Residencies
Mermaid
FINDING VOICE
Brenda Wong Aoki’s Workshop for Children (and/or Adults)
Finding Voice will explore ritual, myth and personal experience as a means to telling stories. This workshop includes, physical and vocal training including elements of Nohgaku (Japanese Ghost Theater), Kung fu fighting fan and Spoken word. We will develop true stories and legends. The workshop will culminate in the samurai tradition of Hyaku Monogatari, a night of one hundred ghost stories. Class is appropriate for anyone wanting to uncover their own personal style of presentation - students, actors, business people. Express yourself. Find your voice.
Instructor
Brenda Wong Aoki is regarded as one of America’s foremost solo performers. Trained in Noh and Kyogen, modern dance and voice, she continues to entrance audiences throughout the world with her intense, lyrical Obake (ghost stories) and heart-warming street stories of mixed race kids. A playwright and performing artist, Brenda has been honored with Hollywood Dramalogue Awards, Critic Circle Awards, fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, commissions from U. S. Congress, the State of California and the San Francisco Arts Commission. Her recordings garnered Indie awards for Best Spoken Word and are used as curriculum resource materials. She is a founding faculty member of Stanford University’s Institute for Diversity in the Arts, teaches solo performance at University San Francisco and continues to teach and perform internationally.
Purpose:
The objective of this workshop is for each person to leave with the ability to create personal stories using only the body and voice.
Requirements: Large, clean, empty space. A dance studio is good. Must be suitable for 20 people to lie on the floor and move comfortably in barefoot. No rug. No cement.
