BLIND SPOT: MICHAEL SAKAMOTO & CHRISTOPHER JETTE - Open Rehearsal

Please join us for an open rehearsal of Michael Sakamoto’s - Blind Spot. Combining autobiography, butoh and contemporary dance, video and a live digital soundscore by Christopher Jette, Sakamoto’s Bllind Spot explores intercultural identity and the need to follow one’s nature, even in traumatic times. Reflecting a passion for history, social justice and pop culture, Sakamoto traces personal episodes as an Asian-American, post-WW2 political events, America’s fraught relationship with Asia, and contemporary crises around corporate militarism. “We all have blind spots in our lives, mentally, emotionally, physically, and even socially and culturally,” states Sakamoto. “This performance is an embodiment of that reality, asking questions about everyday life that each viewer can only answer for themselves.”

This rehearsal is in preparation for the March 18th premier of the full work in Highways LA

Michael Sakamoto is an interdisciplinary performance and visual artist whose works have been presented in 14 countries throughout Asia, Europe and North America. He is dedicated to intercultural dialogue and collaboration as a response to personal, social and environmental crisis. Michael’s butoh/hip-hop duet with Rennie Harris, “Flash,” has toured internationally since 2014, and his new dance theater trio, “Soil,” featuring performers from Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam-USA, will tour nationwide in 2017-2018 supported by a National Dance Project grant. Info at www.michaelsakamoto.org.

Christopher Jette is a curator of lovely sounds, creating work as a composer and new media artist. His creative work explores the artistic possibilities at the intersection of human performers/creators and technological tools. Christopher’s research details his technical and aesthetic investigations and explores technology as a physical manifestation of formalized human constructs. A highly collaborative artist, he has created works that involve dance, theater, websites, electronics, food, toys, typewriters, cell phones, instrument design and good ol’ fashioned wood and steel instruments. In addition to creating concert music, Christopher explores Creative Placemaking through site-specific and interactive work as a core-four member of the Anchorage based Light Brigade. He was the 2015-16 Interdisciplinary Grant Wood Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Iowa and currently serves as Visiting Artist at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. Learn more at www.cj.lovelyweather.com.