SIMULACRUM

Simulacrum weaves together the true histories of two extraordinary dancers – to create a semi-fictionalized narrative that runs through what is essentially a dream play.

As part of Simulacrum, Winter guests are proud to premier a specially commissioned piece by Fujima Kanjuro; the head of the Soke Fujima school of traditional Japanese dance. Kanjuro is from a long line of highly acclaimed artists; his grandfather, Fujima Kanjuro IV, was designated as a Living National Treasure.

Seventy-six-year-old Shōji Kojima was given away to his uncle as a baby. His mother had no choice in the matter. The years of coming to terms with this fact have been shaped by the fierce determinism of Flamenco, which drew him to Spain in 1966.

Daniel Proietto was born to disadvantaged circumstances in Buenos Aires. His struggle to find a form that adequately expressed his own experience, includes the rigorous demands of ballet, contemporary, and Kabuki dance. He now continues to study the Onnagata roles with the Fujima family in Tokyo; a very rare privilege indeed, for one born outside of Japan.

Simulacrum is a visceral, multi-disciplinary performance incorporating the familial formality of Kabuki; the prideful energy of Flamenco, and the instinctive physical language of Contemporary dance.

An encounter of intercultural complexity and frustrated desire, a passionate stab in the dark at the reasons for making art.

World premiere : October 13, 2016 at The Norwegian Opera and Ballet, Oslo.

Cover hotos by Erik Berg