UNFINISHED SIMPHONY
New York - USA
 
    Wednesday, September 30 - 8pm   Opening Ceremony    MACEDONIAN NATIONAL THEATRE
 
Idea, choregraphed and directed by Yoshiko Chuma
 
with guests from Aska Strings Project  
Music by Mark Bennett, Robert Black, Robert Een, Aska Kaneko and Hiroshi Yoshino 
Costumes by Gabriel Berry 
Performed by 
Crash Orchestra: Robert Black (double bass), Rocky Bornstein (dance), Yoshiko Chuma (dance), Simon Deacon (paino), Robert Een (cello/dance), Nicky Paraiso (violin/piano) 
Aska Strings Project: Aska Kaneko (violin), Yayoi Tsukamoto (violin/viola), Hiroshi Yoshino (double bass) 
Lights by Pat Dignan Technical  
Director: David Herrigel
 
    In Unfinished Symphony, the latest and biggest in a series of obstreperous works featuring her “Crash Orchestra”, Yoshiko Chuma undermines the traditional politeness governing the music-dance partnership, and rampages over the reverence of musicians for their instruments. 

The seven members of Crash Orchestra, five players in Tokyo’s Aska Kaneko Strings Project, and six dancers billed as the Anarchy Group dash around Danspace St. Mark’s if they were stealing bases in an unfamiliar game. Order erupts from chaos. Chuma confronts the string players, making passionate gestures that resemble no known conductor’s. All the instrumentalists are playing different melodies; suddenly they’re in unison.

    The School of Hard Knocks [SOHK] is a collective of artists including dancers, musicians, visual artists, media artists, theater technicians and designers. The company has performed extensively in the US and in Europe in works ranging from theatrical dance concerts to street performances and to large scale performance art spectacles. In the course of the company’s history, more than 1,000 people have performed under Yoshiko Chuma’s direction in the US, Europe and Asia. Yoshiko Chuma has choreographed more than 40 works for the company and as commissions.