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Noh Reimagined and The Place are excited to announce the launch of the 1st Noh Workshop Lab, as part of Artist Led Labs.

Join Noboru Sano, a professional Noh shite actor, who trained at Hosho school under Hosho Fusao XVIII, for a 2-day lab.

This lab is supported by The Place, The Great Sasakawa Foundation, The Japan Foundation, The International Noh Project Committee, and Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture).

Please visit the link below for details:

https://theplace.org.uk/opportunities/artist-led-labs-the-japanese-noh-workshop-with-noboru-sano

Wiebke Leister’s ‘Echoes & Callings’, which was premired at Noh Reimagined 2018, will be published by MA BIBLIOTHÈQUE

https://mabibliotheque.cargo.site/

Clod Ensemble’s SNOW, which premired at Noh Reimagined 2018, will return for public showings 29th-31st March 2023.

Snow at Clod Ensemble Studios, March 2023

83 ceramic brooches of Moths, 83 species of Moths lost in the UK , lost forever within nature.

As part of a tour of Japan in Spring 2022, Thick & Tight travelled the country to study the ancient art forms of Noh and Kyogen theatre. On their travels, they have left behind many ceramic brooches of Moths, each one individual in form and hand-crafted by Sheila Hay. The Lost Moths connect to a dance piece called ‘Two Moths In Real Time’, inspired by Noh, Kyogen and Nature. You can read more about this piece on this website. This project, which left 83 brooches across Japan and the United Kingdom, recognises that 83 species of Moths have been lost in the UK in recent years, lost forever within nature.

https://www.thickandtight.com/lostmoths

Tue 25—Sat 29 Jan 2022,The Pit

Thick & Tight: SHORT & SWEET London International Mime Festival

This event was cancelled until further notice due to coronavirus.

このイベントは新型コロナウィルスの影響で中止となりました。

Noh Reimagined Tokyo 2021: Sound of Life / As part of Tokyo Tokyo Festival  

18th, 19th May 2021 | National Noh Theatre

Noh x Contemporary British Arts and Culture

The most innovative British artists from diverse genres will encounter the 650-year-old tradition of Noh to collaborate with the top-level Noh performers at the National Noh Theatre, Tokyo. It will premier three ambitious works along with classical Noh pieces under the most relevant universal theme – Nature and Man.

The first edition of Noh Reimagined Tokyo linking with the hugely successful bi-annual festival Noh Reimagined at London’s Kings Place will be held in May 2021. Noh Reimagined Tokyo 2021: Spirits of Flowers explores how nature is celebrated and interpreted in the Noh tradition and what it means to our lives today. It will bring top-class Noh performers including Yoshimasa Kanze, Noboru Sano and Senzaburo Shigeyama, and Yukihiro Isso, joined by internationally acclaimed British artists – Cerith Wyn Evans, Aidan O’Rouke and Thick & Tight, to Japan to premier their works in collaboration with Noh Performers.

2021年5月18日、19日　　国立能楽堂

日英共同プロジェクト「Nature Unwrapped：サウンド・オブ・ライフ　IN　東京」

能とイギリスの現代芸術家との出会い。

英ロンドンのアーツセンター「Kings Place」が2020 年に掲げたテーマは「Nature Unwrapped」。地球とその未来が最も差し迫った課題である今日、生物圏と生命の音に耳を傾け、自然と人間の関係や私達が取る行動を、多様な分野の芸術家と聴衆が共に考える意欲的なプログラムだ。古来より日本に伝わる自然信仰や「草木成仏」といった観念と結び付く能において、自然と人間は平等で、自然と人間の融合が 違和感なく受容される。そして、能舞台は人間的な限界を乗り越えて森羅万象に開かれた生命と自然の舞台である。

2021年、「Nature Unwrapped：サウンド・オブ・ライフ　IN　東京」は、「Nature Unwrapped」の一環として、西洋と日本の文化と自然観の間にある接点を探りつつ、自然と人間の関りという共通のテーマに能舞台という大自然（小宇宙）で、イギリス現代の最も創造的なアーティスト4名と一流能楽師との協働による、新たな委嘱作品を発表する。イギリスの芸術シーンの最先端で活躍する芸術家達と一流能楽師が、650年の能の伝統の時空を超えて、「自然と人間の関わり合い」をテーマに３つの委嘱作品を創造する。

Programme

18th May   

Opening talk：“Noh and nature” by Reiji Ando, arts anthropologist 

1 “Fianuis” – Aidan O’Rouke encounter Noh

This programme unwraps the poem and essay on Rona Island, an abandoned remote island off the coast of Scotland, written by a Scottish poet KATHLEEN JAMIE. Her Poem will be transcribed by Noh chant by Kanze Yoshimasa. 

