Mary Sano, the third successor of Duncan Dance, to hold her first hall performance in Japan in 9 years, "Isadora's Choros: Life and Death" at the March 3 at TOKYO FM Hall.

Mary Sano, the third successor of Duncan Dance, created by Isadora Duncan, the founder of modern dance, will perform her first hall performance in Japan in nine years, "Isadora's Choros: Life and Death," on March 3, 2024, at TOKYO FM Hall, a theater in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. This is the third in the series of "Isadora's Choros," which explores the origins of the performing arts from ancient Greece and evokes and expresses the true dance that Isadora Duncan continued to seek. This third performance will be a spectacular work with the theme of life and death, in which 17 choros (dancers, singers, actors, and musicians) will explore and express the preciousness of life and feelings toward death.

The flyer for the performance "Isadora's Choros: Life and Death" (Japanese only)

The flyer for the performance "Isadora's Choros: Life and Death" (Japanese only)

Outline of the work

In the tragedies of ancient Greek drama, the "choros," who appears at the moment when the audience senses the tragedy's pain and sorrow, was the mediator between the tragedy and the audience, creating perfect harmony in the audience's trembling souls. This is the third in a series of productions that explore the origins of the performing arts from ancient Greece, and that seek to evoke and express the lost poetic language and movement of the choros, the true dance of Isadora Duncan, which was first performed at the Corona Disaster in 2020, with the subtitle "A Return to Harmony", as the first step in an attempt at a contemporary choros, it pursued true dance (the essential fusion of song, dance, and poetry), while the second performance in 2021 focused on love and tragedy, beginning with ancient sounds and poetry, and performing various forms of love and their power from love songs, including Baroque and Romantic opera arias. This third performance will be a spectacular work with the theme of life and death, in which 17 choros (dancers, singers, actors, and musicians) will celebrate the preciousness of life and feelings toward death.

Venue : TOKYO FM Hall, 2F FM Center, 1-7 Kojimachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Date & Time : March 3, 2024 (Sun.) 18:00 Concert begins (doors open at 17:30)

Ticket: 4,000 yen in advance / 4,500 yen at the door *Half price for Chiyoda-ku residents (up to 85 people)

Reservations: SyzygyTokyo@gmail.com / 03-6256-8834

Please let us know your name, contact information and the number of tickets.

Cast

Mary Sano / Mone Izawa / Yuko Inui / Kei Ogura / Akiko Kawasaki / Fumihito Shimizu / Eriko Tokaji / Sayaka Nishihara / Kaoru Higakubo / Yumiko Fujii / Saori Watanabe / Hikaru Kobayashi / Sakurako Neo / Shoko Hoshikawa / ShokoWatanabe / Reisyun Tsuruoka / Saori Ohashi

Staff

General Director/Choreography : Mary Sano

Dramaturg : Kaoru Higakubo

Stage Manager : Nobuaki Yokoi

Publicity Art : Junko Hirosawa

Costume Cooperation： Mayumi Nagashima

Cinematography： Hideto Miyuki

Photography ：Hiroyuki Mizuuchi

Sponsor : Art Space Syzygy (1F, 22-7 Sanbancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo)

Subsidized by Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo

Profile

Mary Sano / dance, general director, choreographer

Mary Sano is a dancer and choreographer, and the third-generation successor of Duncan Dance. A disciple of Mignon Garland, she began studying Duncan Dance in San Francisco in 1979. Fascinated by the natural and spiritual nature of this dance, she founded the Isadora Duncan Heritage Society Japan in Tokyo in 1983 and the Mary Sano Studio of Duncan Dancing (https://www.duncandance.org) in San Francisco in 1997. In 1990, Sano published Japanese edition of "Dancing Venus: The Life of Isadora Duncan" by Fredrica Blair from Parco Publishing. In California, after receiving her MA from Mills College, she formed the Mary Sano and Her Duncan Dancers in 1993 and began performing internationally, especially in San Francisco. They have given numerous performances and workshops in Japan, the U.S., and Europe. Since 2019, she has been the artistic director of Syzygy, an art space in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, where she has been presenting a series of works.

[About Art Space Sisyzy]

The art space opened on July 7, 2019 in Sanbancho, Chiyoda-ku, the heart of Tokyo. Beginning with the opening event "Dance Poem: Kosaku Yamada and Isadora Duncan," Series 2 "From Romantic to Mystical: Scriabin Meets Isadora," Series 3 "Isadora's Choros: Return to Harmony," Series 4 "In Between Swaying Light and Shadow," Series 5 "Isadora's Choros: Love and Tragedy" Series 6 "Within Swaying Light and Shadow," the dancer Mary Sano and other artists, including musicians and photographers, have collaborated to examine and deepen the art of Isadora Duncan's dance from a variety of perspectives and to pursue the ideal form of contemporary dance. This performance was the first to be held in a hall under the auspices of Chiyoda Ward.