Randai play “The Genteel Sabai” Comes to Kennedy Theatre with Pants-Slapping Action

The University of Hawai’i at Mānoa’s Department of Theatre and Dance presents the rare theatre form of randai with its production of “The Genteel Sabai,” a folk dance-drama from the Minangkabau ethnic group in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Synopsis: A daughter seeks revenge for the murder of her father in this exciting folk dance-drama. Randai comes from the Minangkabau ethic group in Sumatra, Indonesia, and features beautiful traditional music and singing, martial arts, dance and acting; and its signature pants-slapping percussion!

Dr. Kirstin Pauka, Director and Professor of Southeast Asian Theatre at UHM along with guest teachers from Indonesia, bring this exciting theatre form back to Kennedy Theatre’s main stage Feb. 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 at 8 p.m., and Feb. 12 at 2 p.m. Randai combines beautiful singing, talempong music, dancing, acting, and story-telling along with its signature pants-slapping percussion and the Indonesian martial arts form called silat. This is the third time Pauka has directed a randai play at UHM, the first in 2001 (“Umbuik Mudo and The Magic Flute”) and the second in 2005 (“Luck and Loss: Manandin’s Gamble”). Audiences will have an opportunity to attend two pre-show chats on Feb. 4 and 11 at 7 p.m.

“The Genteel Sabai”

UHM Department of Theatre and Dance

Feb. 3, 4*, 9, 10, 11* at 8 p.m
Feb. 12 at 2 p.m.
*Free Pre-show Chats: Feb. 4 and 11 at 7 p.m.

UHM’s Kennedy Theatre, Mainstage

$22 regular; $20 seniors, military, UH faculty/staff; $12 students; $5 UHM students with validated fall 2011 UHM photo ID.; all service charges included in ticket price.

Onstage seating will be available on a first-come first-serve basis at the performance to all ticket holders. Tickets are available online now at www.etickethawaii.com, at outlets, and by phone at 944-2697. Tickets available at Kennedy Theatre Box Office beginning Jan. 23. Call 956-7655 for more information or visit the Kennedy Theatre website.

UHM Student Buy-One-Get-One-Free Night: Thurs. Feb 9, tickets available beginning at 5 p.m.

PHRA APAI MANEE: THAI FOLKLORE PERFORMANCE

Phra Apai Manee and the Spell of Laweng
Kofman Auditorium at Alameda High School, California
Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 4pm with dinner reception after the show

Summary
On Saturday, October 22, 2011 at Kofman Auditorium at Alameda High School, the Thai Cultural Center of Berkeley will be putting on our latest production of Thai music, dance and drama, entitled Phra Apai Manee and the Spell of Laweng. Most recently performed at the National Theater in Bangkok, we bring this tale of love, guile and betrayal to our audiences here:

Phra Aphai Mani and his brother, Sisuwan were princes who were sent to study by their father as he hoped they could use the knowledge gained to rule the country, but Phra Aphai came back with the knowledge of playing the pipe and his brother at sword-fighting. Their father was angry and drove them away. But the pipe Aphai had learned was a magic one. Its sound could put people to sleep and take the soul out of the body causing death.

One day while the others were lulled to sleep by the sound of the pipe, a giant came and took Aphai away to her cave where she transformed herself into a beautiful girl. He lived with her until she bore a son, Sinsamut. When Aphai found out that his wife was really the giant, Nang Phisua Samut, he fled with his son. He was assisted by a family of mermaids, father, mother and a daughter. The father and mother were caught and eaten by the giant.

The daughter took Aphai and Sinsamut to Kokaew Phitsadan (Wonder Island) where a hermit saved them from the giant. The young mermaid later bore a son with Aphai, called Sutsakhon. One day a ship went by the island. In the ship were King Silarat of Phleuk with his daughter, Princess Suwannamali. She was engaged to marry Prince Usaren of Lanka. Aphai and Sinsamut asked to go with them on the ship, but on the way the giant attacked them and killed King Silarat. Aphai escaped to the shore and had to blow the pipe which killed the giant. Sinsamut swam with the princess to an island. They continued their journey and met Sisuwan and his daughter, Arun Rasami. They went on in search of Phra Aphai.

