city tour of one of Japan’s most celebrated
kyogen companies, Mansaku Nomura and Mansaku-no-Kai. The company of Mansaku Nomura,an outstanding leader in the world of kyogen and a designated Living National Treasure, will
perform two programs including the debut appearance of Mansaku’s grandson and the three
generations of Nomura family members in Utsubozaru (The Monkey Skin Quiver)Tour Dates: December 6 - 14, 2003
Tour Locations: Theatre of Yugen (San Francisco, CA); Japan Society (New York, NY);
Copley Theatre/Japan Society of Boston (Boston, MA)
PAJ Collaboration Grant awards 2003-2004
Total projects: 6
Total funds allocated: $76,000
Bang on a Can (New York, NY) will commission a 45-minute work from the acclaimed
Japanese composer and DJ, Nobukazu Takemura, for their ensemble, the Bang on a Can
All-Stars. The project will include a New York workshop with Takemura and the All-Stars,recording, an open rehearsal, and a panel discussion on emerging musical genres in Japan.
Project Period: May 2003 - March 2004
Berkeley Symphony Orchestra (Berkeley, CA) will commission a new cello concerto fromthe acclaimed Japanese composer, Karen Tanaka, to be performed by cellist, Joan Jeanrenaud
and the BSO under the direction of Maestro Kent Nagano. To further understanding ofcontemporary Japanese composition, the artists will offer a master class for college students.
Project Period: January - March 2004
Headlong Dance Theater (Philadelphia, PA) in collaboration with Arrow DanceCommunication (Kyoto) will create an evening-length dance theater work, Grasp, exploring
both meanings of “grasp”: to understand, and to hold physically. The two companies planoutreach activities in Philadelphia and Kyoto, including residencies, workshops and lectures/demonstrations.
Project Period: June 2003 - January 2004
Inta, Inc. (Eiko & Koma) (New York, NY) will collaborate with Sharon Wyeth (writer/actor/singer) and Irene Oppenheim (writer/scholar/playwright) on an outdoor work that follows
organically from Eiko & Koma’s Offering, their previous work funded by PAJ 2002-2003. The
artists will gather narratives about trees in which themes and images of rejuvenation resonate.
Project Period: April 2003 - March 2004
Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (Los Angeles, CA) will invite two
percussion artists, Kiyohiko Semba and Kenny Endo, exceptional artists who share a high levelof training in both traditional Japanese and contemporary Western percussion, to compose
original music and engage in creative collaborations across disciplines and cultures.
Project Period: February - March 2004
June Watanabe in Company (San Francisco, CA) will conduct The Noh Project II (workingtitle), a collaboration among Anshin Uchida (noh master, Intangible Cultural Asset), June
Watanabe (choreographer), and Pauline Oliveros (composer), to create a work through noh andmodern dance that speaks of man’s fate with destiny from a contemporary perspective.
Project Period: June 2003 - March 2004

The grant applications for fiscal 2003-2004 were reviewed by the PAJ Advisory Committee,
comprising 10 distinguished specialists in the area of the performing arts around the UnitedStates and 2 Japanese consultants. The committee made its recommendations for awards to theJapan Foundation’s Headquarters in Tokyo.
PAJ Advisory Committee Members (as of December 2002)


Dr. Michael Blachly (Director, University of Florida Performing Arts, Gainesville, FL)
Ms. Susan S. Farr (Executive Director, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Universityof Maryland, College Park, MD)
Ms. Olga M. Garay (Program Director for the Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation,
New York, NY)
Ms. Margaret A. Lawrence (Director of Programming, Hopkins Center for the Arts,
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH)
Ms. Cora Mirikitani (President & CEO, Japanese American Cultural & Community Center,Los Angeles, CA)
Mr. Phillip Reynolds (Executive Director, The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago,Chicago, IL)
Dr. Michael Ross (Executive Director, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Universityof Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL)
Ms. Rena Shagan (President, Rena Shagan Associates, Inc., New York, NY)
Ms. Julie Voigt (Program Administrator, Performing Arts, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis,MN)
Ms. Pebbles Wadsworth (Director, University of Texas Performing Arts Center, Austin,TX)

PAJ Advisory Committee Consultants (as of December 2002)


Prof. Shuji Sota (Faculty of Management, Atomi University, Saitama, Japan)
Ms. Noriko Sengoku (Executive Director, Japan-US Partnership for the Performing Arts,Inc., New York, NY)