TomoeArts closes the curtain with program commemorating legacy of late artistic director Colleen Lanki, January 20
Fifteen Years of Dream features performances by company’s closest collaborators over its 15-year run, in honour of Japanese classical dance master Lanki
Colleen Lanki. Photo by Javier R. Sotres Photography
TomoeArts presents Fifteen Years of Dream at the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre on January 20 at 2 pm
ONE FULL YEAR after Vancouver’s TomoeArts announced the passing of its founding artistic director and Japanese classical dance master Colleen Lanki, the company is officially closing its doors with a final program of performances.
In commemoration of the dance society’s diverse 15-year legacy, it is hosting Fifteen Years of Dream, a final, culture-crossing celebration and reflection that will unite some of its closest artistic collaborators.
The afternoon will feature dance performances by Anusha Fernando of Shakti Dance Society; Hanayagi Toshikotono (Mamie Kakimoto) with Tomoe Kai Japanese dance students Ryan Caron, Mara Coman, and Jasmine Su; taiko drummer Eien Hunter-Ishikawa and the Portland Shishimai Kai; contemporary dancer Matthew Romantini; and Noh dancer Evelyn Leung. There will also be musical performances from Japanese shakuhachi (bamboo flute) player Alcvin Ryūzen Ramos; soprano Heather Pawsey with pianist Leslie Uyeda; Farshid Samandari of the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra with flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor; erhu player Lan Tung of the Orchid Ensemble; and Celtic harp player Miriam Kehler.
Lanki was a respected maven of nihon buyoh, a classical 17th-century Japanese dance form characterized by refined movements and deep-rooted symbolism. Born and raised in East Vancouver, the artist spent seven years in Tokyo training under late master dancer Fujima Yūko. At the culmination of her learning she was given the name Fujima Sayū, making her a part of Yūko’s artistic lineage. During Lanki’s time in Japan she also trained in Noh, a 15th-century theatre art in which stories are conveyed through emotion and movement.
Colleen Lanki in Yūko-kai 2021 – A Personal Journey. Photo courtesy of TomoeArts
Combining traditional Japanese learnings with her background in Western movement art and theatrics, Lanki opened TomoeArts in 2009. The company flourished into an incubation platform for interdisciplinary excellence, where Lanki had opportunities to both honour her sensei Yūko’s artistry while expanding her own.
TomoeArts’s innovation spans 2010’s EN (circle/fate), which saw dancers and a taiko drummer move through the Downtown Eastside while creating motifs out of circles and lights, as part of the Procession of Performing Circles; 2012’s Voices of Hiroshima, a concert presented in conjunction with the UBC Museum of Anthropology which featured traditional Japanese music by Ramos and Hunter-Ishikawa in a sombre reflection on the atomic bombing of 1945; and 2017’s Kayoi Komachi (Komachi Visited), a chamber opera composed by Samandari that premiered at The Cultch’s Historic Theatre and featured performances by Pawsey and Noh actor Yamai Tsunao.
In more recent years, Lanki dedicated several performances to the memory and teachinigs of Yūko, including Yūko-kai 2019 – Jiuta-mai and Tea, and Yūko-kai 2021 – A Personal Journey. Her last work, 2022’s Goshoraku, was a beautifully moving dance commission from the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble which incorporated reconstruction of an 8th-century AD Tang-dynasty piece.
EN (circle/fate). Photo by Eugene Lin
As Stir reported last January, TomoeArts remembers Lanki as “the heart” of the company, who “to the end embodied her sensei Fujima Yūko’s dream of bringing together people from many backgrounds to celebrate the beauty of traditional and contemporary Japanese dance and theatre.”
The closing event on January 20 will be hosted at the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre in Burnaby, a place that honours the heritage and history of Japanese Canadians. A reception with light refreshments and a cash bar will follow the 90-minute program.
Tickets to Fifteen Years of Dream and more information can be found at TomoeArts.
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