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KEIKO Fujii wanted to please her mother, a Japanese dance instructor, but she couldn't hold the poses demanded. ‘Shinwa’ dance has a
Halloween feel
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"I couldn't sit that way in a kimono for one hour. I was always fidgeting and always got scolded, so I got fired," Fujii said.
She was 4 years old and sent off to learn modern dance instead. "It was freedom! I could move," said the dancer, raising her arms in victory.
ON STAGE
What: "Shinwa (Myth)," presented by the Keiko Fujii Dance Company, with music by tsugaru jamisen player Hiroshi Kubo and taiko drummer Kenny Endo
Fujii is now head of a dance company from Japan that bears her name, and she and her troupe will perform tomorrow at Hawaii Theatre.
Although she is best known here for her modern repertoire, she has been introducing elements of traditional Japanese dance and theater into her work, saying, "Now I appreciate Japanese dance."
She will be presenting "Shinwa (Myth)," a piece that draws inspiration from stark Noh drama, although to younger viewers, its Halloween theme could just as easily have been inspired by the movie "The Night of the Living Dead."
The dance is performed in two parts. In part one, a young woman is abused and killed beneath a cherry tree by two boys.
Many years pass and part two finds the boys traveling to Kyoto. They get lost but are befriended by a woman dressed in fine kimono. She offers them a place to stay at night but leaves her home, warning them not to look in the back yard.
Of course, they peek and ...
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