Clay Craft

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

*ClayCraft* Memoirs of a Choreographer

Wes Rolley clues us in on an interview with Miyako Tachibana

The bilingual Rafu Shimpo, an English / Japanese newspaper published in Los Angeles ran a story based on an interview with Miyako Tachibana, a choreographer on Memoirs of a Geisha. Tachibana teaches dance at the Fujima Kansuma, School of Classical Dance in Little Tokyo. I will give you a few quotes to add to this discussion.

"The wanted to open up the /eri /(collar) more and more. The costume designer made the kimono more fittend to show more curve. And I said, "You don't do that. You want everything flat.' But they said 'People are not going to come to see that. You have to make it attractive to everybody.' It's perspective. What they think is beautiful, what I thnk is beautiful and what Japanese culture see as beautiful are so different."

Speaking of working with John DeLuca and Denise Faye (choreographers for Chicago) Tachibana found it difficult "getting in". But, she says that "They wanted to come ujp with something totally new but with the same foundation of Japanese Dance. It's kind of like getting their ideas, and I made it in a Japanese format.

Re: Caseting Ziyi, Yeoh and Li, Tachibana found that it was the best decision they could make: "Being a Japanese American, my first choice was like 'Cant' you cast Japanese' But they said they went to Japan and auditioned, auditioned and auditioned. And I believe that they really tried to find a Japanese but they couldn't."

"It's important for them, when they were casting, that the actresses have dancing in their backgrouned, and Ziyi was a dancer, and Michelle Yeoh was a dancer. They worked really hard. You could tell they were not coddled. They worked hard to get where they are, so it was very fun working with them."

A different perspective.

--
"Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente

Wes Rolley
http://www.refpub.com/