Phra Aphai met Usaren who came out looking for his fiancee, Suwannamali. They went together until they met Sinsamut and Suwannamali. She refused to go to Usaren. There was a fight, Usaren fled back to Lanka. Phra Aphai came to Phleuk where the queen asked him to rule the country. Suwannamali was still angry at Phra Aphai for daring to give her up to Usaren, so she fled to become a nun. With the trick of a maid, Nang Wali, Suwannamali left the nunhood to marry Phra Aphai. She bore him twin daughters named Soisuwan and Chantasuda. Usaren and his father came back to attack Phleuk. The father was killed and Usaren died heart-broken.

The throne of Lanka fell to his sister, nang Laweng. A very beautiful Laweng decided to take revenge and she declared to all the princes in countries around that whoever could kill King Aphai would have her and her Kingdom. Nine armies moved to surround Phleuk. Aphai followed Laweng and won her love but the war continued until a hermit came and helped to stop the war between them.

Event & Contact Information
$25 per person (includes dinner)
For tickets, call (510) 520-1468 or email ( info@tccsfbayarea.org)

Rhyme and Reason with Zakariya Amataya and Kealoha

Hands Percussion Team from Malaysia
Drumming Up a Storm!
Special guests: Kenny Endo Taiko Ensemble

Sat., Sept. 18, 8:00 – 9:30 p.m.
Sun., Sept. 19, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m.

Kennedy Theatre

Combining mesmerizing theatrics with dynamic, multicultural rhythms, the renowned Hands Percussion Team drum ensemble from Malaysia has been creating quite a sensation at performances around the world since it was formed in 1997 out of its founders’ desire to bring new creativity to Chinese-Malaysian drumming traditions. Since then, the troupe has received stellar critical acclaim for its approach combining respect for cultural tradition with innovative, contemporary performances on instruments drawn from a diverse range of percussion cultures.

In recent years, Hands Percussion Team has thrilled audiences at numerous international performances, ranging from Southeast Asia and China to Europe and the Middle East. According to the ensemble’s website, “the sound of a drum is part of a universal human bond, interconnecting cultures and peoples.”

The ensemble’s Kennedy Theatre performances will feature a dozen of the troupe’s energetic young drummers, whose rigorous training includes intense physical and mental discipline in addition to musical development. Also performing will be the acclaimed, Hawai‘i-based Kenny Endo Taiko Ensemble.

To watch Hands Percussion Group Artistic Director Bernard Goh’s lecture on “Creativity & Chinese Drumming in 21st Century Malaysia,” visit the UHM Confucius Institute page. For more information on Hands Percussion Team, visit hands.com.my. This event is co-sponsored by the East-West Center and the University of Hawai`i’s Kennedy Theatre. The performances are part of the EWC’s 50th anniversary year celebrations.

Ticket Prices:
$16 Advance Super Saver until Sept. 5;
$20 Regular; $18 Seniors, Military, UH Faculty/Staff; $12 Students; $5 UHM Students with ID. (All service fees included.)

Tickets are now available online at ETicketsHawaii.com; beginning Sept 13, tickets will be also be available at Kennedy Theatre Box Office (M-F 10 a.m.-1 p.m.; Sept 18 from 5:00 p.m., Sept. 19 from 1:00 p.m.), or by phone, 944-2697.

The Hands Percussion Team will also perform Sept. 23 at Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Sept. 27 at Kahilu Theatre, and Sept. 29 at BYU-Hawaii.

Members of the UHM gamelan ensemble, Segara Madu, will be performing traditional Balinese Music and Dance as part of the Honolulu Academy of the Arts Bank of Hawai’i Family Sunday.

Sunday, September 19, 2010 at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

Two performances will be held at 11:00 am and 1:00 pm including Balinese gamelan gender duets performed by Michiko Ueno-Herr and Annie Reynolds and Balinese dances performed by Alice Terry, Desiree Seguritan, Annie Reynolds, and Made Widana. We will be performing in the central courtyard as you enter the Academy.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.honoluluacademy.org/cmshaa/academy/index.aspx?id=514

A 35th Anniversary Presentation Featuring Dances Created and Performed by Garrett Kam
Wednesday, 21 July at 5:00 pm at Earl Ernst Lab Theatre, Kennedy Theatre, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI
Free admission

In 1975, an art student at the University of Hawai’i began studying Javanese dance.
Thirty-five years later he shares his choreographies that reflect his life.

