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Yuki Kawahisa is.
work in progress. Yuki Kawahisa, native of Japan, is an actor, theatre creator, performing artist. She moved to New York in 2005, and actively performing her own works and others ever since.
Kawahisa originally moved to Vancouver, Canada to study English and inspired by a drama teacher and playwright/director Maureen Robinson whom she had met at her ESL school, became an actor and playwright herself. Her original one woman-show The Kimono Loosened which was directed by Robinson received very positive reviews throughout Canada and in New York.
She joined the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre’s Abroad Program in 2003, and traveled to Bali, Indonesia to study mask, dance and Wayang Kulit (Balinese shadow puppet theatre). She has also studied Nihon-Buyo (Japanese classing dance), Butoh and Clowning. She combines these forms to create her own unique dance and theater.
She has participated in Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center Summer Program and performed in his dance piece KOOL Dancing in My Mind (Guggenheim Museum, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Akademie der Kunste, Berlin) and SKIN MEAT BONE (Watermill Center).
She has appeared in many of experimental, tour-de-force, downtown theatre pieces in New York. The New York Times hailed her as “simple and brutal as a knife to the throat” (Temporary Distortion’s Amerikana Kamikaze PS122, Creteil Maison des Arts, Paris, VIA Festival International, Maubeuge, Power House, Brisbane), “dynamite” (Andrew Ondrejcak’s FEAS, The Public Theatre), “beautiful central performance” (Toshiki Okada's Time's Journey Through a Room, Directed by Dan Rothenberg, A.R.T/New York Theatres) Other credits include Ondrejcak’s Elija Green (The KITCHEN), Aya Ogawa’s Ludic Proxy (Walkerspace), Kristina Haruna Lee’s Suicide Forest (The Bushwick Starr), Richard Foreman’s Bridge Project and more. She has also collaborated with international artist such as Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters of Taiwan (Plastic Holes), Chinese director Wang Chong (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 2.0, APAF Asian Performing Arts Festival at Festival Tokyo 2017). She has also worked with choreographers (John Jasperse, Carla Blank, Jonah Bokear), collaborated and performed with dance companies (BALAM Dance Theatre, SHUA Group, Dance Theater E,T,C), Multimedia artist Ursula Endlicher, performance artist Marita Isobel Solberg and many musicians. Artist statement
My motto as an actor is sincerity. No exaggeration, simple and clear, honest and sincere. It doesn't matter what character I play, as I am a medium delivering messages to the audience, I want my words to reach them as honest and sincere as possible.
My goal as a performer is to be a great clown, to be the Fool. I think everybody is his own King, Queen and Fool. I want to be a humble King and a generous Queen. I want to be a purest Fool. I want to be an artist who, with fool’s purity, innocence and trust, opens up to the audience to show what I really am. Simple yet complicated task that is, I want to be a mirror on the stage, be the reflection of the audience to let them see themselves in it and laugh and cry.
As an artist, I don't have a set goal. There is no one thing I stick with. My creative inspiration can be anything, something as simple as a line from a book, a dream I woke up from, snowflake that landed on my eyelashes, full bloomed lily in a vase on my bedside table, cooing pigeon on the AC outside of my bedroom window. It can be the moon of any shapes, the sky of any colors. It can be a doll in an antique store. It can be a paper bag. Little things interest me and move me and there, I create and recreate little things and I call them my art. For some people maybe they are worthless and that's okay too. I want to do art like I breathe. It doesn’t mean I want to do it so intensely like “without air (art), I die!”. I want it to be simple and easy, like breathing. I want my art to be so very simple.
I enjoy learning, trying new things. I enjoy meeting new people-likeminded creatives- and being exposed to new ways of thinking and doing stuff. I enjoy collaborating, expanding my artistic field by working with people. I learn things not so much by reading or talking about it but a lot by doing. Working with professionals, creating things with my hands, creating something special (especially theatre is my passion) together with people is always a pleasure. I feel this is the most natural way for me to “get it”. I am still learning. I am always trying. And I enjoy that a lot.
My work is deeply influenced and inspired by traditional Japanese Theatre such as Noh and Bunraku (self-taught). Also Butoh has been a great influence on my physical work. I see great beauty in stillness and silence. I dance still. I tell story in silence and I believe those are my uniqueness and strength. I hope to continue to develop and perform work that represents my Japanese origin, the rich culture and the old, beautiful traditions and to bring both traditional and modern stories internationally.
