New York Live Arts Stages World Premiere of Yasuko Yokoshi's BELL Tonight; Live Stream Set for 3/23

New York Live Arts will present the world premiere of Yasuko Yokoshi's BELL tonight, March 16, 2013 at 7:30pm in its Bessie Schönberg Theater. Yokoshi was appointed as the inaugural Resident Commissioned Artist (RCA) of New York Live Arts in July 2011. The RCA program identifies and supports outstanding mid-career artists and is one of the most generous and supportive awards offered to a choreographer in the United States, providing two years of residency time and a commission of a new work, as well as salary and benefits.

Subsequent performances of BELL will also take place from March 19 - 23, 2013 at 7:30pm in New York Live Arts' Theater. There will be a Live Stream of the performance on March 23 at 7:30pm, Eastern Standard Time, at newyorklivearts.org. Prior to the performances, Yokoshi will also lead a Shared Practice Workshop in the third floor studio at New York Live Arts on February 23 from 1:30-3:30pm (complete details below).

As part of her residency over the past 18 months, Yokoshi has assembled a multidisciplinary cast from Japan and the U.S. to perform in BELL, a contemporary reimagining of the classical Japanese dance Kyoganoko Musume-Dojyoji (A Woman and a Bell at the Dojoji Temple), reputed to be the most important and difficult work in the Kabuki dance repertoire. With BELL, Yokoshi also draws from the classical ballet canon, aligning Dojyoji with the widely popular ballet Giselle. Finding the iconographic plot on romance and tragedy that is a central theme in both of these works, she radically juxtaposes the two in an attempt to re- contextualize our experience through the resultant collision and harmony.

BELL continues Yokoshi's collaboration with Masumi Seyama, 82-year old master teacher of Kabuki Su-odori style dance and successor of renowned choreographer Kanjyuro Fujima VI. Through this collaboration, Yokoshi investigates the parallel aesthetics of traditional dance and contemporary forms and the transgression of cultural boundaries.

Yokoshi's bold cultural investigations of Kabuki movement were presented in the Bessie Schönberg Theater by Dance Theater Workshop in March 2010 when she premierEd Tyler Tyler. In an interview about the work with the New York Times, Yokoshi explained that by fusing modern dance and traditional Japanese dance, "...I'm placing two high-quality things with different value systems side by side. One doesn't take over the other...This is conceptual on a large scale...It's very simple in a very orthodox way. What I'm really looking for is beauty."

Born in Hiroshima, Yokoshi has lived in New York since 1987 but travels regularly to Japan to study and train with Seyama. Joining Yokoshi in BELL is a multi-cultural cast including Kabuki actor/dancer Kuniya Sawamura, vocalists Gelsey Bell and Sanshichiro Kineya, dancers Kayo Seyama (Masumi Seyama's eldest disciple), Julie Alexander, Lindsay Clark and Jennifer Lafferty, drummer Tadayuki Mochizuki and shamisen player Yoko Reikano Kimura, among others. The creative team includes sound designer Soichiro Migita, lighting designer RodeRick Murray and costume and set designer Akiko Iwasaki.

"Yasuko Yokoshi has a supremely well-honed artistic voice, and we are extremely pleased to have her as the inaugural Resident Commissioned Artist," commented Carla Peterson, Artistic Director of New York Live Arts. "Having had a relationship with Dance Theater Workshop beginning with her debut as a Fresh Tracks artist in 1998, we have witnessed first-hand her development into a masterful choreographer whose radical works live with unusual sensitivity and beauty in the complex in-between of disparate cultures. We're excited that BELL, with its further study of Kabuki Su-odori and its cultural and artistic implications, will bear the fruits of this extraordinary artistic journey."

Come Early Conversations and Stay Late Discussions will also be featured with two shows. Tickets are $30 and $15 and may be purchased online at tickets.newyorklivearts.org, by phone at 212-924-0077 and in person at the box office. Box office hours are Monday to Friday from 1 to 9pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 8pm.