Puspayoga (2006; 13 minutes)
Based on Javanese classical dance in the Yogyakarta style, this refined male solo honors all teachers past, present and future. It was inspired by a supernatural visit in Bali from Garrett’s late dance teacher, Sasminta Mardawa, at the exact moment of the earthquake on 27 May 2006 that devastated Yogyakarta. The solo song warns about being boastful from acquiring knowledge and advises to listen to the inner voice for guidance. The title means ‘Blossoming Meditation’ with Javanese vocal and gamelan music from the sultan’s palace in Yogyakarta.

costume change interlude (“Hamachijuyaa” played by Gamelan Sanga, Okinawa)

Oki-Jawa Journeys (2007 and 2008; 14 minutes)
Inspired by historical and cultural links between Okinawa and Java, these three dances blend movements from these two islands. “Hi, Sigh!” is a word play on the Okinawan “Haisai!” (Hello!) and Indonesian slang “Hai, sayang!” (Hey, sweetie!); a Javanese dance scarf is manipulated like an Okinawan flower garland using gentle female style dance. “Eisaa-ruu” blends movements from lively Okinawan eisaa dances done to welcome ancestral spirits with Javanese monkey dance; saaruu in Okinawan means ‘monkey’. “Fan-tasy” uses two fans which are manipulated like a Javanese dance sash and uses refined male movements. The musical pieces are by the groups Hae (Okinawa), Ukwanshin Kabudan (Hawaii), and Banjar Teretai Capung (Bali and Java), with interludes by Singaporean composer Dzul Rabul Jalil and Okinawan pop group Nenes.

costume change interlude (“Ashimizu Bushi” played by Gamelan Sanga, Okinawa)

Wayang Sampur-na (2010; 40 minutes)
In Javanese, sampurna means “ideal, perfect, pure”. A sampur is a long cloth sash used in Javanese dance to accentuate and extend movements. In this wayang (performance), dance sashes are used in different ways for presenting some of the most important scenes from the Ramayana, the eternal epic of devotion, separation and reunion. Masks and puppets of characters are created on stage with different colored sampur, animated and then pulled apart as the story unfolds with short narration between episodes. Mostly danced in the Javanese court style from Yogyakarta with some new interpretations, the performance includes elements from other parts of Indonesia (Bali and West Java), Okinawa, Taiwan, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, India and Sri Lanka, as well as some improvisation and contemporary movements. This also is an autobiographical work of places visited and cultures studied by Garrett since 1975. A short Javanese dance introduces the four major character court styles of ogre king Ravana, monkey warrior Hanuman, refined hero Rama, and princess Sita. Narrative scenes are danced to traditional Javanese and Balinese melodies arranged for Western instruments by Canadian ethnomusicologist Colin McPhee, with opening and closing scenes using Asian inspired film music by Australian composer Elizabeth Drake.

GARRETT KAM was born in Hawaii but has lived in Southeast Asia for nearly 25 years, mostly in Java and Bali. He received his bachelor’s degree in Textiles and Asian Art History in 1976, and his master’s degree in Southeast Asian History and Asian Theatre in 1987 as an East-West Center Grantee (Institute of Culture and Communication, 1985-1987) from the University of Hawai’i. Garrett studied Javanese dance from 1975 to 1979 at the University of Hawai’i, and from 1979 to 1982 learned under master court teachers of the sultan’s palace in Yogyakarta, especially Sasminta Mardawa (KRT Sasmintadipura), Raden Sunartomo and Bambang Pudjasworo. Garrett was the first non-Javanese to regularly perform in the professional group of Mardawa Budaya and Pamulangan Beksa Ngayogyakarta schools of court dance and had his own troupe in Hawaii. As a Fulbright Grantee from 1987 to 1988, Garrett researched ritual in Bali where he has resided since then and is curator of the Neka Art Museum. He also serves as the only non-Balinese ritual assistant and offerings maker at one of the island’s most important Hindu-Buddhist temples.

