Yui Workshops

Review by Pawit Mahasarinand

 

 

The Japan Foundation again shines brightest among foreign agencies that foster local creativity.

If our Culture Ministry followed the example of those in many other countries and awarded annual recognition to supportive organizations, the Japan Foundation Bangkok would top the list for 2009.

With all the cultural activities, considerably boosted by the Mekong Japan Exchange year, they prove that a foreign cultural institution’s mission is more than teaching a foreign language and showcasing traditional arts. After all, learning a foreign language for Thais should always include learning about that culture, and for those who learn a foreign culture, they’re learning a language as well.

With Chiang Mai, Ubon Ratchathani and Chulalongkorn Universities, the foundation co-sponsored the recent Yui workshops on costume design, dance and theatre.

 

 

These featured Japanese leaders in the fields—Shingo Tokihiro (center), Hana Saegusa (left) and Ryoko Takami (right), respectively.

 

 

The workshop in Bangkok at the Siam Society auditorium drew more than 60 designers, lecturers and students. They spent a day and a half interpreting three short plays on the theme of Yui (which means "tying"), in costume design, play reading and contemporary dance, and then combined all the elements for a 50-minute public performance.

 

 

It was simple but insightful, underscoring theatre as the composite art it's always been.

 

 

Yet in this country, unfortunately, dancers and actors usually train and perform separately.

 

 

Yui also shows that traditions can be adapted to make sense to the contemporary audiences and artists, when the adaptor understands them thoroughly.

 

 

"We learned how to cut a single piece of cloth into a pattern without breaking it," said workshop participant Wasurachata Unaprom, designer and director of Silent Scream: Journey to the Dream of Murderer.

 

 

"Then we painted it, the way you decorate a sarong, with designs inspired by the three short plays. They were very functional and stylish."

 

 

“I can make use of this in my future productions, especially for the Oriental stories. This experience reiterates that oriental clothing forms are square, sometimes one whole piece of fabric— simpler and yet can be more powerful than Western counterparts.”

Skowrin Pranchaleethirawat, a theatre lecturer at Mahasarakham University, was just as impressed by the lesson.

 

 

"It was eye-opening to see how one piece of fabric can take various forms and have many different functions onstage," she said.

 

 

"Tokihiro-sensei stressed that, while design is important, function is more important, so we should design things to have as many functions as possible. Sounds like the sufficiency economy, doesn't it?"

 

 

Donlaya Wannamahin, who's majoring in classical ballet at Chulalongkorn University added, “Apart from learning many subtle meanings of Yui, I understand contemporary dance better — how we can express those meanings with our physical movements by connecting with a dance partner using different parts of our body.”

 

 

“Our choreographer doesn’t command high skills, but concentrates more on interpretation, and that’s one thing I can make more use of in my career as a dancer."

 

 

"It’s like looking at a black and white photos or Japanese words written in black ink, perhaps. It’s simple but there’s much more underneath.”

 

 

In late November 2009, when contemporary dancer Setsuko Yamada visited Patravadi Theatre, the order was reversed: two performances followed by a half-day workshop.

 

 

Making its world premiere, Yamada's Wearing Rose Pink was inspired by Andrew Wyeth's painting Christina's World and Virginia Woolf's novel To the Lighthouse.

The solo dance showed how a senior dancer and choreographer who were trained and experimenting in many styles of dance could not only develop a movement language unique of its own but also take us, her audience, on a multi-layered journey where melancholy dominated but dullness never appeared, with the aid of nifty sound and lighting designs. Just like the way Yamada collected various dance traditions into her body, Wearing Rose Pink accumulated her experiences in life as it is leading towards the inevitable, death.

Special thanks to Japan Foundation’s Duangchai Meekungwan and Patravadi Theatre’s Toby To.