Yamamoto edited and discovered missing elements and shaped the choreographic arc for a howling flower, which was in process for 3 years and recently premiered. For the first time during the making a howling flower, puppet advisor, Deanna Acheson, joined all cast members for numerous rehearsals at MANCC and meticulously accentuated the nuances of the puppet and the dancers’ manipulations of it. Other research collaborators were puppeteer/puppet creator, Matthew Acheson, puppet advisor and dancers Takemi Kitamura, Johanna S. Meyer, Ryutaro Mishima and Darla Villani.
Nami Yamamoto, originally from Matsuyama, Japan, graduated from New York University in 1993 with a MA in Dance Education. Since then, her work has been presented in New York and elsewhere: Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, P.S. 122, Movement Research at Judson Church, Dancing in the Streets at Wave Hill, The Kitchen (Dance in Progress), Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (Inside/Out), Community Education Center and Philadelphia Museum of the Art in Philadelphia, Studio 303 in Montreal and most recently at UC Irvine. In 2004, to understand more of Japanese culture, she studied Kyogen, Japanese Traditional Theater, at Kyoto Arts Center and performed at Oe Noh Gaku Do in Kyoto. In 2005, she traveled in Malaysia to explore with local artists in Penang. She has been nurtured and inspired by her residency experience at Asian Pacific Performance Exchange in UCLA, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Movement Research, Dance Wave in Matsuyama Japan, Brooklyn Arts Exchange and Summer Theater Lab in UC Santa Barbara. She is proud to be a 2006 Creative Capital Grantee and serve as an artistic advisory member of Danspace Project.
She taught Master Class at University of California Irvine, Ehime University, Matsuyama University in Japan, University of Penang and Malaysian Dance Festival in Malaysia. She also taught a creative movement class for children at MASS MoCA and Brooklyn New School. Recently, her work was commissioned by Saint Joseph Ballet and she choreographed a 30 minute piece for 40 teenagers in the school.
As a dancer, she has enjoyed working with wonderful choreographers such as Yoshiko Chuma, David Dorfman, Patricia Hoffbauer, Clarinda Mac Low, Victoria Marks, David Neumann, Sara Pearson & Patrik Widrig, Karen Sherman, Cydney Wilkes, Yasuko Yokoshi and many others. In 2004, she debuted as a puppeteer in Dan Hurlin’s Hiroshima Maiden, which toured in 2005-2006. She also performed for Lake Simon’s puppet piece, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at Here Art Center.
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