Garrett has taught and performed Javanese dance in Hawaii at the University of Hawai’i, East-West Center, Mamiya Theatre, Leeward Community College, Kapi’olani Community College, Bishop Museum and Lyman House Museum; University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Center for World Music at California Institute of the Arts in San Diego and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Lewis and Clark College in Oregon, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire; in Thailand at Chulalongkorn University, The Joe Louis Traditional Thai Puppet Theatre, The Siam Society, The James H.W. Thompson Foundation and Patravadi Theatre; in Cambodia at the Royal University of Fine Arts, Sovanna Phum Khmer Art Association and The Khmer Arts Theatre; in Japan at Okinawa Christian University, Okinawa Prefecture University of the Fine Arts and Meio University; in Korea at the National Centre for Traditional Korean Performing Arts in Busan; in Indonesia at Pondok Pekak Art Center and Setia Darma House of Masks and Puppets in Bali, and The Japan Foundation in Jakarta; in Singapore at the Chinese Opera Institute, Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore Art Museum, Peranakan Museum, LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, National Institute of Education at Nanyang Technological University, Centre for the Arts at the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Maya Dance Theatre and Esplanade Theatres; in Taiwan at the Asian Cultural Council of Taipei and Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet Theatre Museum; and in Sri Lanka at the University of Peradeniya in Kandy.
In addition to arranging and choreographing Javanese court dances, Garrett also performs Okinawan dance which he studied from 1982 to 1987 in Hawaii. In 2007 he created a blend of it with Javanese dance called “Oki-Jawa” to show the historical links and similarities between the two cultures which he has presented in Singapore, Hawaii, Okinawa and Indonesia. As a Rockefeller Grantee, he collaborated with dancers and musicians from different countries for the Asia Pacific Performance Exchange program at UCLA in 2000, and served as cultural advisor for UCLA’s Art of Rice Traveling Theatre in 2002 and 2003. “Wayang Sampur-na” is his latest work created in 2010 using masks and puppets made from Javanese dance sashes with performance elements of different traditions. Garrett has also authored many books, articles and catalogs mostly on Southeast Asian visual and performing arts. His Ramayana in the Arts of Asia (Select Books, Singapore; Asia Books, Bangkok, 2000) is the most comprehensive and complete illustrated survey of the diverse literary, performing and artistic traditions of this epic. In addition, Garrett has served as curator and organizer for art exhibitions in Indonesia, the USA, Japan, Australia and Singapore. He has assisted with several UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage projects and a dance education program in Yogyakarta.

East-West Center International Conference
Sunday, 4 July at 4:00 pm at Hawai’i Convention Center, Room 316
Performance time: 40 minutes with no intermission, followed by discussion
Presented by Garrett Kam

In Javanese, sampurna means “ideal, perfect, pure”. A sampur is a long cloth sash used in Javanese dance to accentuate and extend movements. In this new solo wayang (performance) created and performed by Garrett Kam, dance sashes are given new meanings by being used in different ways for presenting some of the most important scenes from the Ramayana, the eternal epic of devotion, separation and reunion. Masks and puppets of characters are created on stage with different colored sampur, animated and then pulled apart as the story unfolds with short narration between episodes. Mostly danced in the Javanese court style from Yogyakarta with some new interpretations, the performance includes elements from other parts of Indonesia (Bali and West Java), India, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Okinawa and Taiwan, as well as some improvisation and contemporary movements. In this way, “Wayang Sampur-na” is an autobiographical work of cultures studied and places visited by Garrett since 1975. In this performance, a short Javanese dance introduces the four major character court styles of ogre king Ravana, monkey warrior Hanuman, refined hero Rama, and princess Sita. The narrative scenes are danced to traditional Javanese and Balinese melodies arranged for Western instruments by Canadian ethnomusicologist Colin McPhee, with opening and closing scenes using Asian inspired film music by Australian composer Elizabeth Drake. This is the premiere of “Wayang Sampur-na: Epic Turning Points”.

