Japanese kathak dance
group [apsara] with Japanese musicians hold the concert in India New Delhi on 3rd January 2010.
【INDIA HABITAT CENTRE】 Stein Auditorium
・2010/01/03 19:00 start
・Lodhi Rd. New Delhi 110003
・ticket free
・Kathak Dancers
Sachi Nakajima/Kazuyo Moriwaki/Yuki/Nao Tsutsumi/Yoshiko Ishii
・Musicians
Akiko Kokubu - sitar/Ayako Ikeda - tabla/Eri Yamaguchi - vocal
【India Habitat Centre】Stein Auditorium
http://www.indiahabitat.org/main.htmInquiry : あぷさら [apsara]
http://www.kathak.jp/index.htmlDancers
○Sachi Nakajima
Sachi started taking Kathak lessons under Yakshini Yazawa in 1971. She became apprentice to Pt. Vijay Shankar in 1978,
and made her first visit to India in 1980. Her first stage appearance was at Yakshini Yazawa's recital in 1983.
She also made an official debut in Calcutta the same
year. She performed in several shows after that, such as
"Kathak Festival in New Delhi", "Kathak Festival in Lucknow", and "Taiwan Dance Festival". From around 1985,
she started organizing and performing in her own independent dance shows. Her major performances in India include
"Mahotsava", a Kathak festival sponsored by the Indian government, in which she appeared four years in a row (1988-1991).
In 1989, she was invited by the Govt. of Uttar Pradesh to dance for an international festival in Lucknow.
In the summer of 2004, she started a dance unit called Apsara.
○Kazuyo Moriwaki
Kazuyo received early classical ballet training at the Yazawa Ballet School and Kathak dance training
at the Yakshini Kathak Center when she was a child. She visited India to take Kathak lessons from Uma Sharma
when she was 19 and later studied Kathak dance under C.S.Narayan, Pt.Vijay Shankar.
At one point she took
time away from Indian dance for several years, and made a come-back performing in
"The 12th Yakshini's World of Indian Kathak Dance (1991)". Since then, she has been actively performing
as a Kathak dancer and teaching as an instructor.
○Yuki
Yuki started learning Kathak in 1998 in
Tokyo from Sachi Nakajima, a disciple of Pt. Vijay Shankar ji,
at Yakshini Kathak Center. She later trained with Paramita Maitra in Calcutta for 6 months and studied with Sushmita Ghosh
in Delhi, with whom she is currently continuing her journey through training.
Dance for Yuki is a means of creating music through the
body. She performs as a member of Apsara in Tokyo,
and also is performing as a
solo artist with various musicians.
○Nao Tsutsumi
Nao began taking Kathak lessons in 1998. In the same year, she made her debut performance at a dance show held by
Yomiuri-Nihon TV Cultural Center. In 2003, she visited India to take dance lessons which she had been interested in doing
for many years. In June of 2004, she performed in a charity dance show held by the
Japan Marrow Donor Registry Promotion
Conference (NPO), and in September, in Apsara's first dance show. In August of 2005, she danced at the Indian Pavilion
at the 2005 World Expo in Aichi. Recently, Nao has been actively performing at regional festivals, at art events,
and at restaurant shows in Tokyo. She is still expanding her field of activities.
○Yoshiko Ishii
Yoshiko started learning Kathak dance in 2003 under Sachi Nakajima. She made her debut performance in the
second annual
Apsara show in 2005, and since then has appeared in the show every year.
In addition, she has performed at some local festivals around Tokyo, at Indian restaurants,as well as various other events.
Since she was a child, she has had a deep affection for music, and in order to convey that affection to others,
she hopes and strives to have her body and soul become like music itself.
This goal motivates and inspires her continuing dedicated Kathak practice.
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Musicians
○Akiko Kokubu
Akiko started learning to play the sitar from Mr.Teiju Kato in 2000. After that, she studied from Pt. Manilal Nag(Vishnupur
Gharana) in Calcutta in 2003, and has been studying under Sri. Amit Roy(Maihar Gharana) in Japan since 2005.
She is an artist performing north Indian classical music and accompanies Indian classical dance in various places such as
"Yokohama Diwali", (sponsored by the Yokohama Indian cultural exchange committee in Japan), "Aichi World Expo 2005", and "Namaste India".
○Ayako Ikeda
Ayako started learning tabla in 2003 from Japanese tabla player U-zhaan (Asa-chang & Junrei). Her zeal for tabla inspires
her to visit Calcutta every year to train under the great masters Pt. Anindo Chatterjee and Anubrata Chatterjee.
She has worked on television commercials, contributed on the
album 'RASA' of the singer-songwriter Minakumari,
and in a domestic tour in Japan and France performance. Also, she is a member of the band called "Tabla Dha"(by U-zhaan), "Show-Swee Girls".
○Eri Yamaguchi
Eri started learning the piano when she was 4 years old and western classical singing when she was 13 years old.
She has traveled the world making songs and collaborating with many kinds of artists such as contemporary dance,
Japanese Butoh dance, and others. She finally discovered Indian classical music in 2007.
After that, she studied under Taro Terahara, a Japanese bansuri player, and Ud.Jainul Abedin in Calcutta, India.
Whereas Eri had been mainly focused on exploring outside cultures, she has recently become more interested in examining
the culture of her native Japan. She is now learning Japanese folk song under Yoko Mikado (Mikado Kintou II).
New CD 発売中！ 2009.7.17 released 
