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WHAT'S NEWSubscribe to The New Moon, ACTA's Monthly E-Newsletter. See the latest edition of The New Moon. An Apprenticeship in Okinawan Kutuu
Master artist Katsuko Teruya Arakawa (left) and apprentice
Pamela Joy Afuso, surrounded by Okinawan kutuus, at the Teruya Sokyoku
Kenkyukai in Gardena. Gardena-based master kutuu player Katsuko Teruya Arakawa is a current master artist in the Alliance’s Apprenticeship Program with apprentice Pamela Joy Afuso of Los Angeles. Throughout the past year, Arakawa conducted lessons with Afuso at her kutuu school, the Teruya Sokyoku Kenkyukai, in Gardena. The Okinawan kutuu, more commonly known elsewhere in Japan as the koto, is a thirteen-stringed Paulownia wood zither played by plucking strings with three picks in the right hand and modifying pitch and tone with the left hand. Used in Okinawan court music since the 1800’s, the kutuu accompanies Okinawan sanshin (shamisen) in classical music, dance music, and folk music as well as serving as a solo instrument. Singing also is a part of the kutuu musical repertoire. Afuso studied tone and timing, folk music improvisation skills, and understanding Arakawa’s subtleties in her singing. The apprenticeship focused on Afuso’s ability both as an artist and as a teacher. Arakawa worked with Afuso to learn and master set pieces required for the master teacher examination which Afuso intends to take in several years. “Primarily, I selected Joy because I feel she can continue on a path to master the kutuu and reach out to the next generation of kutuu players.” Indeed, Afuso currently has kutuu students of her own, having received her teaching certification in 2004. Another aspect of the apprenticeship under Arakawa’s guidance resulted in Afuso’s development of a lesson plan for first year students that covers basic technique, short recital or demonstration pieces, singing pieces, and contemporary pop pieces.
Musical notation for the Okinawan kutuu. Arakawa began studying over fifty years ago in Naha, Okinawa, under the tutelage of Nae Kochi, the senior headmaster and one of the founding members of the Ryukyu Sokyokyu Koyokai Kutuu School. Awarded a teaching certificate after twelve years of intensive studies, Arakawa moved to Hawai’i, returning intermittently to Okinawa to continue working with Kochi. She was recognized as a master kutuu teacher two years later. “I am from Okinawa and as my life has taken me to Hawai’i and California, music has always been my link to my homeland.”
Master artist Katsuko Teruya Arakawa (right) and apprentice Pamela
Joy Afuso Afuso also recognized the link in practicing kutuu to her own Okinawan heritage. “Katusko sensei imparts how integral music is in her life. For me, the music is fun, sometimes hypnotic, sometimes incredibly exciting. It always reminds me of those Issei [first generation Japanese immigrants] who came before me.” Afuso, who started training in kutuu and dance with Hideko Tanahara in Los Angeles thirty years ago, resumed her kutuu training in 2001 after focusing exclusively on dance for seventeen years. Afuso’s commitment to her studies has made her “feel as though I have only scratched the surface of Okinawan music.” An Apprenticeship in Korean Pojagi and Chogak-Po
Master artist Bonghwa Kim (left) and apprentice Yejin Cha display
a Amidst shopping boutiques, furniture shops, and gallery spaces along the La Brea corridor in Los Angeles, Los Angeles-based master artist Bonghwa Kim and her husband, Sung Y. Lee, run their gallery and studio Casa Muhyang, dedicated to traditional Korean arts including the Korean tea ceremony, ceramics, folk painting, flower arrangement, calligraphy, and textile arts. The latter includes traditions including pojagi (wrapping cloths used for storage) and chogak-po (patchwork). This year, Kim participated as a master artist in the Alliance’s Apprenticeship Program with apprentice Yejin Cha of Glendale, focusing on traditional patchwork techniques and embroidery through regular meetings at Casa Muhyang. Patchwork textiles are reflective of the pragmatism and artistry in traditional Korean textile arts, with functional applications in covering or wrapping various items, from precious valuables and heirlooms to daily necessities. Each piece also varies based upon the needlework and color combinations and patterns which convey “traditional beauty and cultural affection with Korean solicitude and faith.” Through this work, Kim writes, “I learn presence of mind, concentration, and patience.” Kim and Cha’s apprenticeship included both patchwork and embroidery, key needlework techniques which are specific to linen, silk, or ramie, and discussions about the forms’ history and the traditional principles and use of colors, composition, and philosophy within the pieces.
