PROJECTS
Katsura's practice is drawn from Somatic approach, which focuses on the sensory body and its own intelligence. She has an enthusiasm for performance in non-theatre settings. Improvisation is Katsura’s way to investigate the world and her works involve collaboration with other artists from another disciplines.
KATSURA ISOBE
磯部 桂
PROJECTS HISTORY
ANATOMY PIECE Research & Development for new work to be premiered in 2011 at Sadler’s Wells. Feb-March 2010
GLOW Site-specific performance for Lightbox galleries, Woking. April 2007
SEA, UNSEE Work-in-progress performance at Digital Cultures Lab, Nottingham. December 2005
Research & development towards interactive performance with technology, Copenhagen. November 2005
TOPOS Re-sited; White Christmas at The Place. December 2005
Site-sensitive performance with community, Woking. September 2005
STEPHANIE SCHOBER & DANCE COMPANY
CATCH Duet with the choreographer
National tour 2007-08: Alsager Arts Centre, Greenroom, South Bank Centre, Derby Dance, Laban. July 08- October 2007
National tour 2005-06: South Bank Centre, Alsager Arts Centre, Lawrence Batley Theatre, LABAN, Colchester Arts Centre, Bowen West Theatre, Prema, British Dance Edition 2006, Nottedance06. May 2006 - November 2005
CHANGE
Quartet International tour 2004-06. March 2006- May 2004
INSIDE US
Quartet National tour 2003-06. March 2006- March 2003
MADE ELSEWHERE (Bonnie Bird New Choreography Award 2002)
Duet with the choreographer. International tour 2002. October-January 2002
RECOLLECTED
Trio International tour 2001-02. April 2002- January 2001
OTHER INDEPENDENT PROJECTS
[IMPROVISATION]
TODAY
An evolution of Raincoat with a focus on music, dance and voice improvisation, developed under Weave research residency facilitated by Thomas Kampe at London Metroplitan Univeristy in May 2009. Still work-in-progress.
RAINCOAT
Music and dance improvisation, with a cellist Ute Kanngiesser, at London Metropolitan University. November 2008.
L’INSTANT DECISIF
Solo improvisation with interactive technology, devised by Paul Verity Smith (Miranda Arts), Beijing & Shanghai, China. March 2006
DYING ON MY FEET
Solo improvisation with interactive technology, with Miranda Arts, at Digital Cultures Lab, Nottingham. December 2005
BODY/SOMA/SELF
Feldenkrais® and dance, with Thomas Kampe. Artist projects at Chisenhale Dance Space. March 2005
IN-BETWEEN SPACES
Site-specific improvisational performance in LABAN building, devised by Anja Beyer. September 2003
DEAD EAST, DEAD WEST
Structured improvisational performance with technologies at ICA, directed by Susan Broadhurst. August 2003
[COLLABORATION WITH OTHER ART FORMS]
FRAGMENTS
Installation performance, collaborated with Printmakers Jairo Zaldua and Nicoela Green at Bankside Gallery, Space Studios and Clarence Mews. Current-January 2008
UKIYO
Installation performance with interactive technologies, created in a research collaboration between DAP-Lab and Keio University / Inetdance Japan. Currently under creation.
SUNA NO ONNA
Installation performance with interactive technologies, directed by Johannes Birringer and Michele Danjoux (Dans Sans Joux), at LABAN, and then Waterman. March 2008-December 2007
YELLOW WALL-PAPER
Installation performance, devised by Caroline Collinge(Cabinet of Curiosity), at Crypt St Pancras Church. March-April 2006
AEQUILIBRIUM
Dance photography with photographer, Fulvio Rubesa.
The first exhibited at The Place, then international &national. January -February 2005
SIX SECOND DANCES
Movement-based film directed by Paul Verity Smith. May 2004
OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES IN TOKYO, JAPAN 1994- 1999
[CHOREOGRAPHIES]
SIXTYY-FIVE FEET DOWN
Solo. Creative Space Residency at Clarence Mews. July 2007
AND BREATHE…
Duet. The Third International Serge Diaghilev Competition of Choreography Art, Poland October 2004
Resolution! at The Place, Robin Howard Dance Theatre. January 2004
SCENE#1
Solo with installation, MA Degree Show, Laban. September 2002
THERE AND THEN
Quartet, Solstice Festival at Bonnie Bird Theatre. June 2002
HOUSE
Solo. February 2000
CONVECTION- CHALLENGING
Solo. March 1999
GIRL LU LU LU…
Solo. March 1998
SHINIG DARKNESS
Solo. March 1997
Contact
STEPHANIE SCHOBER & DANCE COMPANY
CATCH (2005- current)
Choreography by Stephanie Schober
Two dancers create self-portraits using only movement to split, change and replicate their images. Exploring complex symmetries and intricate rhythmic patterns, this duet is crafted to the detail to emphasise the two complementing personalities. The intention is to draw the viewer into their subtle and quiet relationship within the multifaceted environment of movement, sound and lighting.
