And the Twins Return (Dream1)
Note: A pair of headphones or speakers are recommended when viewing/listening to this work.
And the Twins Return is a meditation on bewitchment and calamity, deception and possession, inspired by images from Northern Japan and Southern Mexico. Dream 1 is an excerpt from the full film. The live performance version of And the Twins Return was created during a Japan-US Friendship Commission Artist Fellowship.
Performers: José Ome Navarrete Mazatl, Debby Kajiyama
Conceived, choreographed and performed by José Ome Navarrete Mazatl and Debby Kajiyama / NAKA Dance Theater
Film Director/Editor: Jody Stillwater
Musical score and sound design: Ayako Kataoka
Shakuhachi: Kiku Day
Produced by Lenape Film Group (Sebastian Galasso, Tiare Ribeaux, Meena Stillwater)
Cinematographer: Ethan Indorf
1st Assistant Camera: Kean Levrault
Filmed on location at Jenner, CA & Bridgeport, CA
About NAKA Dance Theater
Founded in 2001, NAKA Dance Theater (they/them) creates experimental performance works using dance, storytelling, multimedia installations and site-specific environments. NAKA builds partnerships with communities, engages people's histories and folklore and expresses experiences through accessible performances that challenge the viewer to think critically about social justice issues. NAKA is thrilled to be working with Jody Stillwater/Lenape Films & Ayako Kataoka for And the Twins Return. nakadancetheater.com
José Ome Navarrete Mazatl is a native of México City. He has a B.A. in Anthropology from UC Berkeley and an M.F.A in Dance from Mills College. José Ome has been influenced by the practices of Sara Shelton Mann and is the recipient of a Bessie Schönberg residency at The Yard, a Djerassi residency, a CHIME Mentorship with Jess Curtis, and a CHIME Across Borders fellowship with Ralph Lemon. José Ome has taught performance in Mexico, at local high schools and colleges, and at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. He currently curates Live Arts in Resistance (LAIR) -- a series of artist residencies and performance showcases for artists of color working at the intersection of art and social justice at Oakland’s Eastside Arts Alliance.
Debby Kajiyama’s interests lie in the intersection of ritual, social justice and performance. She is inspired by the movement research of Sara Shelton Mann and the passion of Susanne Takehara and the cultural workers at Oakland's EastSide Arts Alliance. Her artistic practice includes an attention to story, objects in relation to the moving body; and the liminal state between the conscious-unconscious. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, an Irvine Fellow at Montalvo’s Lucas Artists Residency Program, and a recipient of an ACTA Apprenticeship to study Taiko with Jimi Nakagawa.
Jody Stillwater 周青海 is a writer, director and creative technologist whose project themes are based in dream logic and tactile reality, with a modern, transformative approach to visual semiotics & archetype. His work has been featured at the de Young museum, YBCA, Mutek and ISEA, with commissions from Google, Knotel and Bentley Mills. His cultural background is Chinese/Norwegian/Cherokee-American.
Lenape Films focuses on bringing visually stunning, socially impactful, genre-bending cinematic and immersive media experiences to life. Started by 5 BIPOC members, their mission is to employ storytelling that prioritizes equity and inclusion, allowing for diverse stories from underrepresented communities to thrive.
Ayako Kataoka is a Japanese interdisciplinary artist, who works in sound, installation and performance. She is a recipient of Frog Peak prize and holds an MFA from Mills College, where she studied under the tutelage of Pauline Oliveros and Maggi Payne at the Center for Contemporary Music (CCM). Her artistic and research interests include: Sound Art, Japanese Spatial Concepts, Conceptual Art, Sound/Landscape, Architectural Acoustics, Body and Identity, and Movement and Music Improvisation. Kataoka has shared her work and crossed mediums at: San Francisco International Arts Festival, Ftarri in Tokyo, Sound Forms Symposium in Copenhagen, The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Bolzano in Italy, The Stone in NY, Tokyo International Dance Film Festival, and High Zero festival in Baltimore, among many others. Kataoka currently lives and works between Berlin and Tokyo.
Special thanks to Yukimi Chibana / Ballet Contempora Square in Ginowan, Okinawa; the Japan-US Friendship Commission, Shoichi Chibana, Minoru Kinjo, Jubilith Moore, Kathleen Hermesdorf / FRESH Festival. NAKA is a fiscally sponsored project of Dancers’ Group.
