Help get Damara to Japan and Brisbane

I have had the great privilege of being cast in Lynne Bradley's PhD performance project.

Lynne Bradley is the founding director of Brisbane's Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre, one of Australia's leading physical theatre companies.

The performance, entitled "In the Company of Shadows" will take place at the Brisbane Powerhouse in February, 2016, and will have a cast of international dancers, musicians and a performance poet.

The work, which will be developed over an 8 month period, will interrogate the concept of the "Shadow" across cultures, both aesthetically and philosophically.

The development period begins with the director and cast, including myself, meeting in the Japanese alps, to study intensively with Akaji Maro and his company, Dairakudakan.

Akaji Maro has been at the forefront of Butoh dance theatre since the 1970's, and is still going strong as a master in his field in his 70's. The whole student body will present a performance to the Japanese public, on the 8th of August, entitled "The Golden Show."

In Lynne's words:

"The intensive training with Dairakudakan will provide an opportunity

for [the cast] to have the lived, corporeal experience of Butoh in Japan, as well as

allow them to observe how the core ideas of Miburi/Teburi, Ma and the Shadow

are explained and utilised in the source culture."

The next phase of the project, for me, will involve collaborating with Lynne over the internet, whilst choreographing a solo piece for the "In the Company of Shadows" production. My piece will be dance and aerial silks based, with a strong Butoh influence, as well as my own experience and interpretation of the concept of the "Shadow."

The production "In the Company of Shadows," will run a one-week season at The Brisbane Powerhouse in February, 2016.

Funds raised from Give a Little will go towards Butoh course fees, accommodation, transport and airfare.