Joined by music by Aidan O’Rouke and Yukihiro Isso in collaboration.

2 sleigh/slight shift towards (a)perception – Cerith Wyn Evans

The award -winning conceptual artists Cerith Wyn Evans will draw on the concept of mirror in Noh to create an installation work to which Sano Noboru , the shite actor will respond.

佐野登 (Sano Noboru)、一噌幸弘( Isso Yukihiro)、囃子方( Noh musicians)  Cerith Wyn Evans art works

19th May  

Pre-performance talk about 「Unclouded Moon」by  Thick &Tight:　

1. Classical Noh piece Traditional Kyogen performance 

2. Thick & Tight「Unclouded Moon」 

British dance duo Thick & Tight are delighted and honoured to be invited to respond to Noh and Kyogen. Unclouded Moon seeks to unveil our abstract and emotional relationship to the moon. Its wistful melancholy light is a witness to the loss of nature perpetrated by human beings. We explore the idea of undoing harm, of reversal as a kind of progression. We must unravel the falsehood of humans being somehow separate from nature. Informed by our queer perspective, and through study into queer culture in both the UK and Japan, we examine how the term ‘unnatural’ is often applied to behaviours within the LGBTQ+ community to create divisions around who belongs in our interconnected world. Under the light of the unclouded moon, all divisions cease to matter and perhaps we can understand anew how the beautiful balance of life depends on its diversity. Until we can celebrate the diversity within our own species, how can we hope to heal the wounds in our wider world?

Through extensive research and insightful training with Senzaburo Shigeyama and others, we have tried to comprehend the performative, thematic and contextual elements of Noh and Kyogen, finding connections with our own practice in dance and queer performance. Unclouded Moon is inspired by the rhythms, structure, choreographic languages and metaphysical philosophy found in Noh and Kyogen, finding a way through precise discipline towards expressive freedom and through complexity towards simplicity.

3「変幻化 Hengenka 2021」　

All performers come together for the Yukihiro Isso’s work Hengenka, which celebrates the awe-inspiring power of nature, with the title invoking the constant energy, transformation and interconnectedness of the natural world. The piece features the kami (spirits) of music and creation, as well as the comical monster Tengu. The Tengu role, originally played by a Kyogen actor when the piece was premiered in 2017, is here choreographed and performed by Thick & Tight in a new interpretation.

Curated and Produced by Mu:Arts, Kings Place, International Noh project Committee

Supported by: Arts Council England, Arts Council Tokyo, and others

プログラム

5月18日

オープニングトーク　能という小宇宙」(仮題)：安藤礼二（多摩美術大学教授。芸術人類学、「列島祝祭論」著者）

前半「Fianuis：スコットランド最果ての島Ronaから」

スコットランド最北西にある見捨てられた小さな無人島RONA。そこで聞こえるのは風の音、鳥の声、アザラシの鳴き声。　かつては小さな集落があったこの島にも自然破壊が忍び寄る。スコットランドで数々の受賞歴を持つ詩人KATHLEEN JAMIEが島に思いを馳せた作品に、シテ方観世喜正が謡を付け、フィドル奏者Aidan O’Roukeと一噌幸弘による新曲を奏でる。   

後半「a sleight* / slight** shift towards (a) perception”［知覚に作用するささやかな企み］

世界的に著名な現代美術家で能の愛好家ケリス・ワイン・エバンスが、能における鏡の表象をコンセプチュアルアート作品として表現する。

出演：佐野登 (Sano Noboru)、一噌幸弘( Isso Yukihiro)、囃子方( Noh musicians)  

5月19日

「Unclouded Moon」（Thick & Tightの新作品 世界初演）　

隈なき月明りの下で自由に変容する自然と人間。BLGTQをテーマに世界で活動するイギリスのマイム・ダンスデュオ Thick & Tightが茂山千三郎氏とのR＆Dを経て、狂言の動きと能楽のコンセプトにインスパイアされた新作「Unclouded Moon」の世界初演。

「変幻化 Hengenka 2021」

生成流転する自然界のエネルギーの中で音楽の神様、創造の神様が出合い舞う。2017年に国立能楽堂で初演された一噌幸弘作品の2021年版は、間狂言部分でThick & Tightが、新たな舞を新演出する。