カテゴリー: English Blog

カテゴリー
English Blog

We are actors

Dancer, Singer, or Actor?

In Russia, there is no ballet dancer.  
There are ballet actors.

There is no opera singer.  
There are opera actors.  

And drama players are called play actors.  

Isn’t it so damn right?  

A friend of mind in ballet society told me this and I was so impressed.　

Of course, dancers are dancers, and singers are singers in their professions. But once they are in a story such as Swan Lake or Carmen, they must represent their characters. And once one takes on a character, s/he acts it. When the piece is a drama, the performer is an actor; not just a dancer or a singer. If not, the performer would be just a physical-skill-display (in this sense, dis-play is quite a proper word).

Artificial, Skills, or Artistry

The friend also told me that the most important thing in ballet is not physical skills nor musical senses, but artistry.

This is the very secret of any great stage arts.

Then we must discuss what is artistry and it would take several centuries. So for now, let’s say artists and performers all need to think about it all the time in making a piece of work. Then character-performers may come to think whether they are truly representing the characters’ minds and feelings or not.

In Japan

In Japan, I have always been frustrated by the general attitude of opera “singers” and ballet “dancers” saying “We don’t need to learn how to act. We are singers or dancers, not actors.”

I, as once a teacher of drama-acting in the New National Theatre Ballet and Opera School, feel the need to tell them that acting or actor-training skill is tremendously useful for performing a character.

I am writing this in English because I need support from many artists who agree with this idea of using the words of ballet-actor and opera-actor rather than ballet-dancer and opera-singer.

In this blog, ELICA’s IKI, is to share the beauty of Japan and the world, but I myself is a performing artist and couldn’t help but write this, because I think it important for the general public, too.

There is a website of Live Interaction Internacional Institute
lit.iki-world.com
and I will put more articles about performing on stage.

Bye for now.
ELICA

カテゴリー
ELICA's Works

Throwback Saturday 2: The Blue Beard’s Castle

While I was studying at RADA, with a national scholarship, I directed Shuji Terayama’s piece at ICA.

The play is The Blue Beard’s Castle.

カテゴリー
ELICA's Works

Ave Maria to the Distressed World

Let me share my hearty singing of Ave Maria, from Othello, by G.Verdi, as an omage to the world in distress.

If you like the video, don’t forget to subscribe.

カテゴリー
Zen & IKI Life

Black Lives Matter

Let me join peacefully.

Why?

Because I have many friends and relatives in my family.

Black Lives Matter.

Save the Very Spirit of America.

The colour of our blood is the same; red.

カテゴリー
ELICA's Works

Elica’s First Ever Theatre Piece

It was the days at Royal Holloway College, University of London.

I was an MA student at Theatre Department.

For the final MA project, I decided to direct a play named The Directions To Servants, by Shuji Terayama. (I already made the English translation as my BA project at Keio University, Japan).

I have found photos.

Music, Set design, Make-up and costume design also by Elica Miwa.
Of course, I had a set realizer and make-up and costume maker.
(Music was performed and recorded by myself)
They were fabulous!
Look at these photos!

The actors are undergraduate students.
How talented!
Terayama’s avant-garde, experimental, and brutal play was all poetic, out of order, out of norm, and difficult to get hold of through line of story.

But they understood and made it sooooo strikingly beautiful.

The theme was “grotesque” “human masks”.
So the characters’ movements often went grotesque and monster-ish.

Each shot shows their powerful eyes and energetic finger-tips.

These beautiful girls never mind showing distorted faces and body movements.
What great real actors!

The white lines you see on the set are white elastic strings which were attached to the floor from the ceiling. The characters often played with them as doors, as a hiding place, as a resting place, as a jail, and also used to show their emotions.

The production received a standing ovation.

With it, I could receive MA degree.

I wonder how they are all doing.
Beautiful memories.