This program aims to foster emerging and established Bay Area artists in creating new works to premiere at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center.

Past artists-in-residence include Gamelan Sekar Jaya, Philip Huang, Nitya Venkateswaran, Asian Pacific Islander Youth Promoting Advocacy and Leadership (AYPAL), Karmacy, Word & Violin, the Shaolin Buddhist Temple & Education Foundation, Vidya, Kyoungil Ong and Rina Mehta.

JUDITH KAJIWARA, JAPANESE BUTOH DANCE ARTIST

As a life-long dancer, Judith Kajiwara has always strived to bring personal meaning to her dances.  Her experience as a third generation Japanese woman born in California, has informed the themes for many of her choreographed works.  After years as a mother and improvisational dance teacher, in 1995, she was able to fully commit to her passion for Butoh.  Her first full-length Butoh solo performance, The Ballad of Machiko (1995), premiered in San Francisco at the NOHSpace in 1995.  Her most recent full-length performance, The Last Omiyage (2006), was performed in San Francisco at Shotwell Studios in October 2011.  Judith considers herself a self-taught dancer and teacher of Butoh.  She stretches her imagination to find innovative paths to bring the deepest and best out of her students and her audiences.  Butoh is an integral part of Ms. Kajiwara's spiritual life; for by transforming consciousness, Butoh raises awareness of the shadows within.  Ms. Kajiwara is also a certified practitioner of hypnotherapy, Reiki, crystal, and spiritual healing.  She works and resides in Oakland, California.  
 
About Butoh
Because of its eerie visual impact, the artistry of Japanese Butoh has a very powerful effect upon both performer and audience.  Performed with extremely slow, improvised movement, it elevates consciousness, gently opening up untapped dimensions of clarity, creativity and insight.  As time, space, and reality are altered, boundaries dissipate and a connectedness with self and others is experienced.  By seeing from a higher perspective the potential for healing is created.
Butoh first appeared in Tokyo in 1959 and was labeled “Ankoku Butoh,” the “dance of darkness.”  Tatsumi Hijikata (1928-1986), considered the “Father of Butoh,” chose this name because of the form’s bizarre, ugly gestures, mixed with its labored, slow-motion pacing, reflective of  the aftermath of post-war Japan following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Hijikata, along with other disgruntled, young Japanese artists, began exploring new modalities of expression.  Butoh rebelled against what he saw as both the refined, elitist demeanor of Japanese dance, and the empty, superficial beauty of Western ballet and modern dance.  Believing that the Japanese body and spirit differed from western sensibilities, Hijikata sought to reverse this aesthetic.
Before performing Butoh, the entire body is often splotched in white makeup.  This symbolizes the rebirth of the physical body back to Spirit.  Confined, yet free; raw, yet beautiful; unworldly, yet honest, Butoh yearns to embrace the many life lessons presented to us as we transcend into our Higher Consciousness.