WHAT IS REVEALED
Presented by Jhalak Dance Company
KOA Theater
April 8 and 9, 2022 at 7:30pm
JHALAK DANCE COMPANY
Jhalak Dance Company specializes in dance performance, choreography, and improvisational collaborative participatory art-making processes. With a background in contemporary dance and movement media art, Jhalak Dance draws from other forms of art, including live, digital, and network performance, installation, music, video, and more.
PROGRAM
SHIFT, VERSION 4
(2019)
THRESHOLD
(2020 - 2021)
PRANA MOON
(2021)
WHAT IS REVEALED
(2019 - 2022)
ARTISTS
Alberte Bernier
Alberte Bernier is a visual artist who lives in New York City. She is an artist in residence at ChaShaMa. Over the years her artistic expressions have been inspired by a landscape of cultures and traditions. She is a member of ProArts and Ceres Gallery. Her work has been exhibited at the New York State Museum, Albany, The Herb & Milly Iris Gallery, SOPAC, Pleiades Gallery, and more recently at ChaShaMa Gallery & Studio, The Drawing Room, Jersey City Hall Rotunda Gallery and Ceres Gallery. In the last few years she has produced three individual art books and collaborated with numerous group art book projects, the latest in 2021. The paintings in What Is Revealed are from a series called “Leak” that illustrate the dripping of life conflicts and emotions especially as they affect women who are powerless over situations they can’t control. www.albertebernier.com
Sami L.A. Akuna
Sami has performed with Iona Contemporary Dance Theatre, is Artistic Director of Giinko Maraschino, and most recently collaborated with Jhalak Dance Company and Piko Dance Arts. Sami is also a recipient of the MAP Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts 2020-2022. Cocoa Chandelier, Sami’s alter ego, travels continuously as an advocate and spokesperson for HIV/AIDS. Is a long standing member with the United Territories of Pacific Islanders in Alliance that serves the Native Pacific Island and the MVPFAFF+ community across the Hawaiian islands and the Pacific.
Larry Asakawa
Larry Asakawa is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker based in Hawaii and California. He has worked with hundreds of visual artists, musicians, poets, dancers, and dance companies worldwide. Asakawa is a recipient of National Endowment for the Arts grant funding and is a regular guest lecturer for Screendance at the University of Hawaiʻi.
Sequoia Carr-Brown
Sequoia Carr-Brown is an international, award-winning, mixed media performance artist. She is the founder and director of a collaborative creative arts company, StRaNgE FrUiT XPrEsS. Sequoia is the co-founder of Piko Dance Arts. She has created installations for museums, galleries, and virtual productions. www.strangefruitxpress.com
Tina Chan
I am an alumnus from the University of Hawaii Manoa with two degrees, dance and communicology. Dance has always been a huge part of my life since I was young. It's also one of my major outlets I use to express my feelings, emotions, and thoughts. Being a part of Jhalak Dance Company and being able to perform side by side with my fellow dancers in front of a live audience again, is a dream come true.
Cy Higashi
Cy Higashi was born and raised in Oahu, HI. He began training at age 11 at the Mid- Pacific School of the Arts in Honolulu, HI where, he was trained in classical ballet and Graham technique under Paul Maley and Sylvia Yamada and performed works under Sylvia Yamada, Matt Del Rosario, and Paul Winn. He then received his Bachelors of Arts from Western Oregon University, where he performed works under Brian Enos, Paula Weber, and Lauren Edson. While attending WOU he studied under Sharon Oberst, Valerie Bergman, and Darryl Thomas and performed with Rainbow Dance Theatre after graduation for 2 years under Valerie Bergman and Darryl Thomas in Monmouth, Oregon. He currently is performing with Jhalak Dance Company based in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Matthew Kelty
Matthew KELTY is a playwright and actor, and Artistic Director of the O‘ahu Fringe Festival; he is thrilled to be working with the talented artists of Jhalak Dance! As part of his acting training in NYC, Matthew studied Horton, Graham, and Viewpoints technique at the Alvin Ailey School of Dance.
Kara Jhalak Miller
Kara Jhalak Miller is deeply interested in forms that heighten awareness to being present in the moment, felt memory, and acts of listening. Jhalak has enjoyed recent performance installation collaborations in Hawaiʻi with Piko Dance Arts, Giinko Maraschino, and StRaNgE FrUiT XPrEsS and is the Artistic Director of
Jhalak Dance Company
Lance Sabado
Lance has studied many dance styles for 25 years now. However, his focus in the last decade has been ballroom dance. Currently, dancing with Jhalak he’s come to love modern dance and the creativity of this company. Lance is excited for this show and to “reveal” the love he has for dance and Alberte’s art.
Terry Slaughter
Terry Slaughter has a Bachelors in Theatre from Berea College and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Dance with an emphasis in Performance and Choreography from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. Locally, Terry has had the pleasure of performing with several companies including: Iona Contemporary Dance Theatre, Jhalak Dance, Tau Dance Theatre, and Convergence Dance Theatre. Currently, He is the Performing Arts Teacher at SEEQS Public Charter School. He is passionate about integrating Social Justice into Arts education and is a strong advocate for Arts education in K-12 schools.
Katelyn Wyatt
Katelyn Wyatt is in her final semester of her MFA in Dance at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She is interested in using dance to build safe places for learning and growth. She currently teaches at Mid-Pacific Institute and UHM, while dancing with Jhalak Dance and Tau Dance Theater.
PROGRAM NOTES
Jhalak Dance Company presents What is Revealed
“What is Revealed” is an innovative pop-up gallery exhibit and live performance movement media art event. The production features a painting series alongside live dance choreography and improvisation sketches.
Featured Collaborators, Artists, and Performers
The immersive and interactive installation performance is devised by Honolulu-based choreographer Kara Jhalak Miller with Jhalak Dance Company performers, in response to and in collaboration with New York City-based visual artist Alberte Bernier and her painting series “Leak”. Additional works include Miller's choreography and live performances of Shift and Prana Moon, and,, Threshold, a screendance collaboration with Larry Asakawa. Featured performers include Sami L.A. Akuna, Sequoia Carr-Brown, Tina Chan, Cy Higashi, Lance Sabado, Terry Slaughter, and Katelyn Wyatt.
About the Development of the Project
The "What is Revealed" project has been three years in development due to the pandemic. The project originated in 2019 at a NYC Arts studio in Brooklyn. In 2020 the first excerpt of the "What is Revealed" dance performance was presented at ArtZone in Hawai‘i along with a video projection of Bernier’s mixed media. In Hawai‘i, works-in-progress have since been shared at the Downtown Art Center and at the Hawai‘i State Art Museum (HiSAM) sculpture garden and for the Artist Talk series. The full showing of the performance at The KOA Theater is on April 8 and 9 at 7:30pm. The project culminates in a week of workshops and live performances at the ChaShaMa Gallery at 1155 Avenue of the Americas in New York City on June 9 and 10 at 7pm.
Special Thanks
Didi Chang, Betsy Fisher, ChaShaMa Gallery, Hawaii State Art Museum, Alyson Ishikuni-Sasaki, Kevin Keaveney, Maleko McDonnell, Tahiri Perez, Jannie Wolf, KITV, KOA Theater
Jhalak Dance Company is grateful to all the performers, artists, and volunteers that have brought the vision of “What is Revealed” to the stage.