HAWAII
ELEMENTS
ELEMENTS 3
Friday 17 & Saturday 18 February 2017
Blue ・・・White Dance 螺旋 SPIRAL
Ancient Spiritual Music & Dance of “The Spiral Vision”
ELEMENTS 3
Ancient spiritual music with Shizuno Nasu's dance "The Spiral Vision" alongside 13 dancers from Japan and Hawaii.
Friday 17 & Saturday 18 February 2017 at 7pm
At 2F Theater of EHCC/HMOCA
Artists
Music: Angela Cruz & Benjamin Sands
Dance: Shizuno Nasu, Jenn Eng, Colee Garr,
Miko Mai Dancers from Japan from Shizuno Nasu Dance Company: LiLith, Emine, Rieko Inoue, Chikako Aiyama, Kazumi Ohiro Mirabelle, Hitomi Hayashibara, Shihori Kitano, Coo, ami and Sari Shimotsuma.
Choreography: Shizuno Nasu
Costume Design: Usaburo Sato
Painting: Susumu Sakaguchi
Profiles of artists performing with Shizuno Nasu
Dancers
Jenn Eng
Jenn Eng began dancing in community, grade school, and high school productions, moving on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts
degree in Theater, from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. As a professional dancer, she performed in the 2nd National Tour of Miss Saigon, Paul McCartney’s Driving USA Tour, & National Commercials for Sony, Dr. Pepper, Burger King, Nissan, Captain Morgans, Joe Boxer, and biannuallly with Shizuno Nasu. She has taught at EB de Silva School, Center Stage Dance Alliance, Hilo Shala, & Kamehameha Schools. Her teachers and influences are Cecilia Marta, Ryan Heffington, Rea Fox, Nadia Schlosser, Gabrielle Roth, Arjuna Vinn Marti, Michael Skelton, Scrumptious Pineapple, and Shizuno Nasu.
Colee Garr
Colee grew up in her father's live music venue, Top Hat, in Missoula, Montana. Through high school she played saxophone, rhythm instruments, danced, and back-up sang for her father's rhythm and blues band, Nite Snack'r. She received a degree from Montana State University in Exercise and Wellness with an emphasis in Anatomy and Physiology. Colee became a student of yoga with a passion for dance and voice, studying Hula under Kumu Hula Ryan McCormack, contemporary dance under Jenn Eng, and vocal improvisation with Rhiannon. Colee is the co-creator of Hilo SHALA, where she teaches Ashtanga Yoga, and is the director of Hula, Dance, & Voice programs.
Shihori Kitano
Shihori Kitano was born in Kushiro in Hokkaido, Japan. She started gymnastics and ballet at the age of 5. Her experience includes reggae dance, African dance, and street dance. She believes that dance thrills people and she spreads her ideas in various cultural activities by sharing her experiences. In 2007, she started NAVANA Dance Studio. She produces and hosts a dance event every year. In addition, she has performed in various music and dance events, mainly Hokkaido, Japan.
Musicians
Angela Cruz
Angela’s path with the drums is deeply intertwined with her relationship to her ancestors, dance, and healing work. Her training has been developed through her practice of mediumship, and as a result of that, her focus with music lies primarily in how music, dance, and spirit intersect with one another in a ceremonial context to create an environment of heightened states, healing, and Oneness for all present. She currently lives on the Big Island of Hawaii, where she shares sacred offerings of healing work, dance, music, and ceremony.
Benjamin Sands
Benjamin attended college in Massachusetts, where he first joined an African Drum and Dance ensemble, Kusika, unknowingly embarking upon what has become a lifelong journey. His studies have included the traditional drumming styles of Ghana, Mali, Congo, Cuba, and Zimbabwe as well as study in the tradition of the mbira dzavadzimu (thumb piano) of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. A co-founder of Badenya African Diaspora Dance Theater on Oahu, he now resides on the Big Island of Hawaii sharing his prayer and medicine as a composer, musician, and sound healer.
“The Spiral Vision”
Shizuno Nasu
When I was in my thirties I began a quest for my personal expression, originating from the very starting point of dance. When I reached a destination it was the spiral.
Dance is an expression through the body and two legs. When I traced back primitive forms of dance, I found three basic movements: step, jump and spin. Among them spin is the most advanced form. Considering that we don’t see the spinning movement often in our daily life, I thought that the spin might be the very first dancing technique. I started researching and practicing this expression.
In the course of my research and practice I realized that we see turns, spins and spirals in the mechanisms of nature. The Earth and universe turn. In our human body, energy spirals. I intuited that life cannot exist without these turning, spinning and spiraling energies.
