February 9, 2006
Japanese folk history, solo pianist grace Meany stage this week
The UW World Series presents a celebration of Japan’s folk history and a solo piano concert this week in Meany Theater.
Warabi-za, the Japanese group, is first up with a spectacular night of taiko, costume, song, and dance. The program will be at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11.
Established in 1951 as a performing arts company, Warabi-za’s work is based on the traditions of regional Japan. Sometimes musicals based on folk tales, sometimes pure spectacles of energetic song, taiko-drumming and dance, all are expressions of the variety of human emotion as manifested in the communities of Japan.
When a new work is being planned, the creative team starts with a theme and subject rather than a particular style or tradition. Only when the theme has been clarified does the team start looking for the most appropriate materials to communicate the core ideas.
The choreographers and music directors of Warabi-za use its Folk Arts Research Center as their main resource to find particularly appropriate materials to bring to the project. Once the materials have been chosen, the dancers and musicians review the original resources and study them carefully in order to use them accurately in the new work. The final product is a form of musical theater in which music and dance communicate the story and emotions without words. They are performances that borrow on a long tradition of refined entertainment and community based participatory performance.
The Meany program is called Prayer, Harvest, Celebration. Tickets range from $20 to $29 and are available at the Arts Ticket Office, 206-543-4880, as well as online at www.uwworldseries.org. There will be a pre-show lecture at 7:15 p.m. in Meany Hall west lobby.
The UW President’s Piano Series at Meany continues its 25th anniversary season with Leon Bates, who appears at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15.
Having performed in virtually all of the major halls in the United States and on nearly every continent, Bates returns to the UW with a program of Romantic classics and works by American masters. The program includes Brahms’ Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel, Op. 24; Chopin’s Barcarolle, Opus 60; George Walker’s Sonata No. 1; Leslie Adams’ Three Etudes; Billy Strayhorn’s Chelsea Bridge, A Flower is a Lovesome Thing and Take the A Train; and Luis Moreau Gottschalk’s Le Banjo.
Tickets to the concert are $32 and are available from the Arts Ticket Office, 206-543-4880.
