Window into Asia — APAture 10-day arts festival will showcase everything from musicians to writers to filmmakers
Stephanie Wright Hession
San Francisco — September 21, 2006
An event intermingling diverse forms of dance, music, visual arts, spoken word and video will take place Saturday, featuring performances and choreography by Asian Pacific American artists. It's one aspect of the Kearny Street Workshop's "APAture: A Window on the Art of Asian Pacific Americans." A 10-day arts festival, it gives more than 100 emerging performers, visual artists, musicians, writers and filmmakers opportunities to present their craft.
The dance and performance pieces include "Red Light" by the Nguyen Dance Company; "Untitled," a video featuring Ledoh; "Atman" by Nitya Venkateswaran; "Unblossomed" by Dohee Lee; "Raw Egg" by Iu-Hui Chua; and "Uni-Sex" by Twincest.
"There will be Butoh performed by Ledoh, who is our featured artist in the dance and movement event. There will be more traditional Korean dancing with Dohee Lee's 'Unblossomed,' but it won't be completely traditional because she's fused it with spoken words, which is considered a lot more contemporary," says Nirmala Nataraj, festival coordinator for APAture 2006. "Twincest isn't really dancing, they're more performance artists. A lot of their pieces explore the issue of race and sexuality in really confrontational ways. It's really interesting to have something like this alongside 'Atman,' by Nitya Venkateswaran, a Bharatanatyam Indian piece that explores mythology and the more traditional stories of her culture in a way."
Aside from the compilation video of some of his performances on Saturday, Ledoh will dance a sketch from his piece "Western Sunset," his commentary on American symbolism and liberty, today at the Lab.
"We all have to have a dialogue. The piece I'm working on is more liberal and people may have a problem with it as well," Ledoh says. "This is the story of my America, my influences and how I interpret life."
Danny Nguyen's "Red Light" addresses a grave social issue occurring in his native Vietnam and other parts of the world.
"It's about the (sexual) trafficking of women, which is a very big problem in Vietnam," Nguyen says. "I want to let the world know that this is totally wrong."
Drawing from true stories, Nguyen, 42, tells of an impoverished, single mother with five daughters living in rural Vietnam who unknowingly sells four of her children to prostitution dealers.
Although APAture celebrates Asian Pacific American artists, Kearny Street Workshop's artistic director, Samantha Chanse, says it's for people from all cultures.
"We believe in inclusiveness, in the audience and in the artists," Chanse says.
Through Sept. 30. At various venues in the Mission District. www.apature.org or www.kearnystreet.org.
Stephanie Wright Hession, 96Hours@sfchronicle.com
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