Yoshiko Chuma and The School of Hard Knocks/ROOT CULTURE will perform POONARC: A Page Out of Order: Not About Romanian Cinema at Danspace Project for 6 performances. With support from RCINY, four Romanian artists are taking part in this project: director & playwright Theo Herghelegiu, dancers Andreea Duta and Istvan Teglas, and actor Sorin Calota. Before coming to New York in June, the four artists are participating in a project residency and performance tour in Romania in April/May, with performing and visual artists from New York, Japan and Romania. This exciting residency is hosted by the Arad Fun Underground Theatre Festival in Western Transylvania. Performances are scheduled in Arad, Timisoara, Cluj and Bucharest.

Post performance discussions on FRI, June 5th & 12th with Judy Hussie-Taylor, Dancespace director, and Corina Suteu, RCINY director, Yoshiko Chuma and others.

Yoshiko Chuma, Artistic Director of The School of Hard Knocks, has been a creative force in postmodern performance since the 1980s.  She has been an activist and artist, taking her projects to relatively isolated parts of the world, and focusing on East/Central Europe. This current dance/ theater/ film/ performance project, POONARC: A Page Out of Order Not About Romanian Cinema, features 25 participants from Japan, Romania and the USA, and is part of her ten year project, "A Page Out of Order", which will culminate in 2010.

The production is inspired by Chuma's growing interest in the cultural scene in Romania, and despite its name, the piece uses several clips from recently acclaimed Romanian films. Intercut with still photos and video taken on their locations, the film clips serve as a backdrop to a text that, like in the previous installments of the "Page Out of Order" series, is dealing with cultural identity and language, stressing similarities by pointing out differences. Dance solos and duets are staged in and around the seven-foot aluminum cubes which have been an integral part of "Page Out of Order" since its inception.

The performance project has been created in Japan, the USA and Romania and includes interviews with Romanian filmmakers and artists.

POONARC artists: actors/dancers/musicians USA: Yoshiko Chuma, Ursula Eagly, Jake Margolin, Kristine Lee; plus performers from Romania: Andreea Duta, dancer; Istvan Teglas, dancer; Sorin Calota, actor; and Theo Herghelegiu. ROOT CULTURE Creative Team (Kamakura, Japan): Nobuko Higuchi, Kotaro Inoue, Yoshitaka Ito, Gen Nagashima, Kohji Setoh, Yuuki Sawada. Multiple Screen Concept by Yoshiko Chuma. Lighting by Rie Ono. Set by Nick Vaughan. Song and music Sizzle Ohtaka, Koichi Makigami, Hiromu Motonaga (from Japan). Sound by Jacob Burckhardt and Soichiro Migita.


POONARC was created with support from co producers: Casa Cultura/Arad (Romania); Ground Floor Group (Romania), ROOT CULTURE (Japan), Danspace Project (USA) and GOH Productions (USA). 

Touring engagement in Romania is supported by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation through USArtists International with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. 

The creation of POONARC: A Page Out of Order: Not about Romanian Cinema was made possible in part by the Danspace Project  2008-2009 Commissioning Initiative, with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

POONARC was created, in part, while in residence at Kaatsbaan International Dance Center in partnership with Danspace Project's Danspace@Kaatsbaan Creative Residency Program and is supported by the New York State DanceForce with funding from the New York State Council on the Arts Dance Program. 

The participation of the Romanian artists to the performances in the USA is supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York. 

The music for POONARC was commissioned by the American Music Center Live Music for Dance Program.

Supported by Japan Foundation.

The School of Hard Knocks is supported in part by National Endowment for the Arts (USA), Japan Foundation, Saison Foundation, Tokyo Metropolitan Government and New York State Council on the Arts.


[Illustration by Hidetomo Mita]