March 16, 19 - 23, 2013 at 7:30pm

Bessie Schönberg Theater, New York Live Arts Tickets: $30, 15

T: 212-924-0077 | www.newyorklivearts.org
219 W 19th Street, New York, NY 10011
Box Office hours: Monday-Friday 1 - 9pm | Saturday-Sunday 12 - 8pm

Schedule of Related Events:

In her Shared Practice Workshop, Yokoshi will be sharing the process of character-based improvisation which she incorporated in creating BELL. This Shared Practice targets performers and makers interested in exploring solo improvisational dancing using dramatic scenarios and/or emotional states.

March 21, 2013 at 6:30pm
Come Early Conversation: Building Bell
Moderated by Reginald Jackson (Asst. Prof., East Asian Languages at the University of Chicago)

February 23, 2013 from 2:00-4:00pm
Shared Practice Workshop with Yasuko Yokoshi

Workshop fee: $15
Workshop location: Third Floor Studio, New York Live Arts

March 20, 2013 following performance
Stay Late Discussion: BELL: Merging Traditional and Innovative Practices Moderated by Bill T. Jones, New York Live Arts Executive Artistic Director

March 23, 2013 at 7:30pm
Live Streaming of BELL

Visit newyorklivearts.org for access.

Yasuko Yokoshi was born and raised in Hiroshima, Japan, and currently lives and works in New York City. Yokoshi's works have been presented by the Theatre de la Ville in Paris, the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, The Kitchen, Danspace Project, Dance Theater Workshop, the Japan Society, Performance Space 122, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art and others.

In July 2011, Yokoshi was appointed as the inaugural Resident Commissioned Artist of New York Live Arts. Recent awards include a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2009), a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award (2008), and a BAXTen Award (2007). She is also the recipient of a Creative Capital grant, a New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellowship, and two New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Awards for her choreography of Shuffle (2003) and what we when we (2006). Yokoshi currently serves as an associate curator at The Kitchen and is a member of the Board of Directors of Movement Research. She has given numerous lectures and workshops at schools and universities across the United States. She served as a mentor in the DanceWEB education program at the 2010 ImpulsTanz Festival in Vienna, Austria. Yokoshi is a published author and an accomplished self-taught video artist. Her memoir, Once in a Life Time, received the acclaimed Japanese Ogai Mori Literary Award (1990) and her documentary film of her family's complex history, Last Sokoshi, received Grand Prize at the 1990 Luminous Video Competition. Yokoshi holds a B.A. degree from Hampshire College.

In 2010, Dance Theater Workshop commissioned Yokoshi's Tyler Tyler, her second work created in collaboration with Masumi Seyama, the master teacher of Kabuki Su-odori. The work featured rare performances by Seyama's students, and paired two contemporary dancers from New York (Kayvon Pourazar and BELL dancer Julie Alexander) with three Japanese dancers making their U.S. debuts (Kayo Seyama, Kuniya Sawamura, and Naoki Asaji). With Tyler Tyler, Yokoshi placed traditional Japanese dance and contemporary American dance side-by-side while applying postmodern strategies and vocabulary to the structure of Kabuki-style choreography. She explored the boundaries of varied dance training, cultural code, and social hierarchy, simultaneously cherishing the forms and beauty of the universal language of dance. With BELL, these explorations are continued and deepened.

The Resident Commissioned Artist program was created in 2011 by New York Live Arts to address what we perceive to be an overall lack of support for mid-career artists. The program is by-invitation only and offers a salary, health benefits, two years of residency time and a commission of a new work to premiere at New York Live Arts. Select works will then be chosen for a fully produced national and/or international tour managed by New York Live Arts. Current Resident Commissioned Artist are Yasuko Yokoshi (2011-2013) and Kyle Abraham (2012-2014).

Located in the heart of Chelsea in New York City, New York Live Arts is an internationally recognized destination for innovative movement-based artistry offering audiences access to art and artists notable for their conceptual rigor, formal experimentation and active engagement with the social, political and cultural currents of our times. At the center of this identity is Bill T. Jones, Executive Artistic Director, a world-renowned choreographer, dancer, theater director and writer.

We commission, produce and present performances in our 20,000 square foot home, which includes a 184-seat theater and two 1,200 square foot studios that can be combined into one large studio. New York Live Arts serves as home base for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, provides an extensive range of participatory programs for adults and young people and supports the continuing professional development of artists. Our influence extends beyond NYC through our international cultural exchange program that currently places artists in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.