Aretha Aoki & Ryan MacDonald| Friday | July 12| 7:30PM

IZUMONOOKUNI

IzumonookunI is a multidisciplinary and multigenerational dance inspired by Izumo no Okuni, 17th century founder of the Japanese dance-drama form, kabuki—a form that currently contains little trace of its female-centric, grassroots, counter-cultural origins. Choreographer Aretha Aoki and sound and visual designer Ryan MacDonald are re-imagining Okuni in conversation with post-punk/glam-goth/dark-wave within a hybrid, contemporary landscape of live synthesizer, digital design, dance, and taiko drumming by members of the first all-women identified taiko group in Canada, Sawagi Taiko.

“A boundary-breaking Japanese legend gets a modern punk makeover in IzumonookunI” –

The Georgia Straight

Aretha Aoki is a choreographer, performer, and educator. Her work in collaboration with Ryan MacDonald has been performed nationally and internationally, with funding from the NPN Creation and Development funds, the Kindling Fund, Maine Arts Commission, New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Northampton Council for the Arts. She is currently dancing in overly merry by Heather Kravas. arethaaoki.com

Ryan Alexander MacDonald is a multimedia artist. He is a 2017 Bessie Award Nominee in “Outstanding Composition and Sound Design,” author of the story collection The Observable Characteristics of Organisms (FC2) and the winner of the American Short(er) Fiction Award. He has designed sound for choreographers such as Vanessa Anspaugh, Devynn Emory, and Tristan Koepke. ryanamacdonald.com

*Free Show & Tell: Tues| July 9| 7:30PM | Schaeffer Theatre

Top Photo Credit: Colin Kelly