GeneChing
02-22-2012, 10:32 AM
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui choreographed Sutra (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54913).
February 22, 2012, 4:06 PM HKT
Manga on Stage: A Tribute to Osamu Tezuka (http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2012/02/22/manga-on-stage-a-tribute-to-osamu-tezuka/)
By Andre Cooray
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-RX480_0222te_G_20120221230052.jpg
‘TeZuKa,’ inspired by Japanese cartoonist Osamu Tezuka, is on tour in Asia and Europe this year.
Streams of black ink drip down scroll-like screens, dancers mimic the strokes of a paintbrush and Shaolin monks play-fight. Set to a haunting score, these are just some of the scenes in the anime-inspired dance performance “TeZukA.”
The production tours across Europe and Asia this year, and brings to life the genre of comic books from Japan known as manga. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, a Belgian choreographer of Moroccan-Flemish heritage, seamlessly melds dance with animation and calligraphy to create a surreal on-stage ambience and explore the mind of cult Japanese artist Osamu Tezuka.
Dubbed by some as “the godfather of manga,” Mr. Tezuka was obsessed with drawing from an early age and produced work over four decades before his death in 1989. Fans of the prolific cartoonist will know that he was behind iconic characters such as Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack. He was also known for tackling taboo subjects with dark themes including death, sexuality and religion.
Fresh from a stop in Hong Kong, “TeZukA” will be performed in Tokyo this week before moving to the New Zealand Arts Festival in Wellington. The production will also travel to Germany, Austria and France. Its next Asia run is scheduled for this October in Singapore.
Mr. Cherkaoui spoke with The Wall Street Journal about “Astro Boy,” the impact of last year’s Fukushima disaster on “TeZukA” and why he would be happy to choose his performers from Mars.
The Wall Street Journal: Was it hard to translate Osamu Tezuka’s life and work into a dance performance?
Mr. Cherkaoui: I have been a big comic fan since I was young, so it’s not a world that is completely alien to me. The process of trying to translate it, sure it was difficult, but it’s difficult to do any piece. My research on him spans over three years and is still ongoing. Every day I learn more about him, and the fact that the piece is alive and a new experience every evening makes it possible to evolve and develop.
Will audiences not familiar with the artist be able to relate to the show?
Basically, I’ve tried to introduce Tezuka to people who don’t know much about him. And some people that know his work might not know those things about him that are highlighted in the show. My dream is to inspire people to go and read his comics. In that sense you could see me like a sort of missionary – if I can convert some people to read his work, I will be really happy.
“TeZukA” comprises a troupe of dancers from Belgium, Argentina, Norway, China and Japan. What qualities do you look for when auditioning dancers?
I always look for like-minded individuals, and so if that person comes from Mars I’ll gladly include him. I’m neither gender- nor nationality-specific about where people should come from. In “TeZukA,” for example, I was not consciously looking for Chinese performers. It just so happened that I had a strong bond with two actual monks from the Shaolin temple in China, whom I had worked with before, and I felt like it would be great to work with them again.
The Fukushima disaster happened while you were in Japan preparing for “TeZukA,” which has themes of atomic energy. How did the event affect the show’s direction?
Before we started, sure, themes of radioactivity and nuclear energy were in the work of Tezuka. In that way, he was an incredibly prophetic artist. But we were really just paying homage to this artist through dance. But then suddenly, when we started to rehearse in Japan in March the earthquake happened, and it broke the piece in two. It became a second theme in the work. There was the theme of the history of Tezuka, and then there is something so real as that catastrophe, and the implications it has on the country and on the culture.
Does Astro Boy, perhaps one of Mr. Tezuka’s most famous characters, appear in the performance?
Yes, he does and is quite present. He was invented in 1952, only seven years after the bombing in Hiroshima. And so it was quite a daring act for an artist to create a character that has atomic energy, and make him a child. Now the fact that he is powered on nuclear energy, which at this point in time is dangerous and something we are clearly not mature enough to handle, makes this character kind of sad. He is made from what is basically harming nature, but all he wants to do is save it.
Who is your favorite Tezuka character and why?
I think it would be Buddha, because that is the character he portrayed from the beginning of his life until the end. So you feel like you’ve seen someone’s entire life – and of course his depiction of Buddha is a fiction. It’s very mythological and in that sense it had a really deep impact on me to read it. The other characters I love are Black Jack and Astro Boy, of course, but all of them are eternally living. They didn’t really die when Tezuka died.