My dance method, “The Spiral Vision” was refined through a long period of time. It required me to let go of any fear of falling, and to approach my ultimate dance expression in an unselfconscious state of mind. When I succeeded in spinning for an hour, the spin became a spiral. The dance form, “The Spiral Vision” was born.
I’ve been dancing this form as a soloist since its 1990 debut at UNESCO Hall in Paris. However, this will be my first attempt at performing “Ther Spiral Vision” with several dancers. We will approach the process in an unselfconscious state of mind by letting go of any fear of falling, and maintaining purity of consciousness within the expression. My hope is that the layers of spirals the troupe creates will elevate the audience through a consumate expression of dance.
Percussionists attuned to the energy of Mother Earth will accompany our dance. We will form spirals with our shared love and trust. We believe the .powerful energy generated will lead us to new creation
●ELEMENTS 4
Friday 24 & Saturday 25 February 2017
Red Dance 風・水・火 EXIST
Artistic Improvisation of Voice, Sound & Dance
ELEMENTS 4
●
An improvisation on voice, sound and dance with Rhiannon and Kekuhi Kealiikanakaole
Friday 24 & Saturday 25 February 2017 at 7pm
At 2F Theater of EHCC/HMOCA
Artists
Vocal Artist: Rhiannon
Kumu Hula: Kekuhi Kealiikanakaole
Contemporary Dancer: Shizuno Nasu, Jenn Eng, Colee Garr
Choreography: Shizuno Nasu
Costume Design: Usaburo Sato
Painting: Susumu Sakaguchi
Profiles of artists performing with Shizuno Nasu
Vocal Artist
Rhiannon
Rhiannon is a vocal artist with a vision of music as a vehicle for innovation, healing, transformation, and social change. A vibrant, gifted singer, performance artist, composer, and master teacher, Rhiannon has been bringing her unique and potent blend of jazz, world music, improvisation and storytelling to audiences for over four decades paving a unique path as an independent artist. Collaborations include the all-women’s jazz ensemble Alive!, a cappella ensembles SoVoSo and WeBe3, Bobby McFerrin and Voicestra, the instrumental trio Spontaneous, duets with pianist Laurence Hobgood, and improvised performance pieces with Japanese dancer Shizuno Nasu. Rhiannon’s book about her life and teaching methods, Vocal River, The Skill and Spirit of Improvisation, was published in 2013. In addition to world touring, Rhiannon lives and works on her farm on the Big Island of Hawai’i, using her singing barn Ha Lau Leo Nani, The Gathering Place as a teaching and performance venue honoring culture and community.
Kumu Hula
Kekuhi Kealiikanakaole
Kekuhiʻs core training of 40 years comes from the tradition of Hula ʻAihaʻa & Hula Pele, chant & ritual under Hālau O Kekuhi, named for her grandmother, Edith Kekuhi Kanakaʻole. She was ritually elevated to the status of Kumu Hula (hula master) of Hālau o Kekuhi by her mother, Kumu Hula Pualani Kanahele and her Aunt Kumu Hula Nalani Kanakaole.
Kekuhi has co-produced some of Hālau O Kekuhi’s most significant contributions to oral and ritual arts stage performances, namely, Holo Mai Pele, Kamehameha Paiʻea, Kilohi Nā Akua Wahine, Hānau Ka Moku, Wahinepōʻaimoku, Ka Hana Kapa, and CD resources Uwolani, Puka Kamaʻehu and Hiʻiakaikapoliopele.
Kekuhi is an educator and recently retired her 21 year career in higher education as Assistant Professor and co-creator of Hawai‘i Community College’s I Ola Haloa Hawaii Life Styles Program. She was honored as 2013 Educator of the Year by the Native Hawaiian Education Association and recieved the distinction of the Martin Luther King, Chavez, Rosa Parks Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan in 2013. She volunteers as the Executive Director of the Edith Kanakaole Foundation, a 501-C-3 non-profit family foundation dedicated to heightening and expanding indigenous Hawai‘i consciousness through oral and ritual arts traditions, education, and research activities.
As the needs of the global community grow, Kekuhi has developed some interesting intersections of culture, art, education, ecology & spirit. These programs are created to teach basic Hawaiʻi practices that can help to connect anyone, anywhere, to the beauty of their inner and outer landscapes.