"A piece of pure physical poetry" The Stage
FRAGMENTS (2008- current) >>>Watch the video
A collaborative work between Katsura Isobe, a dance artist, and Jairo Zaldua and Nicola Green, experimental printmakers. Originating from two short stories: 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and 'The Diary of a Madman' by Nikolai Gogol, Jairo and Nicola have created a series of prints that are variations and developments from a single picture of a girl. These are viewed as slide projections during the performance and also as a print out on a large transparent sheet. The artists have also played with the actual text from the stories, which have been taken apart and now deviate away from their original meanings. This is visible on the prints on the cylinder-shaped paper curtain as well as the paper strips worn by the performer. Katsura, the performer, is an inhabitant of the psycho-physical world created by Jairo and Nicola. The performance is about the journey towards an untouchable place, where the viewer sees only fragmentary things. >>>More information
SUNA NO ONNA (2006-2008)
Installation performance with interactive technologies, directed by Johannes Birringer and Michele Danjoux. It is inspired by a famous Japanese film Suna no Onna (Woman in the Dunes) by Hiroshi Tesigawara.
The woman (Katsura Isobe) inhabits in the virtual dunes environment. In this extraordinary surroundings, the dunes creep into the woman's house, into her garments, and into her mind. Or perhaps the other way around- the woman manipulates the dunes, in order to capture the foreign man as her partner of her life.
The installation includes interactive video and animation, fashion design, electric music, and specially designed sensorial and interfacial garments, which respond to movement qualities, energies and emotional gesture.
RADIANCE: TOPOS (2005), GLOW (2007)
Choreography by Carol Brown
Radiance consists of two events, Topos and Glow, both of which are made as a celebration of an establishment of Woking’s new gallery, the Lightbox.
Topos was performed by three professional dancers with local primary school children on a bare land between a busy road and a canal, where the gallery were going to be built. Glow was a much larger scale multi-media event fusing light, movement, video, music and vocals. in the nearly completed building of the gallery. Dance, music and costumes were created in collaboration between professional and the local community members. This site specific work offered audiences a unique experience of the performance and the architecture as they journeyed through the building.
YELLOW WALL-PAPER (2005-2006)
The starting point of the work is the fin de siécle novel, The Yellow Wall-paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Under the direction of scenographer Caroline Collinge, the exploration started from the relationship between body movement and costume. Eventually the work evolved into a site-specific installation performance at the Crypt, St Pancras Church. Improvisation performance by two dancers and a cellist
relates to varied artworks: architecture, costumes, printmaking and soundscapes.
L’INSTANT DECISIF (2005-2006)
Interactive technology performance directed by Paul Verity Smith. Katsura’s live performance manipulates the projected film through movement sensors attached on her body. The film shows Katsura’s improvised movement that was inspired by each location in an abandoned coal mine. The relationship between the live performer and the one in the film reveals some kind of narrative, which is different every time, as Katsura’s performance is improvised.
FLUVIO RUBESA
AEQUILIBRIUM (2004-2005)
Photography project by Fluvio Rubesa, exploring aequilibrium- balance with the dancing body, photography technique and printing method.
Photo: Gigi GIannella
Photo: Stephanie Schober & Dance Co
Photo: Dap Lab/ Dans Sans Joux
Photo: Fulvio Rubesa
RAINCOAT (2008)
Photo: Gigi Giannella
TODAY (2009)
Both are Music and dance improvisation, with a cellist Ute Kanngiesser. The focus is on sound more than the visual with rattling plastic rain coat for Raincoat, and our voices for Today.
Photo: Gigi Giannella
Photo: Gigi Giannella
© Katsura Isobe 2009-2010