Performing Arts Japan 2018-2019
List of Awardees

The Japan Foundation is pleased to announce grant awards totaling USD 200,000 to 11
organizations in the United States and Canada through the PAJ Program for the 2018-2019
fiscal year. The grant recipients are listed below. (Please contact the Japan Foundation, NewYork and the Japan Foundation, Toronto for further information and finalized performancedates).

Touring Grant awards
Total projects: 7
Total funds allocated USD145,000
Grant amounts: USD15,000 – USD30,000
Arts Midwest (Minneapolis, MN) for Arts Midwest World Fest 2018 – 2019, a tour ofJapan-based taiko ensemble Ondekoza in the spring of 2019. Ondekoza will visit 4 cities
and spend a week in each community, conducting residency activities that create
opportunities for one-on-one connections between audiences and artists.
Tour Date: February 1 – May 31, 2019Tour Locations: Woodlawn Arts Academy (Sterling, IL); Main Street Corydon (Corydon,IN); The Whiting (Flint, MI); Peoples Bank Theatre (Marietta, OH)
Fiorello H. LaGuardia Community College Auxiliary Enterprises Corporation (NewYork, NY) for a tour of dance piece Resonance III by Miki Orihara which shows thelineage of modern dance in the U.S. and Japan. Resonance III follows the dance series
Resonance (2014) and Resonance II (2017) which presented historical works of American
modern dance choreographers.
Tour Date: TBD
Tour Locations: The Hartt School (Hartford, CT); LaGuardia Performing Arts Center(New York, NY); Kaatsbaan International Dance Center (Tivoli, NY); Theatre of Yugen(San Francisco, CA); TBD (Vancouver, Canada)
Japan Society, Inc. (New York, NY) for a North American tour of the multimedia dance
piece Cross Transit, created by internationally known Japanese choreographer and dancer
Akiko Kitamura, and developed in collaboration with acclaimed Cambodian visual artist
and photographer Kim Hak.
Tour Date: March 12 – April 1, 2019Tour Locations: Moody Performance Hall TITAS (Dallas, TX); The John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, DC); Towson University Asian Arts & Culture
Center (Towson, MD); CURRENT ArtSpace + Studio (Chapel Hill, NC); Japan Society(New York, NY)
New York Live Arts (Phantom Limb/Octopus Theatricals) (New York, NY) for a tour ofFALLING OUT, a multidisciplinary theatrical event and the final installment in PhantomLimb's environmental trilogy, featuring a collaboration between Phantom Limb and Butoh
master Dai Matsuoka. Fusing Butoh tradition with puppetry, contemporary dance, visualdesign and soundscape, FALLING OUT is a story about water, Japan, Fukushima andclimate crisis.
Tour Date: TBD
Tour Locations: TBD
PuSh International Performing Arts Festival (Vancouver, BC) for a tour of Marginal
Consort, a series of performances taking place in January 2019. This tour embraces a longstanding interest in contemporary Japanese experimental sound art scene. Marginal
Consort's practice is widely considered groundbreaking and of the highest caliber.
Tour Date: January 19 – February 4, 2019Tour Locations: Russian Hall (Vancouver, BC); Portland Institute for Contemporary Art(Portland, OR)
Saratoga International Theater Institute, Inc. (New York, NY) for a North American
tour of Hanjo, a new adaptation of Yukio Mishima's modern Noh play. This production is across-cultural collaboration by the Japanese and American artists of SITI Company.
Tour Date: TBD
Tour Locations: TBD
TaikoArts Midwest (Minneapolis, MN) for Yuichi Kimura & Daichi no Kai Midwest
Tour which will visit three cities to give multiple school performances as well as publicworkshops. Yuichi Kimura and his taiko group Daichi no Kai is based in Kobe, Japan.

Tour Date: September 15 – 29, 2018
Tour Locations: TaikoArts Midwest Studio (Minneapolis, MN); Ordway Concert Hall (St.
Paul, MN); Reif Center (Grand Rapids, MN); Mabel Tainter (Menomonie, WI)

Collaboration Grant awards
Total projects: 4
Total funds allocated: USD55,000
Grant amounts: USD10,000 – USD20,000
Honolulu Academy of Arts (Honolulu, HI) for the celebration of the 150th Anniversary ofJapanese immigration to Hawai’i where artists from Hawai’i and Japan will collaborate on
original work that will pay tribute to the history of Japanese immigration to Hawai’i.
Project Period: August 4 – November 17, 2018
Inta, Inc. (New York, NY) for Eiko Otake's Duet Project: Distance is Malleable. Eiko Otake
will experiment by creating a series of duets with artists of different disciplines, ages, racesand thoughts. The developmental process will be partially accessible to the public, promoting
dialogue and self-discovery for participants.
Project Period: July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2019
New York Live Arts (Kota Yamazaki) (New York, NY) for Darkness Odyssey Part 3, adance trilogy inspired by the words of French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix
Guattari, and the ideas of Butoh pioneer Tatsumi Hijikata. This series explores the idea ofthe body as a black hole, which absorbs everything, even seemingly unrelated things
equally.
Project Period: August 1, 2018 – May 30, 2019
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, the Graduate Center, CUNY (New York, NY) forJapanese Playwrights Project 2018. Through this project, the Segal Theatre Center will
foster and present the work of four Japanese playwrights in collaboration with New Yorkbased directors and actors. English translations of these four plays will be commissioned
and published. Q&A will also be presented to give greater contextualization to audiences.
Project Period: July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2019

PAJ Advisory Committee Members (as of December 2017)


Mr. Ron Berry (Executive & Artistic Director, Fusebox)
Dr. F. John Herbert (Executive Artistic Director, Legion Arts)
Ms. Sherrie Johnson (Executive Producer, Canadian Stage)
Ms. Sabrina Lynn Motley (Director, Smithsonian Folklife Festival)
Ms. Sara Nash (Program Director, Dance, New England Foundation for the Arts)