Former Artists and Scholars

The Center for World Performance Studies (CWPS) has sponsored a number of artists through the Artists-in-Residency program.  Below are the artists who have visited campus in previous years, from fall, 2000 through December, 2008:

Academic Year 2007-2008

Luciana Acuna is the Artistic Director and dancer with Argentinian company Grupo Krapp.  The company was created in 1995 by Luciana Acuña, Luis Biasotto, and Gabriela Caretti. An ironic, corrosive sense of humor and intense, explosive energy rarely seen in Latin American contemporary dance are the distinguishing characteristics of this innovative young company.  Grupo Krapp is one of the very few companies in Argentina that works with the natural intersection between dance and theater, blending them into a new discipline. The company's extremely physical corporal language, masterfully curated musical selections, and non-linear storylines deal primarily with difficult themes such as violence, seduction, desire, hypocrisy, and social norms and taboos, among others. Amy Chavasse, Dance Department was her faculty sponsor.

Kumotaro Mukai represents a new generation of butoh dancers interested in developing a butoh method to more successfully blend Eastern and Western sensibilities. (Butoh is a radical, often controversial, dance/theater movement that originated in Japan in 1959, and is now practiced all over the world.) A principal dancer in the internationally-acclaimed Dairakudakan troupe of Tokyo, he has performed extensively throughout Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East.Mukai joined Dairakudakan in 1994. Prior to this, he was a student of martial arts in Osaka, Japan. He has created/produced more butoh performances than any other member of the ensemble (except for
the company's founder Akaji Maro).  His work has been presented in New York City, San Francisco, the National Theater of Korea, Osaka Art Theater dB, New National Theater of Japan, Okayama Tenjinyama Cultural Plaza, and Ryutopia Niigata City Performing Arts Center. He received the Dance Critics Society of Japan Rookie Award in 2005. His works include:
    The Jar Odyssey trilogy:
     Paradise in the Jar Odyssey 2001 (2001),
     Universe of Darah: Return of the Jar Odyssey (2003) (featuring music by Erik Santos)
     The Jar Odyssey III (2005)
     Tiger's Cave: Butoh Boot Camp (2006)
     Odoro Baby! (2007)

Phong Nguyen is one of the foremost exponents of Vietnamese music in the West and a recipient of the National Heritage Fellowship, this nation's highest honor for achievement in the traditional arts awarded at the White House (1997). Raised in the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam, he comes from a family of prominent musicians conversant in musical genres that span the Vietnamese musical spectrum from theatrical to chamber music, folk songs to Buddhist chants. He is a traditionally-trained musician who studied with a village master from the age of five. At the age of 13, he took up Vietnamese theater music and went on to perform both cai luong (reformed theater) and hat boi (classical theater) styles professionally. He left his native land in 1974 and went on to receive his doctorate in ethnomusicology from the Sorbonne University. Since moving to this country he has performed extensively throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe and taught at the University of Washington, U.C.L.A., and Kent State University.  Christi-Anne Castro, Ethnomusicology, was his faculty sponsor.

R.K. Srinivasan is a reknowned flute player from Varanasi, India.  Hailing from a family of musicians, he has mastered both the North (Hindustani) and South (Carnatic) styles of Indian music.  He is a professor of music at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), where he also studied and earned his Ph.D in music (Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalay Khairagad).  He has studied, in addition to Flute, India Vocal Music (Carnatic), Mrdangam and Violin, and is a specialist in the T.R. Mahalingam style of Flute-playing ("Mali" style).   He is currently the Programme Executive at Doordarshan Kendra Varanasi, and the former Programme Executive of All India Radio, Varanasi.  Steve Rush, Dance and Music, was his faculty sponsor. 

Cecilia Vicuña, acclaimed Chilean poet, filmmaker and performance artist weaves time, space and sound to evoke ancient sensory memories. Through playful improvisations, stories and chants she leads her audience into a communal space where poetry unfolds. In her work indigenous word-play interfaces the contemporary realities of ecological disaster.  Cecilia Vicuña is the author of sixteen poetry books published in Europe, Latin America and the US.  Born and raised in Santiago de Chile, she has been an exile since the Pinochet coup in the early 1970s, and since 1980 has resided in New York, spending several months a year in Latin America.  Currently she is co-editing the Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry, forthcoming 2008.  Amy Sara Carroll, American Culture, was her faculty sponsor.

Academic Year 2006-2007

Pornrat Damrhung is a faculty member of the Chulalongkorn University Theater Department in Thailand. She taught a course on Contemporary Thai Theater and Dance in the winter, 2007 semester. She re-cast "Stories of Sita," from the Ramayana to reflect women's lives today using music, dance and shadow puppetry to create modern theater as her culminating performance event.  Linda Lim, Ross School of Business, and Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, was her faculty sponsor.

Mohammad Ghaffari is originally from Neyshapoor, Iran. He has directed numerous plays, worked as a professional actor, and toured European festivals. He received his theatre training at the School for Dramatic Arts in Tehran, and continued his education at Michigan State University. Mr. Ghaffari was in residence during the winter, 2007 semester.  He lectured during classes at the Residential College and gave a culminating performance in the Rackham Amphitheater.  Gottfried Hagen, Department of Near Eastern Studies, and Director of the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, was his faculty sponsor.

Xoliswa Sithole is a prominent filmmaker from South Africa. She has produced a variety of films on the South African experience. They range from award-winning feature films to educational television programs and documentaries. Her upcoming film, "Bullets and Girls," is a documentary of how young women are being used and abused in contemporary African wars. Frieda Ekotto, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, and the Center for Afro and Afro-American Studies, was her faculty sponsor.

Jun Wakabayashi is a principal dancer in the internationally acclaimed Dairakudakan butoh troupe of Tokyo.  He has performed extensively throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States and has taught in Japan and Israel.  Butoh is an avant-garde dance/theater movement which originated in Japan in 1960.  Formed in 1972 by Akaji Maro, Dairakudakan is the largest and longest-surviving butoh company in existence.  He performed "Chrysalis" with Erik Santos, faculty member at the School of Music, Theatre and Dance. Santos was his faculty sponsor.

Academic Year 2005-2006
Jose Torres
Tama Richard Blanco
Sigit Adji Sabdoprojono
Branwen Okpako
Eduardo Lopez-Banzo
Muhammad Rabiu Isah
Jun Wakabayashi

Academic Year 2004-2005
Gayathri Arumugham
Heidi Durning
Urmimala Sarkar
Han Mei & Randy Raine-Reusch
Josefina Baez
Suheir Hammad

Academic Year 2004
Antionette Adowa Kutoto

Academic Year 2002-2003
Haiping Yan - Scholar-in-Residence

Academic Year 2001-2002
BRM Bambang Irawan & Noor
Farida Rahmalina
Titos Sompa

Academic Year 2000-2001
Koo Nimo
Olabayo Olaniyi