Performing Arts Japan 2016-2017
List of Awardees
The Japan Foundation is pleased to announce grant awards totaling USD219,000 andCAD11,000 to 11 organizations in the United States and Canada through the PAJ Program
for the 2016-2017 fiscal year. The grant recipients are listed below. (Please contact theJapan Foundation, New York and Japan Foundation, Toronto for further information andfinalized performance dates).

Touring Grant awards
Total projects: 4
Total funds allocated: USD110,000; CAD11,000
Grant amounts: CAD11,000 – USD45,000

Ashkenaz Foundation (Toronto, ON) for a five-city Canadian premiere tour of theJapanese musical group Jinta-la-Mvta at five well-known Canadian music festivals.
Tour Date: August 20 – September 11, 2016
Tour Locations: Markham Jazz Festival (Markham, ON); KlezKanada Festival (Lantier,QC); Museum of Jewish Heritage (New York, NY); The Burren (Boston, MA); RoseKennedy Greenway (Boston, MA); Ashkenaz Festival (Toronto, ON)

Inta, Inc. (New York, NY) for a three-city tour of dancer Eiko’s solo project A Body inPlaces.
Tour Dates: July, 2016 – Spring 2017
Tour Locations: American Dance Festival (Durham, NC); Pennsylvania Academy for theFine Arts (Philadelphia, PA); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY); Cathedral ofSaint John the Divine (New York, NY)Japan Society, Inc. (New York, NY) for a seven-city U.S. tour of Japanese
dancer/performance artist Takao Kawaguchi’s About Kazuo Ohno – Reliving the Butoh
Diva’s Masterpieces.
Tour Dates: September 13 – October 16, 2016
Tour Locations: Japan Society (New York, NY); Hudson Opera House (Hudson, NY);
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts (Burlington, VT); REDCAT (Los Angeles, CA); The
University of Massachusetts Amherst (Amherst, MA); The University of Iowa (Iowa City,IA); The Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh, PA)Yara Arts Group (New York, NY) for a three-city North America tour of Shank’s Mare, apuppet theatre collaboration between American puppet artist Tom Lee and Japanese MasterPuppeteer Koryu Nishikawa V (Hachioji Kuruma Ningyo).
Tour Dates: November 9 – November 23, 2016
Tour Locations: University of Massachusetts Amherst (Amherst, MA); Detroit Institute ofthe Arts (Detroit, MI); University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC)

Collaboration Grant awards
Total projects: 7
Total funds allocated: USD109,000
Grant amounts: USD10,000 – USD24,000

ASU Foundation for a New American University (Tempe, AZ) for En, a collaborative
dance performance project between two Japanese (Kei Takei and Masako Kitaura) andtwo American dance artists (Mary Fitzgerald and Eileen Standley) that will investigate
their unique physical histories and explore how the accumulated wisdom of the aging body
can promote healing within and between cultures.
Project Period: December, 2016 – June, 2017

Jack Arts, Inc. (New York, NY) for a production of Quiet, Comfort, a commission of
playwright Toshiki Okada, to be directed by Alec Duffy and co-produced by Hoi Polloi.
Project Period: July, 2016 – August, 2016

New York Live Arts (New York, NY) for Falling Out, a multi-disciplinary theatricalcollaboration with butoh master Dai Matsuoka of Sankai Juku and visual artist/designer
Jessica Grindstaff and puppet-maker/composer Erik Norse Sanko.
Project Period: July, 2016 – June, 2017

Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (Portland, OR) for Direct Path to Detour, acollaboration to produce new dance work between Japanese dancer, sculptor, andphotographer Takahiro Yamamoto, sound artist Jesse Mejía, and choreographer anddancer Lucy Lee Yim.
Project Period: July, 2016 – April, 2017

Saratoga International Theater Institute, Inc. (New York, NY) for the creation of Hanjo,
a new adaptation of Yukio Mishima’s modern Noh play, to be developed as a cross-cultural
collaboration by Japanese and American artists of SITI Company, Akiko Aizawa and Leon
Ingulsrud.
Project Period: January – June, 2017

Seattle Art Museum (Seattle, WA) for the development and premiere of Concerto forInstallation and Improviser, a sound/video installation with interactive live performance bycomposer Wayne Horvitz, video artist Yohei Saito, and dancer Yukio Suzuki.
Project Period: July, 2016 – June, 2017

The Chocolate Factory Theater (New York, NY) for a world premiere of multi-lateralinternational collaboration by Japanese composer Kohji Setoh, American choreographer
Ursula Eagly, and Mexican artist Martín Lanz Landazuri.
Project Period: March – April, 2017

PAJ Advisory Committee Members (as of December 2015)






Mr. Aaron Greenwald (Director, Duke Performances, Duke University)
Mr. Ben Johnson (Program Manager, Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA)
Mr. Jordan Peimer (Executive Director, ArtPower! at UC San Diego)
Ms. Tina Rasmussen (Director, Harborfront Center, Toronto)
Mr. David Ravel (Director, Alverno Presents)
Ms. Sabrina Motley (Director, Smithsonian Folklife Festival)