I believe that everything happens for a reason and I meet who I meet for the same reason. And I believe I am here, this monstrous city of New York for the reason to create something only I can create as me, a person, as a Japanese, as a stranger in America, as a woman, as a daughter, as a sister, as a friend to share stories with you.
I do art to prove myself who I am, for searching to understand what I am. I am still learning. I am still growing. My art is growing with me. My art is changing with me. Art for me is something like that. Yuki Kawahisa as Yuki Kawahisa in Andrew Ondrejcak’s ELIJAH GREEN
Photo by Georgia Nerheim, Hair and Makeup Design by Marco Campos Costumes by Andrew Ondrejcak in collaboration with Alba Clemente and the Ethical Fashion Initiative ELIJAH GREEN was awarded a MAP Fund Grant and a New England Foundation for the Arts' National Theater Project Grant in 2016 Elijah Green by Andrew Ondrejack Final production movement by John Jasperse
ELIJAH GREEN premiered at The Kitchen, March 2016, and was developed during residencies at the Park Avenue Armory, The Kitchen, LMCC Artist Studios on Governors Island and at Baryshnikov Arts Center. Kawahisa was the sole performer, the main collaborator and the principle actor worked on this project from the very beginning to the end, for three years, participating in all the artist in residencies. Photos from Artist in residence at Baryshnikov Arts Center
Yuki Kawahisa as Yuki in Temporary Distortion’s Americana Kamikaze
Text, Direction, Set Design and Lighting Design by Kenneth Collins Video Design and Video Direction by William Cusick Composition and Sound Design by John Sully Costumes by TaraFawn Marek Co-creation by Kenneth Collins and William Cusick Performers: Brian Greer, Yuki Kawahisa, Lorraine Mattox and Ryosuke Yamada Performed at Performance Space 122 (NYC), Maison des Arts de Créteil (Paris, France), Le Manège (Maubeuge, France), Brisbane Powerhouse (Brisbane, Australia) Reviews: Yuki Kawahisa on Americana Kamikaze
“And then there’s the chilling glare of Yuki Kawahisa’s Yuki, a despairing woman at the edge of sanity who describes marriage as a “long-term mutual torture.” Her disintegration in person and on screen is as simple and brutal as a knife to the throat.” Jason Zinoman, New York Times
“SMOOTH OPERATOR Kawahisa places a scary call; Photographs: Jon Weiss “the chameleonic Yuki Kawahisa” Helen Shaw, Time Out New York
“Yuki Kawahisa is resplendent” Alexis Soloski, The Village Voice
“The actors Yuki Kawahisa and Ryosuke Yamada are excellent” Alexis Clements, The L Magazive Yuki Kawahisa as Concubine 4 in Andrew Ondrejcak’s FEAST
FEAST was presented at The Public Theater, New York, in the Under the Radar Festival, 2014, in association with ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann. FEAST was originally presented at Incubator Arts Project, New York, 2012.
Writing, Direction, and Design Andrew Ondrejcak Music to Belshazzar (1744) George Frideric Handel Libretto to Belshazzar Charles Jennens Costumes Adam Selman Sound Design Kristin Worrall "For You For You" music by DM Stith "For You For You" played by Anthony Romaniuk Music on Harpsichord by Daniel Gower Wig Design Enver Chakartash Make-up Design Naomi Raddatz Costume Assistant Baille Younkman Stage Manager Heather Englander Stage lighting concept in collaboration with Christina Watanabe Stage design concept in collaboration with Leong Leong Architecture Cast: Reg E Cathey, Peter Cullen,Jenn Dees, Cara Francis, Yuki Kawahisa, Jason Robert Winfield (In the original production: THE KING was played by Okwui Okpokwasili, Lighting Design by Scott Bolman, Technical Direction by Brendan Regimbal, Jewelry by Fenton/Fallon, Assistant Stage Design Amanda Shin) Reviews on Yuki Kawahisa on FEAST
