Performing Arts Japan
List of Awardees 2008-2009
The Japan Foundation is pleased to announce grant awards totaling US$300,000 to 17
organizations in the United States through the PAJ Program for the 2008-2009 fiscal year.
The grant recipients are listed below. (Please contact the Japan Foundation, New York forfurther information and finalized performance dates).
PAJ Touring Grant 2008-2009
Total projects: 6
Total funds allocated: $130,000
Grant amounts: $15,000 – $30,000
City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs (Los Angeles, CA) for a five-city tourof traditional master Japanese puppet performances with the Awaji Puppet Theater company,
designated as an Important Intangible Cultural Folk Asset by the Japanese government.
Tour Dates: February 20 – March 7, 2009
Tour Locations: DCA Barnsdall Gallery Theater (Los Angles, CA); DCA Madrid Theater(Canoga Park, CA); The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, DC);
Williams College (Williamstown, MA); Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT); Japan Society(New York, NY)Japan Society, Inc. (New York, NY) for a six-city North American tour of Five Days inMarch , Chelfitsch Theater Company’s award-winning production written and directed byToshiki Okada.
Tour Dates: January 9 – February 20, 2009
Tour Locations: Japan Society (New York, NY); Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN); The
PuSh International Performing Arts Festival (Vancouver, BC); On the Boards (Seattle, WA);
Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, OH); Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, IL)
Montclair State University Foundation (Montclair, NJ) for a two-city tour of Voyage by
Dumb Type, the avant-garde artists’ collective based in Kyoto, Japan.
Tour Dates: October 3 – 18, 2008
Tour Locations: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY); Montclair State University(Montclair, NJ)
ODC Theater (San Francisco, CA) for a five-city tour of Recollections of a Hapa Cowgirl, acreative collaboration of international artists and ensembles, including Dandelion
Dancetheater (San Francisco, CA), Gekidan Fe’LIX (Hyogo, Japan), composer Kallan
Nishimoto, and Noh theater artists, Yuriko Doi and Masayuki Namiyoshi.
Tour Dates: May - June, 2009
Tour Locations: University of Arkansas (Little Rock, AK); Fuller Lodge (Los Alamos, NM);
College of Santa Fe (Santa Fe, NM); ODC Theater (San Francisco, CA); California State
University, East Bay (Hayward, CA)

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Ragamala Music and Dance Theater (Minneapolis, MN) for a 13-city tour of Sva (VitalForce), in collaboration with Wadaiko Ensemble TOKARA of Nagano, Japan, bringing twoartistic traditions – Japanese Taiko drumming and South Indian Bharatanatyam dance –together.
Tour Dates: May 1, 2008 – April 8, 2009
Tour Locations: The Southern Theater (Minneapolis, MN); University of Maine (Farmington,ME); Montgomery County Community College (Blue Bell, PA); Saint Anselm College(Manchester, NH); Westchester Community College (Valhalla, NY); Shepherd University(Shepherdstown, WV); Monmouth University (West Long Brach, NJ); Kutztown University(Kutztown, PA); Kupferberg Center Performances (Flushing, NY); Oklahoma State University(Stillwater, OK); California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA); Poway Center for thePerforming Arts (Poway, CA); Performances to Grow On (Ojai, CA)
The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago (Chicago, IL) for a three-city tour of Japan
Dance Now (working title), featuring four contemporary Japanese dance companies or artists:
Nibroll, Youya Shinjo, Sennichimae Blue Sky Dance Club and BABY-Q.
Tour Dates: January 29 – February 21, 2009
Tour Locations: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco, CA); The Dance Center ofColumbia College Chicago (Chicago, IL); Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, OH)
PAJ Collaboration Grant 2008-2009
Total projects: 11
Total funds allocated: $170,000
Grant amounts: $5,000 – $35,000
American Dance Festival, Inc. (Durham, NC) Akaji Maro along with his Dairakudakan
performers and 15 American Dance Festival (ADF) dancers will collaborate with theAmerican composer, Robert Kaplan, to create an hour-long piece, Secrets of Mankind,premiering on July 16 in commemoration of the ADF’s 75th Anniversary Season.
Project Period: June 5 – July 18, 2008
Bang on a Can, Inc. (Brooklyn, NY) The Bang on a Can All-Stars will partner with Ryuichi
Sakamoto, an Academy, Grammy, and Golden Globe-winning Japanese composer, to create an
evening-length set of work featuring Mr. Sakamoto and the All-Stars as live performers. The
work is scheduled to premiere on May 30, 2009 as part of the annual Bang on a Can Marathon
at the World Financial Center in New York.
Project Period: April 2008 – May 2009
Dance Theater Workshop, Inc. (New York, NY) will co-produce the third U.S./Japan
Choreographers Exchange Residencies Project with Japan Society (New York, NY), MASS
MoCA (North Adams, MA) and the Japan Contemporary Dance Network (Kyoto, Japan).