GARRETT KAM was born in Hawaii but has lived in Southeast Asia for nearly 25 years, mostly in Java and Bali. He received his bachelor’s degree in Textiles and Asian Art History in 1976, and his master’s degree in Southeast Asian History and Asian Theatre in 1987 as an East-West Center Grantee (Institute of Culture and Communication, 1985-1987) from the University of Hawai’i. Garrett studied Javanese dance from 1975 to 1979 at the University of Hawai’i, and from 1979 to 1982 learned under master court teachers of the sultan’s palace in Yogyakarta, especially Sasminta Mardawa (KRT Sasmintadipura), Raden Sunartomo and Bambang Pudjasworo. Garrett was the first non-Javanese to regularly perform in the professional group of Mardawa Budaya and Pamulangan Beksa Ngayogyakarta schools of court dance and had his own troupe in Hawaii. As a Fulbright Grantee from 1987 to 1988, Garrett researched ritual in Bali where he has resided since then and is curator of the Neka Art Museum. He also serves as the only non-Balinese ritual assistant and offerings maker at one of the island’s most important Hindu-Buddhist temples.

Garrett has taught and performed Javanese dance in Hawaii at the University of Hawai’i, East-West Center, Mamiya Theatre, Leeward Community College, Kapi’olani Community College, Bishop Museum and Lyman House Museum; University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Center for World Music at California Institute of the Arts in San Diego and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Lewis and Clark College in Oregon, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire; in Thailand at Chulalongkorn University, The Joe Louis Traditional Thai Puppet Theatre, The Siam Society, The James H.W. Thompson Foundation and Patravadi Theatre; in Cambodia at the Royal University of Fine Arts, Sovanna Phum Khmer Art Association and The Khmer Arts Theatre; in Japan at Okinawa Christian University, Okinawa Prefecture University of the Fine Arts and Meio University; in Korea at the National Centre for Traditional Korean Performing Arts in Busan; in Indonesia at Pondok Pekak Art Center and Setia Darma House of Masks and Puppets in Bali, and The Japan Foundation in Jakarta; in Singapore at the Chinese Opera Institute, Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore Art Museum, Peranakan Museum, LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, National Institute of Education at Nanyang Technological University, Centre for the Arts at the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Maya Dance Theatre and Esplanade Theatres; in Taiwan at the Asian Cultural Council of Taipei and Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet Theatre Museum; and in Sri Lanka at the University of Peradeniya in Kandy.
In addition to arranging and choreographing Javanese court dances, Garrett also performs Okinawan dance which he studied from 1982 to 1987 in Hawaii. In 2007 he created a blend of it with Javanese dance called “Oki-Jawa” to show the historical links and similarities between the two cultures which he has presented in Singapore, Hawaii, Okinawa and Indonesia. As a Rockefeller Grantee, he collaborated with dancers and musicians from different countries for the Asia Pacific Performance Exchange program at UCLA in 2000, and served as cultural advisor for UCLA’s Art of Rice Traveling Theatre in 2002 and 2003. “Wayang Sampur-na” is his latest work created in 2010 using masks and puppets made from Javanese dance sashes with performance elements of different traditions. Garrett has also authored many books, articles and catalogs mostly on Southeast Asian visual and performing arts. His Ramayana in the Arts of Asia (Select Books, Singapore; Asia Books, Bangkok, 2000) is the most comprehensive and complete illustrated survey of the diverse literary, performing and artistic traditions of this epic. In addition, Garrett has served as curator and organizer for art exhibitions in Indonesia, the USA, Japan, Australia and Singapore. He has assisted with several UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage projects and a dance education program in Yogyakarta.

To reassess the complex interconnections between Brecht’s work and various Asian cultures at the beginning of the 21st century, the International Brecht Society (IBS) and the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa invite scholars and artists in theater, performance, and other cultural fields to Honolulu for the 13th IBS Symposium on “Brecht in/and Asia” from May 19-23, 2010.

Brecht was not the only Western modernist to turn to Asian theater and thought for inspiration, but he was an especially astute observer of the cultural encounter with this “other,” which had such a significant impact on his work. Conversely, Brecht’s own theater and thought returned to inspire new forms of political and aesthetic experiments in many parts of Asia. With the dynamic, ongoing echoes of this mutual relationship as point of departure, the symposium will provide a forum to explore its multiple dimensions.