“Ms. Kawahisa (especially dynamite in a strong cast) repeats, in what might be a summation of the feelings that “Feast” engenders: “The world is too much and simultaneously not enough.” Claudia La Rocco, New York Times
“These four—Jenn Dees, Cara Francis, Yuki Kawahisa and Jason Robert Winfield—do a superb, frequently hilarious job” Helen Shaw, Time Out New York
"Her Concubines - Jenn Dees, Cara Francis, Yuki Kawahisa, and Jason Robert Winfield - are sharp and flexible, excavating musicality and complexity of language with suprising, terrifying and hysterical results." Adam. R.Burnnet, NewYorkTheater.com
“An Asian concubine (Yuki Kawahisa) is a sad, bulimic figure who deals with woes about food and her body. Her monologues are heartfelt, and she breaks the quick pace of the show to question how bacteria stay in her body during a long meal.” Marcina Zaccaria, Theater Pizzazz Yuki Kawahisa in Robert Wilson’s KOOL: Dancing in My Mind
KOOL: Dancing in My Mind Direction, set design and lighting concept by Robert Wilson Videodesign by Richard Rutkowski Choreography by Suzushi Hanayagi, Carla Blank, Johan Bokaer, Illenk Gentille Costumes by Carlos Soto Lighting design by Scott Bolman Collaborator to the direction Sue Jane Stoker Dramaturgy by Carla Blank Music by David Byrne, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ishmael Reed
Performed by Johan Bokaer, CC Chang, Illenk Gentille, Sally Gross, Meg Harper, Yuki Kawahisa at Guggenheim Museum, Guild Hall (Long Island New York), Akademie der Kunste (Berlin, Germany), Jerry Robbins Theater at The Baryshnikov Center The Kimono Loosened by Yuki Kawahisa
“It’s simply a beautiful – if tragic – story, beautifully told” Jennifer Van Evra The Georgia Straight, Vancouver
“Yuki Kawahisa has accomplished something remarkable” Kyle Ancowitz NYTheatre.com, NYC “(Kawahisa) proved adept at capturing poignant or dramatic moments...” Adrian Chamberlain Times Colonist, Victoria
“...powerful drama” “…a truly unique and fearless bit of theatre” Steve Tilley The Edmonton Sun, Edmonton
“ tour-de-force performance” “intense, emotionally wrenching and deeply rewarding.” Heather Watson Terminal City Weekly, Vancouver “Love it or hate it” “undeniably intriguing”
Adam Houston SEE Magazine, Edmonton The Kimono Loosened (Solo/Drama) 65min Written and Performed by Yuki Kawahisa Direction and dramaturge: Maureen Robinson Lighting and sound design by Yuki Kawahisa and Maureen Robinson Other design by Yuki Kawahisa
The Kimono Loosened is the story of a family fragmented and torn apart by personal desires. At the centre of this compelling story exists a woman sold to a Geisha house at a young age by her father. On her journey back to freedom she is accompanied by a special doll, a doll made by a master’s hand, a doll possessing a spirit … a living doll. Sakura was a doll made by her father for her mother and then subsequently passed down to her. In Japan there are many traditional stories and mysteries that revolve around these dolls. Stories of hair that grows and tears that are shed, of strange movements at midnight and of curses brought to fruition.
Yuki Kawahisa specifically wrote The Kimono Loosened for the Vancouver Fringe Festival 2000. The show opened with three friends and a Fringe volunteer in the audience and closed with a sold out house. Since then it has gone on to perform at the UNO Festival of Solo performance in Victoria, The BC Festival of the Arts in Fort St. John and Fringe Festivals in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary.
The show received very positive reviews wherever it played and was remounted at the Vancouver Fringe in 2003 to sold-out audiences and glowing reviews. The Kimono Loosened has been performed at the New York Fringe Festival in 2005 and at the CRS in 2006.
