International Symposium Curating, Producing and Communicating the Performing Arts—Current ‘Systems’ and ‘Structures’ and Future Possibilities

Tadashi Uchino, PhD, was born in Kyoto in 1957. He received his master’s degree from the Graduate School of Humanity and Sociology, the University of Tokyo. A specialist in culture and representation studies, he currently teaches at Gakushuin Women’s College. His publications include The Melodramatic Revenge (1996), From Melodrama to Performance (2001), and The Location of “J” Theatre (2016).

June Tan, based in Kuala Lumpur is a member of the arts collective Five Arts Centre. June studied Biology at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, and after graduating she’s been actively involved in the performing arts, producing experimental work dealing with the personal and the political. At the same time, she worked in the corporate world, building an understanding of different systems from corporate finance, software management and toxic waste recycling. Since 1997, June has stage-managed, tour-managed, and produced numerous local and international co-productions. She’s interested in understanding frameworks and models that support art making while programming for KOTAK, an independent arts space in KL. From 2018-2020 June was TPAM Director for TPAM in Yokohama, a platform reflecting contemporary thinking in Asia and the world. June is keen to encourage networks between Southeast Asian practitioners, and is involved in ReformARTsi, a community coalition advocating for policy change.

Born in Tokyo in 1985. Playwright, director, artistic director of theatre company Bird Park. After a childhood in Malaysia she researched Shuji Terayama at University of Tokyo (B.A.), and Shogo Ota at Tokyo University of the Arts (M.A.), and founded Bird Park in 2007. In her works, she’s trying to cast a soft light on the marginalized existence excluded from the “correct” society with dry humour. Her recent work includes a co-research project about “Karayuki-san” with a Malaysian dancer and choreographer Lee RenXin. Nishio was nominated for the 58th KISHIDA Kunio Drama Award with KANRO (Sweet drops from heaven) for the 62nd with Hey God, Job’s calling you and for the 64th with To End, One, and One.

Reza Afisina [born 1977], Indonesia, as an individual artist and collectively together with ruangrupa, has been involved in various national and international exhibitions and workshops; with ruangrupa as an artists’ collective platform, they also have participated in Gwangju Biennale 2002 and 2018 South Korea, Istanbul Biennale 2005, Singapore Biennale 2011, Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane - Australia 2012, Sao Paulo Biennale 2014, Cosmopolis #1 Centre Pompidou in Paris – France 2017, and including co-curating TRANSaction: Sonsbeek International 2016 in Arnhem, the Netherlands as well as the artistic director from collective ruangrupa for Documenta 2022 in Kassel - Germany.

Born in 1968, Naoto Moriyama is a theater critic. He teaches at the Department of Performing Arts at Kyoto University of the Arts (formerly Kyoto University of Art and Design) and also serves as the chief researcher at the Kyoto Performing Arts Center and on the editorial board of its journal, Performing Arts. He has also previously taught at Doshisha University and Ritsumeikan University. In Japanese, he is the author of many books and articles about theater. His English-language publications include Alternatives: Debating Theatre Culture in the Age of Con-Fusion (2004, co-editor).

David Cabecinha (b. 1987) is the co-artistic director of Alkantara, a performing arts organisation and festival based in Lisbon, Portugal. He is a graduate of the Lisbon Film and Theatre School, where he studied acting. He has worked regularly in the performing arts field since 2008, with Portuguese theatre companies such as Mala Voadora, and artists such as Dinis Machado. He has also worked regularly in film with the director Jorge Jácome, as co-script writer, actor, producer and director’s assistant. Between 2016 and 2017, he directed the Lisbon festival Temps d’Images. He joined the Alkantara Festival team in 2018.

JK Anicoche is a performance-maker working at the intersection of art, culture and development. He is the artistic director of contemporary cultural laboratory Sipat Lawin Inc. and founding member of anti-disciplinary collective Komunidad X. His art practice ranges from developing performances in blackbox to devising works with/in communities in disaster areas in Ph and abroad. This 2021, he is the Festival Director of Cultural Center of the Philippines Virgin Labfest, head curator of eKomunidad Asia Performance Assembly and one of the facilitators of Tokyo Festival Farm’s Asian Performing Arts Camp.

Art Translator. Director of Art Translators Collective. Specializing in contemporary art and performing arts, Kanoko conducts translation, interpreting, editing, and PR. Seeing herself as a mediator between people, cultures and languages, she aims to expand the possibilities of translation and propose the creative way to hold a dialogue in a given occasion. Kanoko has been teaching English and communication for young artists at Global Art Practice MFA program, Tokyo University of the Arts. She also works as Director of Communication Design for Sapporo International Art Festival 2020 to mediate between the festival and the audience. She graduated with a BS from the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture at Tufts University in 2008, and received a BA from the Department of Intermedia Art at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2013. She is a member of Arts Commons Tokyo.

Anna Wagner is dramaturg and artistic co-director at the theatre Kuenstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt/Main (Germany). After studying theater studies Anna worked as assistant curator for dance at the theater Hebbel am Ufer/HAU in Berlin and was head of the dance department at Theater Freiburg. At Kuenstlerhaus Mousonturm, she works regularly as production dramaturge with artists such as Eisa Jocson, Paula Rosolen and Jetse Batelaan. She is also co-founder of “Tanzfestival Rhein-Main” and has curated or co-curated various international programs like “Indonesia LAB” (2015) and “This Is Not Lebanon” (2021). Interested in expanding the notion of performing arts, she has initiated various special projects like Oper Offenbach (2018) and The Greatest Show on Earth – A Performance-Circus for the 21st Century (2016).

Surjit Nongmeikapam aka (Bonbon) is an Imphal, Manipur-based choreographer and performing artist. He started his dance career when he was 24 years old. He was trained in traditional Indian forms/movements before developing an interest in interdisciplinary arts and experimental works. He did his B.A. Choreography from Natya Institute of Kathak and Choreography. He is one of the few dancers and choreographers in Manipur to engage with contemporary dance forms and seek to promote their development beyond the traditional Manipur culture. He is also an award-winning (PECDA) choreographer for his pieces Nerves (2014) and Folktale (2016). He is an artistic director of Nachom Arts Foundation, Manipur.

Fumi Yokobori lives in Shin-Nagata, Kobe, Japan and works at the Art Theater dB Kobe. She is interested in expanding the possibilities of theaters located in downtown areas, and aims to develop unique international programs in Shin-Nagata, an area where multiple cultures from various regions co-exist. She is now in the middle of gradual preparation for the start of a new platform “Lang Toi”, an intersection of cultural exchange between Japan and Vietnam, based in her own house. She is also the mastermind and a member of Shin-Nagata Art Mafia.