Contemporary Dancers
Jenn Eng
Jenn Eng began dancing in community, grade school, and high school productions, moving on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theater, from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. As a professional dancer, she performed in the 2nd National Tour of Miss Saigon, Paul McCartney’s Driving USA Tour, & National Commercials for Sony, Dr. Pepper, Burger King, Nissan, Captain Morgans, Joe Boxer, and biannuallly with Shizuno Nasu. She has taught at EB de Silva School, Center Stage Dance Alliance, Hilo Shala, & Kamehameha Schools. Her teachers and influences are Cecilia Marta, Ryan Heffington, Rea Fox, Nadia Schlosser, Gabrielle Roth, Arjuna Vinn Marti, Michael Skelton, Scrumptious Pineapple, and Shizuno Nasu.
Colee Garr
Colee grew up in her father's live music venue, Top Hat, in Missoula, Montana. Through high school she played saxophone, rhythm instruments, danced, and back-up sang for her father's rhythm and blues band, Nite Snack'r. She received a degree from Montana State University in Exercise and Wellness with an emphasis in Anatomy and Physiology. Colee became a student of yoga with a passion for dance and voice, studying Hula under Kumu Hula Ryan McCormack, contemporary dance under Jenn Eng, and vocal improvisation with Rhiannon. Colee is the co-creator of Hilo SHALA, where she teaches Ashtanga Yoga, and is the director of Hula, Dance, & Voice programs.
Message from artists
Dancing with the ELEMENTS
Gazing into the red flame of Kilauea Volcano,
Watching the star filled sky of Mauna Kea
I focus on the root of the "Living Earth."
The basic natural elements are
Fire, Water, Wind (Air) and Earth
I express these elements, my essence of dance through my physical body.
And now, in the same way these four Nature Elements harmonize and balance each other,
I would like to explore this, as shared human consciousness.
This process will support the future of our "Earth" and "Life."
Hawaii is my home.
Having traveled around the world and across the ocean, I reached Hawaii, feeling that a spiritual power led me here.
This island brought transformation in my consciousness and soul, which formed my ‘TAO of MAI, dance.’
It was 14 years ago that I came across Kekuhi dedicating a ceremony to Pele while I was walking in Volcano.
It was Hakalau that I chanced to meet Rhiannon. I had waited for the moment for years since living in New York.
The red flame of Kilauea Volcano……the star filled sky of Mauna Kea……
Majestic nature of Hawaii, sky, earth, wind and water made my attitudes to live and dance certain.
I know the spiritual power that dance has.
I know the power of voice, sound and art.
Awe of nature……a power of art to create…….
I believe those vibrations will connect us to future life on the Earth.
I see it as a spiritual intention to bring us together.
I thank Rhiannon, Kekuhi, Jenn and Colee.
I am grateful to be here with you in this moment.
-Shizuno Nasu
In dedication and devotion to the young ones and to the kupuna of all life forms, they meet and exchange wisdom.
Five of us are collaborating with the elements of earth, air, water and fire to refine this ceremony.
We bring our cultures, our memories, our ancestors, our voices, bodies and hearts.
To find the connection of ancient and contemporary is delicate but vital. In this way we are fully alive on stage with each other.
We talk story in rehearsal with one another to find the meanings, to put our experiences together so that each of us is revealed.
We move and sing until we find the patterns in nature, from deep in the underground water to the vast universe.
Huge concepts that are only real as we find the way together.
We surrender to love and to the beauty of our joined lives.
We dream this music, dance these visions in pursuit of cracking open our hearts.
And the rain comes once again.
-Rhiannon
We are living our greatest story EVER when we endeavor to leave the comfort of our own familiarity to find our purpose in the vast ocean of potential. Through the heart & super-consciousness of waves of sound, song, and dance, we pull elemental energies of Pele, Kane, Kanaloa, Haumea, & Hi'iaka to re-create ripples of well being in the fabric of Uli (universal potential) and in ourselves. For there is no greater endeavor in my mind. Your job, dear audience, is to put all bias aside, for now, and live.
I hoa ka'ana no ia kuahiwi....kualono
-Kekuhi Kealiikanakaole
Shizuno Nasu has been my mentor beloved teacher collaborator for 5+ years. Always a source of inspiration, she encouraged me to find my unique creative voice and has stoked my artistic fire ever since. She has taught me to say yes and surrender to my dance while also aiming for beauty; dancing the beauty of the universe in all I do with a pure heart.
- Jenn
Five free spirited beings having faith in the action of creating.
This offering comes from our individual connection to the elements, to the forces of nature,
and from the freedom current we jump into in the presence of one another on this stage.
-Colee