Preview: TomoeArts

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Tomoe was indescribably beautiful[…] Even so, she was a fearless rider and a woman skilled with a bow. Once her sword was drawn, even gods and devils feared to fight against her. Indeed, she was a match for a thousand. Thus it was that whenever a war broke out, she armed herself with a strong bow and a great sword, and took a position among the leaders. In many battles she had won matchless fame. From the Take of Heike

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A woman buried with a piece of fallen star; a blind child riding on the back of the dreamer; a huge ship going nowhere; a panama hat; a barber; a goldfish seller; a thousand pigs. These extraordinary images are found in a series of extraordinary yet little-known tales written by Natsume Soseki, considered by many to be the foremost novelist of Meiji-era Japan.

In Ten Nights of Dream (May 21-23, Centre A), TomoeArts artistic director Colleen Lanki takes the characters and images from Natsume’s epic work and uses the forms and aesthetics of nihon buyoh (Japanese classical dance) to brings them to life. Having studied Japanese classical dance for more than a decade, Lanki works to push the forms beyond their traditional boundaries, playing with the principles of time and space.
www.colleenlanki.com

Ten Nights of Dream features original music by Alcvin Ramos, in which he fuses traditional Japanese instruments and electro-acoustic sounds. Ramos is a master player/teacher of the shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese bamboo flute and director of Bamboo-In Shakuhachi Centre. He heads the world music group Dharmakasa.  www.bamboo-in.com

Ten Nights of Dream
May 21-23, 8pm
Centre A

Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
Dr. Sharalyn Orbaugh (Asian Studies, UBC) will give a free talk on Natsume Soseki’s work before the Friday performance (7pm Friday May 22).
2 West Hastings Street
TICKETS: $20/$16
BOX OFFICE: TicketsTonight  604.684.2787
INFO: TomoeArts 604.607.5978 www.tomoearts.org.