March 8 (Saturday 8 pm) & March 9 (Sunday at 7 pm)

"intimate stage" March 2003
Haruko Nishimura, Joan Laage, Brent Arnold, David Thornbrugh

Haruko Nishimura attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. She has studied classical Japanese dance with master Fujima Fujimine (disciple of the late Fujima Fujiko, National Treasure of Japan), and Butoh dance choreographers Yumiko Yoshioka and Shinichi Momo Koga. Her recent movement theater work NYMPH was presented in the New Performance Series at On the Boards, following its premiere at Orph theater in Berlin Germany,and a work-in-progress performance at the Seattle Art Museum. For the past nine years, Haruko has been the performer/choreographer for the interdisciplinary works of the Degenerate Art Ensemble (formerly The Young Composers Collective) of Seattle. She is also the lead vocalist for the DAE band. She is also a member of San Francisco based INKBOAT, a company that utilizes the intensive training of Tadashi Suzuki's theater method, Butoh, Action theater, and experimental music. With these two groups, she has toured the US, Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Slovakia, Netherlands and France. She has been the recipient of many grants for her works including Seattle, King County and Washington State Arts Commissions. Her work Scream!LionDogs, commissioned by On The Boards in 1999, which was based on the killing of an asian-american teenager by neo-nazi skinheads, received much critical acclaim. Her dance work has been presented in the San Francisco and Seattle Butoh Festivals, San Francisco at the Theater of Yugen and theOberlin Dance Company Theater, Seattle Experimental Opera, Orph Theater Berlin, and at On The Board's Northwest New Works Festivals 1996, 1997 and 1998 and 2000. Her work Rinko will appeared in the Seattle Butoh Festival 2000. She performed as a dancer in Berlin, Germany with Bay Area choreographer Shinichi Koga in the summer of 1999 and 2001, and at the Kana Theater in Poland with the infamous Dutch director Arthur Kuggeleyn of R.A.M.M. Theater. Under her strong influence, Degenerate Art Ensemble has presented more than twenty works of dance with live music. She also loves to constantly escape the formal settings of the theater, and bring her work to nightclubs, streets and other unusual environments.Haruko Nishimura attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. She has studied classical Japanese dance with master Fujima Fujimine (disciple of the late Fujima Fujiko, National Treasure of Japan), and Butoh dance choreographers Yumiko Yoshioka and Shinichi Momo Koga. Her recent movement theater work NYMPH was presented in the New Performance Series at On the Boards, following its premiere at Orph theater in Berlin Germany,and a work-in-progress performance at the Seattle Art Museum. For the past nine years, Haruko has been the performer/choreographer for the interdisciplinary works of the Degenerate Art Ensemble (formerly The Young Composers Collective) of Seattle. She is also the lead vocalist for the DAE band. She is also a member of San Francisco based INKBOAT, a company that utilizes the intensive training of Tadashi Suzuki's theater method, Butoh, Action theater, and experimental music. With these two groups, she has toured the US, Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Slovakia, Netherlands and France. She has been the recipient of many grants for her works including Seattle, King County and Washington State Arts Commissions. Her work Scream!LionDogs, commissioned by On The Boards in 1999, which was based on the killing of an asian-american teenager by neo-nazi skinheads, received much critical acclaim. Her dance work has been presented in the San Francisco and Seattle Butoh Festivals, San Francisco at the Theater of Yugen and theOberlin Dance Company Theater, Seattle Experimental Opera, Orph Theater Berlin, and at On The Board's Northwest New Works Festivals 1996, 1997 and 1998 and 2000. Her work Rinko will appeared in the Seattle Butoh Festival 2000. She performed as a dancer in Berlin, Germany with Bay Area choreographer Shinichi Koga in the summer of 1999 and 2001, and at the Kana Theater in Poland with the infamous Dutch director Arthur Kuggeleyn of R.A.M.M. Theater. Under her strong influence, Degenerate Art Ensemble has presented more than twenty works of dance with live music. She also loves to constantly escape the formal settings of the theater, and bring her work to nightclubs, streets and other unusual environments.

Joan Laage, Brent Arnold, David Thornbrugh
The Road to Nowhere…