Purple Moon Holds One-Night Show to Benefit Kokoro

By Samantha Kiyomi Witt
Special to AsianWeek

Kokoro – Expressions of Butoh and Cultural Blends, a collaborative production by butoh soloist Judith Kajiwara and the Purple Moon Dance Project, will take place on Monday, Nov. 11 at the SomArts Gallery Theater in San Francisco. The single evening production will benefit the Kokoro Assisted Living project, a senior care facility currently under construction in San Francisco’s Japantown.

Jill Togawa founded Purple Moon Dance Project in 1992 in order to “develop a greater appreciation and visibility for lesbians and women of color through the medium of dance.” The group combines “non-Western and Western traditions and aesthetics to consistently explore the continuum of intimacy between women.”

Touring nationally and internationally, Purple Moon teaches workshops for women and girls who have not experienced formal dance training as well as community organizations focused on issues facing lesbians and women of color. Through their workshops and activities, Purple Moon seeks to contribute to social change, well-being, peace and healing in our society. Purple Moon believes that “Dance improves self-awareness, promotes comfort with one’s body and increases strength and flexibility.”

Kokoro, meaning “heart”, will showcase an evening of new works — cultural blends of butoh, hula and belly dance — by Jill Togawa, the Purple Moon Dance Project and Kajiwara. Water’s Edge, choreographed and directed by Kajiwara, is the featured butoh ensemble work, about “a journey of five women, each bringing her own silent story to the piece.”

Togawa, a Japanese American born and raised in Honolulu, has over 20 years experience as a dancer and choreographer under her belt. With formal training in dance styles like ballet, modern dance, hula, Middle Eastern dance, butoh and Indonesian and Japanese folk dance, she founded the Purple Moon Dance Project in part to “develop a greater appreciation of American cultural diversity.”

The artistic diversity of the Purple Moon Dance project is housed in its three key members: Alena Cawthorne, Arisika Razak and Frances Gay Teves Sedayao.

Cawthorne is a dancer/ choreographer from Portland, Ore., with her main areas of study in ballet and modern dance, as well as styles from Japan, West Africa and Bali.

Razak, who has performed nationally and internationally as a solo dancer, choreographer, guest lecturer and workshop leader, describes her performance art as “dedicated to reclaiming the power and sacredness of the female body.” Razak’s expression is “equally grounded in the cross cultural tradition of spiritual dance. The paradigm of empowerment and transcendence arises in her work out of the birthing process, and her 25-year study of African, Asian, Native American and neo-pagan religious systems.”

Sedayao, a native of the Philippines, began her dance and martial arts training in 1996. She has been featured in performances throughout the Bay Area with groups such as Aisha Aku Dance Co., Liquid Fire, Nuba Dance Theatre, Danny Nguyen and the Kendra Kimbrough Dance Ensembles.

Kajiwara encourages “all communities to support Kokoro and to celebrate innovative dance works created by women of color.”

Kokoro – Expressions of Butoh and Cultural Blends will be performed one night only on Monday, Nov. 11, 7 p.m. at SomArts Gallery Theater, 934 Brannan St., San Francisco. $15-25 sliding scale. For more information, call 415-552-1105.