Excerpts of reviews on The Kimono Loosened
“This is a beautiful piece. Using sparse costuming and lighting, a minimum of text, simple movement, breathy Japanese music, and perfectly placed silence.” “Yuki Kawahisa shifts seamlessly between the characters of the girl, her mother, her father and the old woman. Unfolding the narrative slowly, layer by layer, Kawahisa has such a powerful presence that she can change the entire mood of the piece by just slightly shifting the expression on her face. And because the writing is so pared down, each word has the impact of a freight train. It’s simply a beautiful – if tragic – story, beautifully told.” -Jennifer Van Evra The Georgia Straight, Vancouver
“There were many moments of delicate beauty. Kawahisa tells her story with haiku-like economy. Influenced by traditional Japanese theatre forms, she proved adept at capturing poignant or dramatic moments with a slight incline of her head or a fleeting facial expression.” -Adrian Chamberlain Times Colonist, Victoria
“…quite an accomplishment.” “It’s not for the faint-hearted: this is a tragic tale culminating in a twisted ending of bitterness, revenge and, finally, freedom.” “It’s clear that Kawahisa has poured her heart into this work. She has a strong presence and has been well directed” “The set is simple, but effective.” “Although the work could have become overwhelming in its sadness, Kawahisa offers brief interludes of dance movement and music that provide the audience with a moment to draw a collective breath and steel themselves for the next scene. This device, plus almost constant background music move this work into the realm of physical theatre.” -Andrea Rowe The Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa
“This is an affecting and beautiful told story” “It’s emotional material that could teeter into sentimentality but Kawahisa’s open, honest and simple performance makes it very moving.” -Robert Crew The Toronto Star, Toronto
“Writer and performer Yuki Kawahisa tackles five characters and Japanese society in this one woman play.” “Considering the multiple layers of meaning in The Kimono Loosened and the emotional depth of the material, the very existence of this performance is a miracle.” “…remarkable. Every last movement and mannerism is meticulously developed.” “The stage design is spare and beautiful” “…this is brave and challenging work.” -Todd Babiak Edmonton Journal, Edmonton
“…our Fringe fest tend to draw only a smattering of performances that actually approach from the other side of any sort of cultural barrier. Yuki Kawahisa’s The Kimono Loosened is on of those rarities. It’s a challenging piece, but worthwhile if you can accept it as a glimpse of unique type of theatre and respect its tightly focused one-woman performance.” “The Kimono Loosened is powerful drama” “…a truly unique and fearless bit of theatre” “As with any challenge, it has its own reward.” -Steve Tilley The Edmonton Sun, Edmonton
“Love it or hate it, The Kimono Loosened is undeniably intriguing. A unique set of props are used to great effect. Yuki Kawahisa has an intriguing stage presence, and the dark script, about the life of a Geisha girl, takes some interesting turns.” -Adam Houston SEE Magazine, Edmonton
“Seldom is so sordid a tale so elegantly executed. Measured, precise and accompanied by a traditional Noh score, The Kimono Loosened is a treatment of a familiar occurrence in Japan’s history” “a major accomplishment by Kawahisa.” -Jo Ledingham The Vancouver Courier
“From the moment you step inside the venue and handed a tiny origami crane, you enter the heart of writer and performer Yuki Kawahisa.” “Her solo tour-de-force performance is intense, emotionally wrenching and deeply rewarding. Tiny gestures carry the weight and pathos of an ancient and at times impermeable culture, and her simple yet diverse characterization (notably the geisha house obaa-chan and Sakura, the living doll) are exquisitely understated. It’s impossible to look away, despite the dark themes of sexual abuse and incest, and there were moist eyes all around me when the lights came up.” -Heather Watson Terminal City Weekly
“Yuki Kawahisa has accomplished something remarkable” “..her skillful performance in a foreign language is eclipsed only by the play itself, which is a subtle and unnerving puzzle that amounts to genuine poetry.”” Kawahisa doesn’t linger on the exoticism of the Geisha figure; there is remarkably little that’s sentimental or romantic in this piece. Through the scenes of Tsukiko’s unhappy childhood, which are interspersed with dreams, layers of narrative gently peel away to reveal a lurid gothic thriller that recalls Edgar Allen Poe.” “I was impressed with Kawahisa’s determination to create stillness and silence within her performance. Less confident performers lack the patience that she has to generate the atmosphere of mystery and menace that pervades the play, but she is saving the best for last. The intensity and detail of the characterizations deepen significantly as the play progresses. Kawahisa performs all the roles herself, dressed in sumptuous traditional Japanese garments and attended only by masked silhouettes that represent her mother and father. Grandmother, the Geisha house owner, memorably appears halfway through the piece to score some unexpected laughs. Late in the play, Kawahisa becomes mesmerizing as the vividly sensual older Tsukiyo. The sexuality in the play is unabashedly unhealthy and never divorced from the sense of subjugation that tattoos Tsukiyo’s life, but it still smuggles a lip-curling thrill. The real success is the play itself. The language is disarmingly simple and unmannered, but Kawahisa gingerly layers fiction, fable, and the mystique of a faraway place in another era into an entrancing creation sweetly poisoned with the taboo. If the final sequence of dreams and fantasies confuse the storytelling somewhat, it doesn’t diminish the final moment, when we sense that the enchained crimes of the mother, the daughter, the enchanted doll, the possessors and the possessed, the punished and the punishers have all blended together until their separate identities are lost and forgotten. The performance ends with a crisp final tableau in which the doll, the mother’s mask, and Tsukiko’s living face are briefly, but startlingly, indistinguishable.” -Kyle Ancowitz, NYTheatre.com “Not for the fainthearted, this tale of physical and psychological violence alternately lulls and shocks.” “Yuki Kawahisa's generous solo performance encompasses both beauty and perverse fascination.” “theatrical tension through alternating spoken and mime sections via the surprise factor. An eerie score of Japanese Noh music and elegantly subtle fabrics for the costumes add interest.” -David Lipfert CurtainUp.com
Other works
Often times, I feel a bit lost. Often times, I have this “I don’t belong here” feeling. Often times, I am in this “somewhere in between”.
