Shingo Ōta, Kyoko Takenaka
Les dernières geishas
novembernov 15 – 19
© Bozzo ©
© Bozzo ©
© Igaki Photo Studio ©
Friday november 15
20h
Saturday november 16
15h
Monday november 18
20h
Tuesday november 19
20h
Direction and performance Shingo Ōta, Kyoko Takenaka. Text and video Shingo Ōta. Music Kazuhisa Uchihashi. Dance and geisha gesture training Hidemi (last geisha in Kinosaki). Lighting and stage management Kei Furukata. Sound/video/surtitling Kumiko Ueda. Video assistance Emeric Adrian. Make-up Shingo Ōta, Kyoko Takenaka. Kitsuké (kimono dressing) Reiko Yoshikawa, Hidemi. Outside view Aya Soejima, Kumiko Ueda. Sound design/subtitling Shingo Ōta. Translation Miyako Slocombe, with the participation of Aya Soejima. Production assistance Keiko Sekishita. Production Shingo Ōta, Kyoko Takenaka.
Production Hydroblast (Shingo Ōta, Kyoko Takenaka).
Coproduction Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris ; DUDES.inc
Photo loan for the exhibition Hidemi, Togura Kamiyamada - Onsen Museum
Acknowledgements Kinosaki International Art Center, Mame, Takeshi Inarimori, Daijiro Kawakami, Terunobu Osaki, Marie Moriyama, Ryo Yoshida, Kana Watanabe, Moemi Nagi, Japan Arts Fund, Regional Culture Award Tax Accountant's Fund, Stéphane Noël, Shinshū Chikuma Tourist Office and Kinosaki Onsen Tourist Office
With the support of the Ménagerie de verre as part of the StudioLab programme, the CN D Centre national de la danse, residency, the T2G - Centre dramatique national de Gennevilliers, the HAISEN Open Art Laboratory, the Saison Foundation, J-LOX+ and the Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture).
The Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris and the Festival d’Automne à Paris present this show in co-realisation.
Cycle Films de Geishas
From 18 September to 9 October 2024, full programme available here.
Conversation with Hidemi, former geisha of Kinosaki
On Saturday 16 November at 5.30pm, Hidemi, now 76 and the last geisha of Kinosaki, will talk about her career and her desire to pass on this tradition, to accompany the show Les dernières geishas, in which she trained the two performers.
Discussion with Shingo Ota and Kyoko Takenaka
Monday 18 November, after the performance.
With the support of
The profession of the geisha, an emblematic figure of a fantasized vision of Japan, is often a little-known one, and which is also in the process of disappearing. Going beyond the stereotypical vision we have of them, what is the reality of their practice? In this documentary performance, Shingo Ōta and Kyoko Takenaka set out in search of the last geishas of the Japanese archipelago.
How can we define who or what geishas really are? Are they mere tourist attractions or performers of centuries-old art forms? Using this question as their starting point, documentary filmmaker Shingo Ōta and actress Kyoko Takenaka went out in search of these women who continue to keep alive a culture that dates back to the 17th century. The duo attended classes, rehearsed the different dances, and even went as far as to put on the kimono themselves and perform at traditional banquets. Accompanied on the stage by guitarist Kazuhisa Uchihashi, they reproduce and question what they learned. Interweaving movement, text and video, they confront these traditions with their contemporary representations. Between faithful reconstruction and onstage propositions of a contemporary kind, Les dernières geishas is a hybrid work at the frontier between performance and documentary. It explores the question of artistic transmission and the survival of traditional practices.
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