HOME >> ASIAN PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL
Asia Performing Arts Festival (APAF) is one of joint projects under Asian Major Cities Network 21. It aims at encouraging mutual understanding and cultural exchange among Asian countries as well as promoting interaction between performing artists to raise levels of performing arts, which would lead to new ways of expression. Its goals also include finding new talent and work in performing arts to build a globally recognized art market, contributing to further promotion of art and culture of the 21st century in Asia.
“Asia”, “Performing Arts”, “Festival”.
These three are the keywords which is getting more and more important for all of us living in Tokyo, Japan.
Until modern times, people in Asian countries used to keen on cultural exchange with each other despite of inconvenient means of transportation. Those cultural exchanges with vivacity brought us richness in our traditional culture in Asian countries.
Since modern times, people in Asian countries were very eager to import cultures from western countries and got to confirm their cultural identity by seeing their countries as the mirror image of western countries. But there lies a risk that people only follow the image of Asia from the point of view of the westerners. Asian cultures had been cultivated by realizing the differences appeared in main common subjects between Asian countries such as rice farming, religions, letters in writing and etc through past cultural exchanges before modern times began. The bigger the similarity there lies, the more the subtle differences you may find. The ripeness of culture and arts begins only when we can realize the subtle differences with each other.
Unfortunately, concept of “the originality of the culture in our own countries” born from the reflection to western mirror has no sensitivity for this subtle differences and therefore we could not see so much improvement in our culture and arts since modern times.
Now it is time when we from Asian countries let our culture and arts meet each other once again and sometimes mix each other.
Asian Performing Arts Festival is the excellent field for young artists from Asian countries to meet each other. Especially performing arts is the very primitive arts which is born only from the point that body and body are facing each other and that it enables people to awake their attention to their own “Body”.
Now it is the “Festival” where people can enjoy each other’s presence on one big plate.
I wish you living in Tokyo can very much enjoy this “Asian”, “Performing Arts”, “Festival”.
Satoshi Miyagi
Director, General Artistic Director of SPAC (Shizuoka Performing Arts Center),Artistic Director of a non profit organization KU NA'UKA Theatre Company.
Miyagi was born in Tokyo in 1959. He learned a dramatic theory from Yushi Odashima, Moriaki Watanabe and Hachiro Hidaka at the University of Tokyo. In 1990, he founded KU NA'UKA Theatre Company.
He has been highly appreciated both domestically and internationally for his ways of direction which is the fusion of Asian style of physical arts and European style of interpretation for texts.
In 2006, KU NA'UKA was chosen as gala opening of the theatre Claude Levi-Strauss in QUAI BRANLY national museum newly completed in Paris, and has performed "MAHABHARATA".
He became the General Artistic Director of SPAC in April, 2007.
His representative works are "SALOME", "TENSYU - MONOGATARI", "MEDEA", "TRISTAN UND ISOLDE", "A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE" (all performed by KU NA'UKA Theatre Company) and "FUTARI NO ONNA" (by SPAC)
His work won the 3rd Asahi Performing Arts Awards in 2004, the 2nd Asahi Beer Art Prize in 2005.
Performances by participating cities & collaborative productions with Tokyo
Along with performances by participating cities, collaborative works between artists from Tokyo and other Asian cities will also be staged. Selected artists from Tokyo will be sent to Asian cities for two to four weeks for the creation of these joint productions.
Asian Kitchen
This program aims to set the channel to “Food” for people to encounter Asian cultures in a most simple and familiar way.
There will be one-man performances featuring cuisine prepared by performers who are Tokyo residents hailing from Delhi, Hanoi, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Seoul, Taipei,, as well as Tokyo. The show will be created by Tokyo’s up-and-coming playwrights and directors.
Live Version of TOKYO BUTAI
Showcase performances by eight theatrical groups in Tokyo will introduce Japan’s young and enthusiastic talent to the world.
Running time of each performance will be 10 ? 20 minutes. Each group will be selecting one piece of music for use during the performance and the contents will be arranged to give the audience a glimpse of the life and culture of the young people of Tokyo.
Other Events
An Asian landscape is planned to be created in the “Lower Space” in the basement of Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space. It will allow people to feel the long history of cultural communication between Asian countries. Fun events are also scheduled to be held around the venue.
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