The two videos from the performance at Wellesley College in March 2014 are as follows:
– Sagimusume 鷺娘 (“Snowy heron girl”): In the cold snowy night a lone heron transformed into a beautiful young bride laments the tragedy of unfulfilled love with a human being. After a quick costume change, she expresses hope for her dream love to come true.
– Tenaraiko 手習子 (“Young student”): On a warm, sunny spring day a young girl frolics amidst the flowers on her way home from temple school. This piece depicts a young girl’s blossoming sexuality as she bashfully daydreams of falling in love someday.

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The Heart of Japan: an evening of Kabuki dance and music

Michiko Kurata (Kabuki Dance)
Sumie Kaneko (Shamisen, Nagauta)
Kaoru Watanabe (Taiko, Shino-bue)

7pm, March 12th, 2014
Wellesley College
Jewett Art Center Auditorium
106 Central St.  Wellesley, MA
Free Admission
Sushi reception following

Workshop: 5-6:30pm, March 11th
Alumanae Hall Ballroom

Sponsored by Wellesley Japanese Program
With support form CLCE, EALC, Theatre Studies, Art Dept., Music Dept.  Questions? Kazuko Ozawa (kozawa@wellesley.edu)

 

Dear friends,

I’m performing classical Japanese dance and Argentine tango at We Love Japan fundraiser for Japan tsunami relief. It’ll be from 4-7pm on July 17th, Sunday, in Randolph, MA. It’ll be awesome if you can make it!

Peace and love,
Michi

Hi friends,

Here’s the information on Saturday’s Japan Festival in Porter Square.

Date & Time: It’s on November 13, Sat. I’ll perform twice, from 1-1:45pm and from 3-3:45pm. In each time slot you’ll see a koto performance, me dancing to koto music, and me dancing to nagauta (type of song) and shamisen music. After that there will be a shamisen and guitar collaboration of Okinawan music. For those of you who made it to the Sunday performance I’ll be performing Tenaraiko (nagauta piece) again, and an additional newly choreographed piece to koto.

Around 5pm there will be taiko performance by the New England Odaiko.

Location: We’ll be performing inside the Porter Exchange Mall, in the foyer/hallway outside the Blue Fin Restaurant. As you can imagine, this is pretty informal, and that makes this performance a very non-traditional one. Traditionally traditional Japanese dance has been performed in theaters or in a private setting of a zashiki (restaurant that offers geisha entertainment). In Porter Exchange I don’t think there will even be chairs set up for the audience, so it will have a street performance type of atmosphere where some may stop by to watch while others may walk past it. It should be interesting to perform in this type of setting. The directions to Blue Fin can be found here: http://boston.citysearch.com/profile/4749135/cambridge_ma/bluefin_japanese_restaurant.html#profileTab-maps

It’s free and open to the public. This is my last performance for the year (and I have no idea when the next one might be) so I hope you can make it! Nihonbuyo, koto, and shamisen performances are pretty rare in the Boston area, so I highly encourage you to check it out. I hope to see you all on Sat.

Cheers,
Michi