I am a stranger here in New York. I am a stranger there in Japan. I am a stranger here and there. Wandering. Wandering.
This is a piece about my forever journey to somewhere, searching for something.
-Yuki Kawahisa wonder. I. wanderer. I am. somewhere. in between.
Clown/Butoh inspired movement theatre performance by Chobibi Written, directed and designed by Yuki Kawahisa Choreographed by Yuki Kawahisa and Melissa Lohman Assistant director Kiyou Kamisawa Presented by and performed at The Tank Ageha -Swallowtail butterfly-
Dance and text by Yuki Kawahisa (Inspired by Shuji Terayama’s La Marie-Vison) J-COLLABO Winter Festival, J-COLLABO, Brooklyn, NY
This Raven Swallowtail, I raised myself. I tore off the wings of a pregnant female butterfy and put just its body in a jar and throw the artifcial light on it.
And I fed it watered-down honey, every day, a little bit at a time. Then fnally, on the dampened absorbent cotton in the bottom of the jar, it laid the egg it dreamed in its dream... The egg got bigger and bigger and it turned into this coal-black Raven Swallowtail.
Then, just when it fnally got big enough to fy into the sky, I shut it up in my formalin jar and killed it.
Why?
If I let it live any longer, its wings just get all ragged and dirty.
そのカラスアゲハは、ぼくが産ませたんだ、おなかの大きなメスのチョウのハネをもぎとって、からだだけを壜に入 れて人工的な光をあてておく。
そして水でうすめたハチミツを毎日すこしづつやる。やがて壜の底においてあるしめった脱脂綿の上に、じぶんの見 た夢の卵をうみおとす..... それが大きくなって、こんなまっ黒なカラスアゲハになった。
そして、やっと空をとべるようになった頃、ぼくがホルマリンの壜にとじこめて、殺してやったんだ。 どうしてって？
これ以上長生きさせると翅がボロボロになって、きたなくなるだけだから。
Do you like a butterfy? Other reviews on Yuki Kawahisa
Time's Journey Through a Room By Toshiki Okada, Translated into English by Aya Ogawa Directed by Dan Rothenberg Produced by The Play Company Performed by Kensaku Shinohara, Maho Honda, Yuki Kawahisa
"Yuki Kawahisa, in a beautiful central performance" Laura Collins-Hughes, New York Times
"Honoka, as played by the vibrant Yuki Kawahisa, at first is the focus of our attention, and she is certainly a charming presence, with her long black braid, wide smile and childlike grace.” Molly Grogan, Exeunt Magazine NYC
In the spirit of the loquacious Winnie in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, the animated Yuki Kawahisa beautifully portrays Honoka with sunny depth. Darryl Reilly, TheaterScene.net
Ludic Proxy by Aya Ogawa NY Times Review: In ‘Ludic Proxy,’ a Blur of Actual and Virtual Reality” Yuki Kawahisa as a sister in Japan in "Ludic Proxy," at Walkerspace in TriBeCa. Photo by Carol Rosegg
"Here the show leans, gratefully, on two marvelous actors. Kawahisa's stunned inaction and Tsukada's icy mystery never admit a single false note, all despite stopping every few sentences to let us weigh in." Helen Shaw, Time Out New York
Website Impersonations: The Ten Most Visited "#2 www.google.com" by Ursula Endlicher
"Dancers Yuki Kawahisa, Melissa Burke, and Irem Calikusu awed me with their range, responding to choreographic commands and improvisational prompts with remarkable sensitivity and physical intelligence.”Mary Love Hodges, The Brooklyn Rail Other materials, CV, resume, video excerptions, photos are available at: www.yukikawahisa.com
For other request and questions please contact me at: [email protected]