Upcoming Works & Creations
News
2 DECEMBER 2023
OKAGE SAMA DE : SHIROI
What happens to our identity through the experience of immigration? How does one reconnect with a cultural heritage that has faded through generational integration?
OKAGE SAMA DE (I am what I am because of you) journeys into the unknown in the search for self and reconnection with one’s past. SHIROI 白い refers to the shade of white - when all the colours come together to form the possibilities: the creative potential of the washi paper before paint touches it; the shade that invites light and shadow to dance together on the shōji doors and lanterns, and the potential to write your own story, pathway and journey.
Celebrate generations of cultural ancestry and witness the mastery of traditional Japanese art forms in this live dance and musical performance by international award-winning Japanese artists Julie Ann Minaai, Noriko Tadano, Toshi Sakamoto and Junko Azukawa.
Combining contemporary dance, the traditional Japanese shamisen, powerful Wadaiko drumming, and beautiful Sumi-e ink paintings, OKAGE SAME DE is an explosive exploration of culture, identity and journey of the self.
Supported by Immigration Museum and City of Melbourne.
Performance: Saturday, 2 December 2023, 2pm and 6pm at the Immigration Museum
Book Tickets: HERE
22 JULY 2023
HANA as part of RESONANCE
‘Gathering around shared rhythm, values, and purpose, 6 Narrm-based interdisciplinary and intergenerational artists of the diaspora, weave together their creative and cultural practices for the crafting of story and ceremony.
Vicki Kinai (PNG), MZ RIZK (Lebanon), Katherine Gailer (Colombia), Julie Ann Minaai (Japan/Hawaii), Irihipeti Waretini (Aotearoa) and Bella Waru (Aotearoa) present the unique immersive art and performance experience, RESONANCE.
A place of coexistence, collaboration and collective movement; tracing the journeys of our ancestors to the sacred Kulin lands we now call home. Illuminating possible futures of potential, provision and connection.
What happens when you put five different cultures, six different creative practices and walks of life in one space with the intention to co-create? To not only co-exist but to establish relations, collectively build and lead?
RESONANCE.
Supported by Multicultural Arts Victoria, Melbourne Museum and City of Melbourne.
Performance: Saturday, 22 July 2023, 7pm at the Melbourne Museum
Book Tickets: HERE
20 May 2023
OKAGE SAMA DE
Julie is currently resident artist at The Bowery Theatre in St. Albans, Brimbank. She has been connecting with the local community and exploring their stories in relation to her family’s as she delves into creating a new work.
‘OKAGE SAMA DE (‘I am what I am because of you’) explores stories of the immigrant experience and seeks to reconnect with a heritage that has partially faded through intergenerational integration.
Performed by international award-winning artists, residency artist Julie Ann Minaai and Japanese musician Noriko Tadano, the duet combines contemporary dance with a live performance of the shamisen - a traditional Japanese instrument.
OKAGE SAMA DE explores journeying into the unknown, a search for self, disorientation, discovery and reconnection with cultural ancestry.
As part of the Bowery Theatre Residency Program’
Stage Performance: Saturday 20 May 2023 at 6:00pm - 7:00pm, Bowery Theatre, 33 Princess Street, St Albans
Book Tickets: HERE
30 MARCH 2023
CONFIRGURATION COMPANY
Julie has been commissioned to create a new work for Sydney-based Configuration Company as part of their season, The future and NOW.
‘We invite you to come and witness an exceptional evening of contemporary dance including the world premiere of four new works all inspired and enthused by Earth’s current climate crisis.
Featuring works by Victor Zarallo, Julie Ann Minaai, Amanda Whittaker and Katya Gray.’
Stage Performance: 30 March 2023, 6:30PM at the Bondi Pavilion Theatre, Sydney, Australia
9 - 12 NOVEMBER 2022
BORO
BORO is a commission for the Bachelor of Fine Arts Dance students’ graduation season.
‘This year’s graduating students have experienced unprecedented challenges throughout their degree as they navigated the changes brought about by the Global Pandemic. Moving between dancing in a virtual studio and dancing in real life, they have emerged as artists with a multiplicity of skills who understand how to communicate their craft regardless of the barriers encountered. In these strange times their creative and critical capacities bring attention to the urgencies of the present and the power of dance to connect across times, spaces and differences. In this Triple Bill, we draw attention to the kinetic as primary to how we shape-shift through life stages and states of emergence.
Three new contemporary works have been made on and with Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) working in collaboration with Bachelor of Fine Arts (Design and Production) students: Guest Choreographer Lucy Guerin’s Splinter Group; Hutchinson First Nations Fellow, Ngioka Bunda-Heath’s Footprints and Resident Choreographer Julie Ann Minaai’s BORO.
Delving into distinct worlds of the choreographic imagination, these works explore group synergy, rhythmic complicity, falling, shape-shifting and the traces we leave behind. They speak through the corporeal and ancestral imagination to inscribe mutable and changing worlds within a condition of continuous dancing.’
Stage Performance: 9 - 12 November 2022
Space 28
4 SEPTEMBER 2022
MANA
MANA is a collaboration between renowned Taiko Master, Toshi Sakamoto, award-winning Japanese Shamisen Virtuoso, Noriko Tadano, and internationally recognized dance artist, Julie Ann Minaai.
The trio explores the transcendent spiritual power that viscerally transforms us.
Stage Performance: 4 September 2022
Melbourne Spring Taiko Matsuri,
South Oakleigh College VIC 3167
Australia
ba(ME) will be part of
Indepen-dance’s Gathered Together Festival 2022
Wed 6 - Sat 9 July 2022
Scotland's International Inclusive Dance Festival
indepen-dance.org.uk
ba(ME) at Utah Dance Film Festival 2022!!!
Utah Dance Film Festival 2022 will be screening ba(ME)
Short Screening 4
Saturday, 28 May 2022 @ 7PM
7 - 21 April 2022: ba(ME) at The Place’s Summer Season 2022
Julie Ann Minaai’s dance film, ba(ME), is available online. FREE but booking required. Please note: Once you have booked you will receive an E-Ticket to your registered email address (please check your spam folder), which will contain the necessary webpage link to access the film as many times as you link until Thu 21 Apr, 10pm (BST). Accessibility: There are two accessible versions of ba(ME) - Audio Described version and a subtitled version
ba(ME) has been selected for Utah Dance Film Festival 2022!!!
Utah Dance Film Festival will be screening ba(ME)
22 April 2022 - 28 May 2022
More information coming soon!!!