Live dance and music performances
Produced in partnership with SUM Gallery, Queer Arts Festival
Volume Vulva Verve voices the importance of preserving cultural knowledge and inspiring healing within ourselves and our communities. The full-evening show features solo works created and performed by accomplished Taiko and movement artists Kage and Ziyian Kwan.
In the Japanese culture, ’Itadakimasu’ is uttered before eating. Translated as ‘I humbly receive’, this saying is an expression of gratitude. Vocalizing in my mother tongue allows me to access a visceral and physical memory of emotion that is similar to the immediate and powerful potential of the Taiko. Without playing the Taiko live, Kage utilizes their movements, sound composition and Japanese vocals to perform a solo centred on themes of food, gratitude and ancestral teachings.”
Creation, Performance Kage
Movement Consultant Lisa Mariko Gelley
This is my 8th iteration and final performance of The Odd Volume. Since premiere in 2019, I’ve performed the solo in theatres, via livestream and on film – locally, nationally and internationally. I’ve been moved by responses ranging from industry colleagues in Dusseldorf to classrooms of students from Brooklyn, New York who wrote emails to express how stories from my childhood 45 years ago, resonates with their contemporary lives as BIPOC immigrants. These final performances close a chapter on decades of old wounds resulting from racism that I internalized as a child. The healing continues and sharing this work has brought me new understandings of who I am and why I move through the world as an artist.”
Creation, Performance Ziyian Kwan
Creative Consultant Kelly McInnes