Scrap boxes used by master artist Bonghwa Kim (left) and apprentice
Yejin Cha to meticulously collect scraps used in pieces like the large
chogak-po shown above. Considered representative of the state of a woman’s spirit, chogak-po dates back at least to the 14th century, when women would meticulously collect leftover scraps of silk, cotton, ramie, or linen (all woven in the home by women) from making clothes, and artfully compose and stitch together the scraps to make pojagi, cloths used to wrap, cover, carry, and store items in the household. Pojagi vary in size and application, and would be used to contain the most mundane items such as bedding or clothing, to the most reverential such as Buddhist sutras. Today, chogak-po techniques are used either in the traditional utilitarian manner, or as wall hangings or table runners. Paired regularly with Kim and Cha’s labor intensive chogak-po and needlework lessons were the conducting of traditional Korean tea ceremony, which further provided a framework for their extensive conversations on women-based traditional arts in Korea. Like needlework, Kim articulated that the meditative tea ceremony is considered an integral companion to her textile work: “I lay all my devotion and prayers with every tiny stitch in the work. This became excellent meditation and it gave the opportunity of learning the beauty of tea ceremony, folk art, and traditional floral design.” Since she was a young girl, Kim learned her skills in both tea ceremony and needlework directly from her mother, the traditional method of transmission. “All girls learned skills from their mothers and grandmothers and later they had to teach their own girls. Preserving this tradition, my mother passed her knowledge of needlework onto me.” Through her and her husband’s work exhibiting artists and offering classes in traditional Korean arts throughout the year at her Casa Muhyang, Kim wants to be sure to pass the traditions she learned onto the second generation and 1.5 generation Korean Americans who live in Los Angeles. She feels that certain Korean domestic traditions are “slowly [being] forgotten by young generations who [are] steeped in Western culture and I believe it is important for our next generations to experience the beauty of Korea’s history.” Her interest has been to ensure that these traditions can continue amongst younger, English-speaking Korean Americans, in addition to Korean immigrants living in the US, and offering a space for these practices to occur.
Master artist Bonghwa Kim (right) and apprentice Yejin Cha working
on a chogak-po Kim’s participation in the Apprenticeship Program with Cha is no exception to her interest in perpetuating these traditions, and Casa Muhyang became the site where they would work together, as well as the place where Cha initially met Kim. Upon their meeting, Cha was “entranced by [Kim’s] exquisite collection of work” and promptly began to learn from her. Cha, herself considered a 1.5 generation Korean American, feels that the apprenticeship with Kim has allowed her to “learn everything about what it means to be a Korean woman.” Musing on the impact her studies with Kim have had in her life as a young, urban woman in Los Angeles, Cha notes that “in a busy, hectic life, focused on making a buck, each stitch becomes a prayer.” Kim noted Cha’s “particular interest and understanding in Korean culture,” believing that “she will be an outstanding artist succeeding our traditional culture.” As a result of their apprenticeship, they shared their work in the unprecedented exhibition Walking on the Same Path at the Korean Cultural Center in Los Angeles, sharing the show with master African-American quiltmaker and former Apprenticeship Program master artist Allyson Allen. An Apprenticeship in Mexican Arpa Mariachera
Master artist Juan Morales (right) and apprentice Erasmo Villarreal
with their arpas. Wasco-based master musician and educator Juan Morales participated this year in the Alliance’s Apprenticeship Program with Earlimart-based musician Erasmo Villarreal in Mexican arpa mariachera (mariachi-style harp). Morales first developed an interest in harp when delving into his Jarocho heritage as a youth while visiting his father’s homeland of Veracruz. “Although I learned to play other instruments before the harp, once I was able to afford one, it rapidly became my favorite one to play.” Purchasing his first harp as a teenager over twenty years ago, he studied harp from various street musicians in Guadalajara, as harp instruction did not exist in academic institutions. Soon after, upon settling in Arizona, he began intermittent studies for years with the late ariachi maestro Arturo Mendoza during Mendoza’s tours with his Mariachi Vargas alongside Nati Cano’s Mariachi Los Camperos. Morales’ talent eventually gave him the opportunity to play and tour with the latter group, in addition to Mariachi Sol de Mexico. The mariachi harp, Morales describes, is “an intrinsic part of the mariachi culture” and at the turn of the twentieth century in Jalisco, was an essential instrument accompanying the guitarra de golpe and two violins to define a mariachi ensemble. Traditionally, the harp provides the fundamental bass line and harmonic accompaniment as well as melodic interjections alongside the violins. Over time, however, the harp’s role in mariachi ensemble playing has diminished, and today is more commonly played as a melodic and virtuosic instrument, its role in mariachi ensembles frequently replaced by the guitarrón. “As important as the role of the harp in the mariachi once was, very few people have ever even seen one of these beautiful instruments and I believe it is my responsibility to try to keep this cultural tradition from becoming extinct.” One of the ways in which