Four choreographers – Yuko Suzuki (Tokyo), Kitamari (Kyoto), Amy O’Neal (Seattle) andKyle Abraham (New York) – were invited to jointly participate in a series of two-weekresidencies in four cities in the U.S. and Japan with the goal of encouraging future projects and7

collaborations.
Project Period: March – April 2009
Home for Contemporary Theatre and Art Ltd. (dba HERE Arts Center) (New York, NY)
Kameron Steele and his South Wing Theatre Company will collaborate with Mikuni
Yanaihara and her company, Nibroll, to create an original tragic-comic dance-theatre piece
entitled The Gospel According to Jack Vitrolo, examining the conflict between the individual
and the health care establishment. The full production is anticipated for Fall 2009.
Project Period: Spring 2008 – Spring 2009
Khmer Arts Academy (Long Beach, CA) A collaboration between Cambodian-American
choreographer, Sophiline Cheam Shapiro and Issui Minegishi, current Grand Master of theSeikyodo ichigenkin (“one-string zither”), to create a new work, The Rice Goddess Variations,
exploring multiple understandings of the Japanese rice deity, Inari, through dance and music.
Project Period: April 2008 – June 2009
Painted Bride Art Center (Philadelphia, PA) Japanese-born/New York-based choreographer
Kota Yamazaki and his dance company Fluid Hug-Hug will participate in trxfr > transfer, aseries of residency activities in collaboration with Philadelphia-based contemporary dancecompany dance theatre X led by choreographer Charles O. Anderson, to exchange andexplore Japanese Butoh forms and modern and African dance traditions.
Project Period: April 1 – 30, 2008
Portland Taiko (Portland, OR) will collaborate with Shohei Kikuchi, Artistic Director ofMan You Shu, a folk dance group of Akita, Japan, to create an interdisciplinary performance
work, In the Footsteps of Our Ancestors, encompassing music, theater and choreography.
The work will premiere at the Newmark Theatre in Portland on September 19, 2008.
Project Period: April 1 – September 30, 2008
Sweet Jane Production Inc. (dba International WOW Company) (Brooklyn, NY) willproduce full productions of three new contemporary Japanese plays, in collaboration withleading U.S. artists and companies: Josh Fox/International WOW Company (Masataka
Matsuda’s Auto Da Fe), Dan Safer/Witness Relocation (Mikuni Yanaihara’s The Blue Bird),and Jay Scheib (Akio Miyazawa’s At The Entrance of New Town). The project is acontinuation of the “Spotlight Japan” program in the 2007 Prelude Festival organized by theMartin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York.
Project Period: April 2008 – March 2009
The Play Production Company, Inc. (dba The Play Company) (New York, NY) will
collaborate with Japanese playwright Toshiki Okada, American playwright Aya Ogawa, andAmerican director Dan Rothenberg, as well as a team of U.S.-based actors and designers todevelop a new American translation and production of Mr. Okada’s play ENJOY. Thepremiere is planned for the 2009-10 season in New York.
Project Period: Summer 2008 – Spring 20098The Playwrights' Center (Minneapolis, MN), in partnership with the Guthrie Theater, theTokyo International Arts Festival and the U.S./Japan Cultural Trade Network, will invite two
Japanese playwrights, Shigefumi Fukatsu and Yutaka Kuramochi, to Minneapolis to develop
and present staged readings of their plays in collaboration with local teams of theater artists.
An American translation of Mr. Fukatsu’s Notari, Notari (Slowly, Rolling) will be presented on
July 17 & 19, 2008, as part of the 26th Annual PlayLabs Festival.
Project Period: July 9 – October 31, 2008
Voice & Vision, Inc. (New York, NY) will develop and produce Japanese-born/New Yorkbased playwright Chiori Miyagawa’s new play, I Have Been to Hiroshima Mon Amour, incollaboration with American director Jean Wagner, Chinese composer Du Yun, and lighting
designer Jennifer Tipton. The work is scheduled to premiere at the HERE Arts Center (NewYork, NY) in January 2009.
Project Period: Fall 2007 – February 2009
The grant applications for the fiscal 2008-2009 were reviewed by the PAJ Advisory Committee,comprising nine performing arts specialists from throughout the United States. Thecommittee made its recommendations to the Japan Foundation Headquarters in Tokyo.
PAJ Advisory Committee Members (as of December 2007)
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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)
Mr. Arnold Malina (Chief Programming Officer and Artistic Director, Flynn Center for the
Performing Arts)
Mr. Peter Taub (Director of Performance Programs, Museum of Contemporary ArtChicago)
Mr. Sixto Wagan (Co-Executive Director/Performing Arts Curator, DiverseWorksArtspace)
Ms. MK Wegmann (CEO and President, National Performance Network)
Mr. Martin Wollesen (Director, University Events Office, UC San Diego)9