Production Details

“Hamon”, the Japanese word meaning " ring on the water" is a new multi-media performance. Representing the unifying nature of water, it tells an important and emotional story, making our plea for water conservation and security. It fuses Butoh movement, contemporary dance, storytelling, sound instrumentation and visual-media and utilizes Butoh’s internal focus and intense organic movement that is grounded in intention, storytelling, and gravity-based movement. The improvisational aspect of this work encourages the artists to play off each other’s emotional energy, intensifying the audience’s experience. The sound and visual media create different dimensions on the stage.

パフォーマンス「波紋」は舞踏、コンテンポラリーダンス、語り、ライブサウンドとハミングを映像と共に舞台上で様々なアートが影響し合い作り出されたニューマルチメディアーパフォーマンスである。パフォーマンスは環境問題、水質汚染に対する危機を提示すると共に自然、地球、宇宙と人間との繋がりと水との関係をアートを通して表現する。舞踏及びその動きの基礎として使用されたテクニックである野口体操は重力、自然との繋がり、体液主体説等、その微細で深い感覚から作り出される動きは振り付けを超えて、ダンサーの魂を表現する動きとなり、神秘な世界を作り出す。

Ranko Ogura is a Japanese immigrant dancer/choreographer/director, and a teacher of dance. She creates contemporary dance with Butoh movements and utilizes the innovative Noguchi Taiso technique. She approaches all of her artistic practices grounded in Zen Buddhism. Growing up in Japan, the spirit of harmony with nature as well as the traditional arts and culture formed the foundation of her artistic consciousness. She started to explore Butoh, which demonstrates deep spirituality beyond individual expression. Butoh was born during the 1950s, in resistance to the influx of American culture. The Japanese spirit embedded in the philosophy and movement of Butoh inspired her artistic journey of dance-making. Butoh also shares the philosophy with Zen. She became a master of one of Butoh's practices, Noguchi Taiso technique, the quintessence of dance emerging through its mode of expression. Combining Butoh and contemporary dance broadened her mode of expression. Her artistic journey features the human condition in relationship with the natural world, thereby, promoting environmental sustainability. Ranko has presented her original works not just in theaters but at the cherry blossoms festivals in San Francisco and Palo Alto, reaching thousands of people, celebrating and promoting the Japanese sensitivities in relationship to nature. And performance tour in Japan to In addition to public performances, she has organized and conducted Butoh and Noguchi Taiso workshops for the general public as well as for the Bay Area dance community.

Artist Biographies

Juliana Mendonca
Juliana Mendonca is a Venezuelan contemporary dance performer, choreographer and teacher based in Oakland. She graduated with a degree in dance from the University Institute of Dance in Venezuela. Juliana co-founded Raíz de Agua, a live music and dance company that creates projects inspired by nature and our relationship with it. She have drawn influences from contemporary and popular dance styles such as Butoh, Latin Traditional Dances and Physical Theater, to find a unique language with which she can express and create powerful works of art. At present she is devel- oping Liquidanza, a dance form practice in the water.

Pauli N. Amornkul
Pauli N. Amornkul is a San Francisco-based singer, dancer, and actor and has enjoyed principal and ensemble roles in over 20 theatre productions with more than 10 theatre companies in the Bay Area. Pauli received her vocal training from Ava Victoria (NATS) and can bei heard on the Original Cast Recording of (3-time Theatre Bay Area award-winner) Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Min Kahng and on Connie Tyler’s (1stplace winner CA Music Teachers Composition) recording Song for Keke among others. Before discovering Noguchi Taiso, Pauli studied several dance forms including ballet, modern, jazz, tap, ballroom, hula, flamenco, and Thai classical. She danced with Rica Sensacion, a competition salsa dance team, and was a soloist with modern and ballet dance companies in MD, PA, GA, and AZ.

Joe Abela
Joe Abela is a renowned shaker percussionist in the African, Afro- Caribbean, Afro-Brazilian and American music and dance communities of Northern California. He performs on shaker instruments of his own craftsmanship and custom designed commissions.