Morales has tried to keep the mariachi harp-playing traditions alive has been through an elective mariachi class in Delano at Delano High School, where he first met Villarreal as a freshman who enrolled in Morales’ class and continued his studies through his entire high school education, additionally developing accomplished proficiency in playing the guitarrón, vihuela, and guitarra de golpe from Morales, and playing both within the high school group and with other Kern County groups under Morales’ direction. Villarreal “has shown an unusually deep interest in the Mexican culture and the mariachi tradition as a whole,” Morales commented, “In my twenty years of teaching experience, he is one of the fastest learners that I have worked with, and has particularly demonstrated a marked easiness in the learning of the mariachi harp.” Participating in the Apprenticeship Program with a focus on harp enabled Villarreal to “help me to become a well-rounded armonia musician.” Reflecting on his studies with Morales during and beyond his high school years, he stated that Morales “has been able to teach me the culture, rather than just the music,” and has had the honor to meet mariachi greats, including Cano, members of Mariachi Vargas, and Jesus “Chuy” Guzman, through his teacher.
Apprentice Erasmo Villarreal playing the arpa. The apprenticeship followed the traditional way of transmitting music orally and by rote, with Morales demonstrating on the harp with Villarreal following during weekly lessons in Morales’ home. Additionally, Villarreal developed improvisation skills, learned how to interlock rhythmic patterns with the strumming patterns of the guitarra de golpe within an ensemble, and learned songs in different styles, including some harp solos. Emphasis was also placed on developing the bajos (bass line), and in strengthening Villarreal’s ring finger to play the bass lines at different octaves, as well as on techniques to sustain notes through the melody line. Villarreal’s aspirations in mariachi music mirror that of Morales’ dedication to foster an emerging generation of mariachi musicians, which also include Morales’ three daughters. Together, Morales and Villarreal contribute critically to today’s vibrant mariachi traditions in the Central Valley. “I hope to be like Mr. Morales and develop a great knowledge in all the instruments to be able to be a versatile musician,” Villarreal comments. “I mostly expect to have a lot of fun because I love mariachi.” An Apprenticeship in Carnatic Violin
Master Carnatic violinist Anuradha Sridhar (left) and apprentice Sruti
Sarathy. Thirteen-year old Sruti Sarathy has been working with master musician Anuradha Sridhar in Carnatic violin for almost six years, this year participating in the Alliance’s Apprenticeship Program. Sridhar hails from the illustrious and legendary Lalgudi family, representing
five generations of musicians, whose lineage can be directly traced back
to revered saint-composer Sri Thyagaraja, who, alongside Sri Muthuswami
Dhikshithar and Sri Shyama Sastri, form the Trinity of Carnatic music.
The Carnatic music system traces its origins to the Vedas (4000 BCE)
and is based on the system of ragas (melodic scales) and talas (rhythmic
cycles), improvisation, and the characteristic use of decorative Gamakas
(graces) in rendering notes. Carnatic violin was introduced in
the 18th century and is an essential component to Carnatic music concerts
today. The Lalgudi Bani style of violin playing developed and perfected
by Sridhar’s predecessors aspires to reproduce vocal music through
soft and sweet bowing techniques and clothing complex rhythms in melody. Sarathy
comments that her teacher believes, “as her forefathers have for
generations, that ‘the violin must sing.’” Currently, in the midpoint of an intensive ten-year curriculum together, Sridhar and Sarathy participated in the Apprenticeship Program, meeting weekly in Sridhar’s home, in order to support and deepen Sarathy’s studies. Sarathy herself has garnered local and national attention for her musicianship, accompaniment, and improvisation, winning awards at the national Thyagajara Aradhana music competition which occurs annually in Cleveland, and performing regularly in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sridhar developed this decade-long curriculum in order to adapt to learning embedded within an American cultural context which differs from the “around the clock” traditional mode of cultural transmission. Nevertheless, disciplined practice regimen is sustained, with Sarathy practicing up to four hours daily in order to develop her playing. “The violin is a very difficult instrument to master, and to learn to play the intricacies of the ragas and gamakas is even harder,” Sarathy notes. During the course of the apprenticeship, the lessons built on their past work together, focusing on musical foundations, introduction to progressively complex composition for violin and vocals, rhythmic and improvistory exercises, finger articulation, and a deeper understanding of the classical repertory and classical composition. With approximately half of the Carnatic musical tradition composed, and the other half based on improvisation, Sridhar worked with Sarathy to develop an understanding of improvisatory principles and practice through imitation, technical application, and sample improvisation studies. Sridhar also emphasized the art of accompaniment in Carnatic violin, which differs dramatically from solo performance. Sridhar trained Sarathy to become a stronger accompanist and hone her ability to spontaneously respond and follow the challenging structures established by a lead musician or vocalist, a process which demands swift rhythmic calculations and a stronger understanding of musical structure.
