Monthly Archives: June 2015

008 International Group Profile: Ecuador

WMDF is delighted to welcome back some old friends from Ecuador. This time, they are bringing some new members in the form of a new band!

Raymis

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Raymis is a new group born from the Ecuadorian folk music group Sisay. Sisay first visited Japan in 2005, and came to WMDF two times. While based on the folk music of Ecuador, the Andes and traditional Latin music, Sisay incorporated modern musical elements resulting in their own “World Music”. Raymis continues the tradition of cherishing the roots of Ecuador’s traditional music through a new combination of Sisay’s veteran musicians and other traditional Ecuadorian musicians.

Raymis in the Kichua language means “energetic” or “fun”: please enjoy the uplifting feeling and strength of this South American folk music.

http://www.sisay.natives.jp/jp/index.htm

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008 International Group Profile: Bangladesh

This week, we continue our announcements of international groups.  Today we bring you a WMDF first: a Bangladesh dance experience. WMDF aims to change peoples’ perspectives of space and time, so we really hope you will take this chance to encounter this historic and important culture.

Kathak Dance Community

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“Kathak Dance Community” (KDC) was established in 1990 by Nrittyaguru Saju Ahmed, who has a Kathak Classical Dance history of over 35 years, including the completion of the seven-year specialisation of the ‘Kathak’ Dance teaching & training course of Dance Maestro Pandit Birju Maharaz. KDC has taken part in many different national and international festivals around the world, and has also been featured in numerous TV shows. Presently, KDC is experimenting with various productions based on the classical movements of the Kathak traditional dance form, in pieces such as “The Silence of Spring”, “The Beauty of Rain”, “Love on a Moonlit Night”, and “Rhythm of Victory”.

www.kathakbd.com

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008 International Group Profile: United Kingdom

ToozaliiVisual arts and contribution to the community are hugely important parts of our event. A great example of these goals is the flags we have seen for the last few years in and around Motomachi Park. Started as a project in response to the Tsunami and Fukushima Nuclear Plant disaster in 2011, these flags have made significant connections between Japan and the UK. This WMDF blog post coincides with the start of a ten-day installation at the historic Salisbury Cathedral.

Now it’s just forty days until WMDF. Toozalii sent us this picture of them sharing the countdown around the world. Look at the top of the picture and you will see that they even live at: number 40! Check back here for more countdown profiles next week.

Toozalii International Community Artists

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Toozalii use many different art forms to enable and to provide social inclusion workshops for minority groups within mainstream arts events around the world. For example, take a look at the flags in Motomachi Park, created from designs made in our own WMDF workshops and other places in Hakodate. In the last year, these flags have been exhibited at many locations around the UK, with a total audience of over 100,000 people! Toozalii have also been known to show off their varied skills in the projection mapping in the Chara area, and many other cool bits of WMDF.

www.toozalii.co.uk

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