Ten Nights of Dream

TomoeArts and Centre A present:
Ten Nights of Dream
a movement-music-image performance based on stories by Natsume Sôseki

RUNS: May 21 – May 23, 2009
CURTAIN: 8:30pm
TICKETS: Regular $20 | Students/Seniors $16
BOX OFFICE: TicketsTonight 604.684.2787
VENUE: Centre A, 2 West Hastings Street, Vancouver
INFO: TomoeArts 604.607.5978 | More at www.tomoearts.org

GUEST TALK: Friday May 22, 7pm on Japanese author Natsume Sôseki by Dr. Sharalyn Orbaugh (free admission)

The uncanny world of dreams and the unconscious is brought to life in Ten Nights of Dream, TomoeArts’ full-length performance of solo choreographies, original music composition, and visual projected images.

A woman buried with a piece of fallen star; A blind child riding on the back of the dreamer; A huge ship seemingly going nowhere; A panama hat; A barber; A goldfish seller; A thousand pigs. These are a few of the haunting images found in this TomoeArts performance which is based on a series of extraordinary and little-known tales of one of Japan’s greatest novelists Natsume Sôseki. Published in 1908, Yume Jûya (Ten Nights of Dream) is Natsume’s exploration into the mystery of existence and death. The ten stories are neither pleasant dreams nor nightmares, but leave the reader with an uncanny feeling of recognition – of knowing without fully understanding. Dr. Sharayn Orbaugh (Asian Studies, UBC) will give a free talk on Natsume Sôseki before the Friday performance (7pm Friday May 22).

TomoeArts artistic director Colleen Lanki has conceived and choreographed Ten Nights of Dream and she performs all the characters and images from the dreams. The choreography is based on the forms and aesthetics of nihon buyoh (Japanese classical dance). Lanki, who has studied Japanese classical dance for over a decade, has worked to push the forms beyond their traditional boundaries and plays with the principles of time and space to evoke a dreamlike quality. The choreography focuses on central metaphors from the tales expanding them into movement and character motifs that embody the core energy and atmosphere of each dream. For more:

Original music has been composed by Alcvin Ramos, fusing traditional Japanese instruments and electro-acoustic sounds. Ramos will perform live in conjunction with pre-recorded music. Ramos is a master player/teacher of the shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese bamboo flute and director of Bamboo-In Shakuhachi Centre. He also heads the extraordinary world music group Dharmakasa. For more:

Visual projections and lighting are being created by a team of senior design students from UBC Craig Alfredson, David Kim, Yulia Shtern, and Ana Maria Espinoza Vaca, under professor Robert Gardiner, one of Canada’s foremost scenographers. Yulia Shtern also designs the sets and costumes. Ten Nights of Dream’s director, Matthew Romantini brings experience in dance, physical theatre and adaptation of non-theatrical sources for the stage. Romantini is Artistic Director of The Thistle Project and a performer with Toronto’s Theatre Rusticle and Vancouver’s Kokoro Dance.

TomoeArts (pronounced toh-moh-ay) is a new company that promotes, teaches and performs nihon buyoh (Japanese classical dance). It creates and presents performances incorporating the forms and aesthetics of Japanese traditional performing arts. Ten Nights of Dream is presented as part of the explorASIAN Festival celebrating Asian Heritage Month in Metro Vancouver.

Media contact: Colleen Lanki 604.607.5978 [email protected]