Below are the Southeast Asian focused panels:

Fritz Bennewitz’s Caucasian Chalk Circle in the Philippines
Thursday, May 20 at 3:45 pm in Webster Hall 103
Presented by David G. John, University of Waterloo, Ontario

Linking with the previous presentations by Rolf Rohmer and Joerg Esleben, this paper will first outline former GDR director Fritz Bennewitz’s long association with Philippine theatre through his interactions with indigenous theatre practitioners there, and especially his collaboration with the Philippine Education Theatre Association (PETA) in producing many plays. It will then focus on his 1977 production, with local actors and collaborators, of Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle, in Tagalog (Ang Hatol na Bilog na Guhit), staged in Manila with thematic and stylistic connections to the southern Philippine region of Mindanao and its Muslim culture. Bennewitz asserted frequently that this play was an ideal vehicle for mutual intercultural exploration and understanding. Although judged by Philippine critics to be the country’s best production of the year, questions need to be asked as to whether or not it was indeed a successful intercultural venture from points of view then and now.

Since 1974 David John has been Professor of German Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. His major book publications focus on eighteenth-century German theatre, Goethe and Schiller, and he has just completed a book on Fritz Bennewitz’s seven productions of Faust in various countries. He is currently involved in an international collaborative project on Bennewitz in India.

In Contestation over Hegemonic Narrative: Kamron’s Brechtian Theatre and Beyond
Thursday, May 20 at 11:00 am in Webster Hall 103
Presented by Parichat Jungwiwattanaporn, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

During seventy-eight years of parliamentary democracy (1932 – 2010), Thai democratization has gone through a number of significant challenges including coup d’états and the recent call by neo-nationalist royalists for a semi-absolute monarchy. The hegemony of the national ideology of the “Three Pillars” (i.e., nation, religion/Buddhism, and the King) has been so deeply imbedded in the Thai consciousness that any attempt to question the meta-narratives of Thai history can be construed as an act against national security. Since open discussions and criticism about these meta-narratives have been legally, socially, and culturally repressed, live theatre has become an important tool for contemporary artists in Thailand to express their dissent and to create a space in which they can interact live with an audience. For the past three decades, the Crescent Moon Theatre Group (CMTG), led by Kamron Gunatilaka, has been known to use both Thai and Western theatre techniques, especially the Brechtian theatre, to articulate dissent. In countering different meta-narratives, his productions take great risk at criticizing the hegemonic social memory, history, and collective psyche of Thailand. This paper will be a case study of Kamron’s most important production, The Revolutionist, which has been the most frequently performed contemporary theatre production in Thailand since 1987. Thai theatre critics consider it one of the most important Thai plays of the 20th century. The Revolutionist, inspired by Brechtian theatre, depicts a story of the leader of the Thai revolution in 1932, Pridi Banomyong, a progressive intellectual who fell victim to political intrigues. The play also provides historical details that provide a counter-metanarrative to the well-known metanarratives of recent Thai history. Through Lyotard’s postmodern lens, this paper intends to analyze the influences of Brechtian elements in Kamron’s dramaturgy as well as the creative outcomes that resulted from using this approach.

Parichat Jungwiwattanaporn is a PhD candidate in Asian Theatre at the Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Since 1999, as a researcher and writer on theatre history and criticism in Thailand, she has participated in a national research project, “Criticism as an Intellectual Power in Contemporary Thai Society.” Her publications include three co-authored books and two books on Thai Contemporary Theatre and Criticism, as well as a number of articles for such journals as ATJ and SPAFA and various newspapers.

Doris Duke Theatre, Honolulu Academy of Art, Honolulu, HI, USA
$25; $20 Academy members; $10 students with ID

April 16 & 17 at 8 p.m.
April 18 at 4 p.m.

Honolulu’s diverse dance communities are integrated in this innovative program showcasing professional and semi-professional dancers, who will perform either in pairs or in concert with a musician. The program includes the premiere of a new contemporary ballet piece Minou Lallemand choreographed for Duets; Japanese dance set by Gertrude Tsutsumi; Korean dance by Halla Huhm student Mary Jo Freshley; Balinese dance by Desiree A. Seguritan, and a special appearance by Los Angeles-based Simeon Den, back in town to perform a poignant modern-dance duet about mortality. Three sets of three duets (no longer than five minutes each) will be performed, with two brief intermissions.

more info | purchase tickets