– Edited from an interview with Andre Cooray
February 22, 2012, 4:06 PM HKT
Manga on Stage: A Tribute to Osamu Tezuka (http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2012/02/22/manga-on-stage-a-tribute-to-osamu-tezuka/)
By Andre Cooray
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-RX480_0222te_G_20120221230052.jpg
‘TeZuKa,’ inspired by Japanese cartoonist Osamu Tezuka, is on tour in Asia and Europe this year.
Streams of black ink drip down scroll-like screens, dancers mimic the strokes of a paintbrush and Shaolin monks play-fight. Set to a haunting score, these are just some of the scenes in the anime-inspired dance performance “TeZukA.”
The production tours across Europe and Asia this year, and brings to life the genre of comic books from Japan known as manga. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, a Belgian choreographer of Moroccan-Flemish heritage, seamlessly melds dance with animation and calligraphy to create a surreal on-stage ambience and explore the mind of cult Japanese artist Osamu Tezuka.
Dubbed by some as “the godfather of manga,” Mr. Tezuka was obsessed with drawing from an early age and produced work over four decades before his death in 1989. Fans of the prolific cartoonist will know that he was behind iconic characters such as Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack. He was also known for tackling taboo subjects with dark themes including death, sexuality and religion.
Fresh from a stop in Hong Kong, “TeZukA” will be performed in Tokyo this week before moving to the New Zealand Arts Festival in Wellington. The production will also travel to Germany, Austria and France. Its next Asia run is scheduled for this October in Singapore.
Mr. Cherkaoui spoke with The Wall Street Journal about “Astro Boy,” the impact of last year’s Fukushima disaster on “TeZukA” and why he would be happy to choose his performers from Mars.
The Wall Street Journal: Was it hard to translate Osamu Tezuka’s life and work into a dance performance?
Mr. Cherkaoui: I have been a big comic fan since I was young, so it’s not a world that is completely alien to me. The process of trying to translate it, sure it was difficult, but it’s difficult to do any piece. My research on him spans over three years and is still ongoing. Every day I learn more about him, and the fact that the piece is alive and a new experience every evening makes it possible to evolve and develop.
Will audiences not familiar with the artist be able to relate to the show?
Basically, I’ve tried to introduce Tezuka to people who don’t know much about him. And some people that know his work might not know those things about him that are highlighted in the show. My dream is to inspire people to go and read his comics. In that sense you could see me like a sort of missionary – if I can convert some people to read his work, I will be really happy.
“TeZukA” comprises a troupe of dancers from Belgium, Argentina, Norway, China and Japan. What qualities do you look for when auditioning dancers?
I always look for like-minded individuals, and so if that person comes from Mars I’ll gladly include him. I’m neither gender- nor nationality-specific about where people should come from. In “TeZukA,” for example, I was not consciously looking for Chinese performers. It just so happened that I had a strong bond with two actual monks from the Shaolin temple in China, whom I had worked with before, and I felt like it would be great to work with them again.
The Fukushima disaster happened while you were in Japan preparing for “TeZukA,” which has themes of atomic energy. How did the event affect the show’s direction?
Before we started, sure, themes of radioactivity and nuclear energy were in the work of Tezuka. In that way, he was an incredibly prophetic artist. But we were really just paying homage to this artist through dance. But then suddenly, when we started to rehearse in Japan in March the earthquake happened, and it broke the piece in two. It became a second theme in the work. There was the theme of the history of Tezuka, and then there is something so real as that catastrophe, and the implications it has on the country and on the culture.
Does Astro Boy, perhaps one of Mr. Tezuka’s most famous characters, appear in the performance?
Yes, he does and is quite present. He was invented in 1952, only seven years after the bombing in Hiroshima. And so it was quite a daring act for an artist to create a character that has atomic energy, and make him a child. Now the fact that he is powered on nuclear energy, which at this point in time is dangerous and something we are clearly not mature enough to handle, makes this character kind of sad. He is made from what is basically harming nature, but all he wants to do is save it.
Who is your favorite Tezuka character and why?
I think it would be Buddha, because that is the character he portrayed from the beginning of his life until the end. So you feel like you’ve seen someone’s entire life – and of course his depiction of Buddha is a fiction. It’s very mythological and in that sense it had a really deep impact on me to read it. The other characters I love are Black Jack and Astro Boy, of course, but all of them are eternally living. They didn’t really die when Tezuka died.
– Edited from an interview with Andre Cooray