SFIAF 2012 FULL LINE-UP
The Ninth Annual San Francisco International Arts Festival (SFIAF) will kick off on
Headlining
Somewhat uncharacteristically for SFIAF, both of the headlining companies in 2012 are practitioners of traditional
arts. Eighty-year-old National Living Treasure of Japan, Mansaku Nomura will lead his Mansaku-no-Kai Company to the
United States for a two-city tour. The performance, which will consist of traditional theatre works from the 600 year-old kyogen tradition,
will be the company's first appearance in San Francisco since Nomura's son Mansai starred in A Kyogen of Errors in 2005.
Presented with the US/Japan Cultural Trade Network, Mansaku-no-Kai's only other US performances will be at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
The younger but just as venerable Juan De Dios Ramos Morejon, artistic director of the legendary Afro-Cuban
ensemble Conjunto Folklorico Raices Profundas, will also be at the head of his company for what will be their much anticipated
(if somewhat delayed for nearly 35 years) US debut at SFIAF as a co-presentation with PlazaCUBA.
Dance
A fascinating program of contemporary dance will be led by four American companies participating in international
Leyya Tawil of Dance Elixir
in collaboration with composer and engineer Lars J. Brouwer of the Netherlands will present the world premiere of
THIEVES
that raised a good deal of interest when seen as a work-in-progress at SFIAF 2011. THIEVES will be performed as part of a
shared bill with Companie 7273 from Switzerland who will present the US Premiere of ROMANCE-S (2009) created and performed
by the company's co-artistic directors, Laurence Yadi and Nicolas Cantillon.
Former San Francisco choreographer Cid Pearlman will return to SFIAF to present the Bay Area premiere of This is What We Do in Winter, created in 2010 in Estonia with an ensemble of five American and Estonian dancers and original music by Jonathan Segal. Pearlman will share the stage with Liquid Theatre from Russia who will present the US Premiere of Antidot (see theatre, below for more information).
Post:Ballet will present the world premiere of Cenancestor, a multi-disciplinary project choreographed by artistic
director Robert Dekkers in collaboration with German filmmaker Alexander du Prel and San Francisco based composer
Daniel Berkman. The piece will be performed alongside the Susanna Leinenon Company who will present the US Premiere of the Finnish
choreographer's signature work Chinese Objects (2005).
SFIAF 2012 will also see the return of Ko Murobushi and inkBoat
with The Crazy Cloud Collection, an evening-length
piece inspired by the life of Ikkyu Sojun that was originally co-produced by SFIAF, inkBoat and the US/Japan Cutural Trade Network
and premiered at the Festival in 2010. The performances will mark the finale of a US tour supported by the National Dance Project
and the Japan Foundation.
Music
SFIAF's longest presenting partners, the Earplay Ensemble
will present an international program of experimental contemporary music including the world premiere of Along the River During the
Qingming Festival, by Chinese composer Joan Huang in collaboration with Melody of China and the US Premiere of
Strom (2010) by Germany's Sven Daigger.
Theatre
In addition to Mansaku no Kai, SFIAF 2012 will see the US debut of Max Theatre of Iran (a co-presentation with
Golden Thread Productions) and the west coast debut of Liquid Theatre from Moscow, Russia. Max Theatre will present a Persian language
version of Macbeth by the company's upcoming artistic director, Reza Servanti. The riveting and surrealist production has been
acclaimed by theatre audiences throughout the Middle East & Europe and won the Special Jury Prize at the Fajr Fajr Festival and
Best Performance at the Tehran International Festival of University Theatre.
In a shared bill with Cid Pearlman, Liquid Theatre will perform their award winning physical theatre performance Antidot (Antidote, 2009) a humorous physical theatre reflection on the restrictions and confinements of life working in an office. The antidote to the situation is perhaps closer to a California new age experience than the audience might expect—more in common with a practice in the Berkeley Hills than Moscow's industrial hinterland. Liquid Theatre will also be among the featured performers at the 200th Anniversary Celebrations of Fort Ross, which was founded by emissaries of Alexander I of Russia in 1812.
Stilt walking and other extraordinary uses of the appendages will feature prominently at SFIAF's free theatre
program to be presented in collaboration with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. Pioneering street theatre company Teatro Taller de
Columbia will present the US Premiere of Exodo that focuses on issues of exile and displacement. The Carpetbag Brigade
will perform the San Francisco premiere of Callings (2011) that poses the question, "If the ocean was ill, what would she say and how would
she say it?"
Finally, SFIAF will present the US premiere of White Rabbit, Red Rabbit by Iranian playwright, Nassim Soleimanpour. Soleimanpour cannot leave Iran because he refuses to do military service (and is therefore not eligible to apply for a passport), but in his absence he has sent us a script that will be performed by a different Bay Area actor at each performance. Each actor will receive the script in a sealed envelope to be read and performed for the first time with the audience present.
If you or your company is interested in performing at the San Francisco International Arts Festival, click here for more information. We are currently booking for SFIAF 2013.