And the Twins Return (Dream1)
Note: A pair of headphones or speakers are recommended when viewing/listening to this work.
And the Twins Return is a meditation on bewitchment and calamity, deception and possession, inspired by images from Northern Japan and Southern Mexico. Dream 1 is an excerpt from the full film. The live performance version of And the Twins Return was created during a Japan-US Friendship Commission Artist Fellowship.
Performers: José Ome Navarrete Mazatl, Debby Kajiyama
Conceived, choreographed and performed by José Ome Navarrete Mazatl and Debby Kajiyama / NAKA Dance Theater
Film Director/Editor: Jody Stillwater
Musical score and sound design: Ayako Kataoka
Shakuhachi: Kiku Day
Produced by Lenape Film Group (Sebastian Galasso, Tiare Ribeaux, Meena Stillwater)
Cinematographer: Ethan Indorf
1st Assistant Camera: Kean Levrault
Filmed on location at Jenner, CA & Bridgeport, CA
About NAKA Dance Theater
Founded in 2001, NAKA Dance Theater (they/them) creates experimental performance works using dance, storytelling, multimedia installations and site-specific environments. NAKA builds partnerships with communities, engages people's histories and folklore and expresses experiences through accessible performances that challenge the viewer to think critically about social justice issues. NAKA is thrilled to be working with Jody Stillwater/Lenape Films & Ayako Kataoka for And the Twins Return. nakadancetheater.com
José Ome Navarrete Mazatl is a native of México City. He has a B.A. in Anthropology from UC Berkeley and an M.F.A in Dance from Mills College. José Ome has been influenced by the practices of Sara Shelton Mann and is the recipient of a Bessie Schönberg residency at The Yard, a Djerassi residency, a CHIME Mentorship with Jess Curtis, and a CHIME Across Borders fellowship with Ralph Lemon. José Ome has taught performance in Mexico, at local high schools and colleges, and at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. He currently curates Live Arts in Resistance (LAIR) -- a series of artist residencies and performance showcases for artists of color working at the intersection of art and social justice at Oakland’s Eastside Arts Alliance.
Debby Kajiyama’s interests lie in the intersection of ritual, social justice and performance. She is inspired by the movement research of Sara Shelton Mann and the passion of Susanne Takehara and the cultural workers at Oakland's EastSide Arts Alliance. Her artistic practice includes an attention to story, objects in relation to the moving body; and the liminal state between the conscious-unconscious. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, an Irvine Fellow at Montalvo’s Lucas Artists Residency Program, and a recipient of an ACTA Apprenticeship to study Taiko with Jimi Nakagawa.
Jody Stillwater 周青海 is a writer, director and creative technologist whose project themes are based in dream logic and tactile reality, with a modern, transformative approach to visual semiotics & archetype. His work has been featured at the de Young museum, YBCA, Mutek and ISEA, with commissions from Google, Knotel and Bentley Mills. His cultural background is Chinese/Norwegian/Cherokee-American.
Lenape Films focuses on bringing visually stunning, socially impactful, genre-bending cinematic and immersive media experiences to life. Started by 5 BIPOC members, their mission is to employ storytelling that prioritizes equity and inclusion, allowing for diverse stories from underrepresented communities to thrive.
Ayako Kataoka is a Japanese interdisciplinary artist, who works in sound, installation and performance. She is a recipient of Frog Peak prize and holds an MFA from Mills College, where she studied under the tutelage of Pauline Oliveros and Maggi Payne at the Center for Contemporary Music (CCM). Her artistic and research interests include: Sound Art, Japanese Spatial Concepts, Conceptual Art, Sound/Landscape, Architectural Acoustics, Body and Identity, and Movement and Music Improvisation. Kataoka has shared her work and crossed mediums at: San Francisco International Arts Festival, Ftarri in Tokyo, Sound Forms Symposium in Copenhagen, The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Bolzano in Italy, The Stone in NY, Tokyo International Dance Film Festival, and High Zero festival in Baltimore, among many others. Kataoka currently lives and works between Berlin and Tokyo.
Special thanks to Yukimi Chibana / Ballet Contempora Square in Ginowan, Okinawa; the Japan-US Friendship Commission, Shoichi Chibana, Minoru Kinjo, Jubilith Moore, Kathleen Hermesdorf / FRESH Festival. NAKA is a fiscally sponsored project of Dancers’ Group.