Master artist Anuradha Sridhar (left), apprentice Sruti Sarathy (middle),
With the rigorous training from Sridhar, and the dedicated support of Sarathy’s parents—her mother, Vatsala Sarathy, is also a Carnatic vocalist—Sarathy notes that by “playing Carnatic violin, I feel closer to my roots and heritage.” Sridhar adds, “I selected her for this apprenticeship for her commitment, talent, and hard work, and I believe that she will scale great heights in this art.” An Apprenticeship in Chinese Sword Dance
Master artist Ling Mei Zhang (right) and apprentice Ruth Yafonne Chen
Since she was sixteen years old, San Francisco-based master artist Ling Mei Zhang has practiced Chinese sword dances, mastering both the single and double straight sword techniques, and representing China as a cultural ambassador to countries around the world. Zhang studied wushu double straight swords from Liu Yuhua in Heibei Province and Lee Wenjin in Beijing over forty years ago, becoming the national champion of the form in 1975. Considered one of the highest ranking martial artists from China currently living in California, Zhang is a seventh degree black-belt and one of three top women recognized in China for her double straight swords expertise and in influencing contemporary wushu, in addition to specialization in Cha Quan (slanted fist), contemporary Chan Quan (long fist), straight sword, spear, and Ba Gua Zhang. Building on a seasoned career with over thirty years as a teacher, Master Zhang participated this year the Alliance’s Apprenticeship Program with apprentice Ruth Yafonne Chen, also based in San Francisco, who has been studying wushu with Zhang over the past three years. Their participation in the Apprenticeship Program brought them together weekly outdoors at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral Plaza, and focused on Zhang’s world-renowned specialty in wushu double sword technique, a form which dates back centuries in China to the Qin and Han dynasties (221BCE to 220 AD). Perpetuated predominantly by female master proponents of the form, the sword dance is one of the most popular Han Chinese dance forms which has been incorporated into Chinese acrobatics, Chinese dance performances since the Tang Dynasty, and Chinese operas since the Song Dynasty. This incorporation of the sword dance into operatic forms informed Zhang’s approach in working with Chen during the apprenticeship. Zhang created a sword routine dance personally inspired by the legendary Beijing opera star Mei Lan Fang (1894-1961), who famously incorporated wushu and double swords into one of his solo routines in the famous opera Farewell My Concubine (Ba Wang Bie Ji), a performance which left an indelible impression on Zhang when she witnessed it as a young woman and opera fan. Zhang refined double sword choreography for Yafonne to perform on stage, interweaving many wushu and tai chi routines as well as opera movement. Though this is the first time Zhang has realized this vision, it has lived with her for many years. Couched within this piece are fundamental double sword techniques and exercises which enabled Yafonne to practice daily. Over the course of the apprenticeship, Zhang taught the choreography to Chen as well as worked on details including timing, proper angles, force, execution, precision of sword placement and proper integration with the music. Zhang created this piece specifically for Yafonne as a means to teach the technique to her. At the same time, Zhang noted that “it is because of Yafonne’s love of the double swords that this piece could be realized.”
Apprentice Ruth Yafonne Chen watches as master artist Ling Mei Zhang
(right) As a highly trained Han Chinese dancer and dance teacher, Chen first met Zhang upon approaching Zhang for an interview for a newspaper story. From that first meeting, Chen’s steadfast persistence to encourage Zhang to teach Chen and others who had yet to achieve advanced levels in the forms made Zhang realize that Chen “was serious and willing to work hard to learn, so I agreed to teach. Because Chen comes from a dance background, it is easy for her to memorize and pick up on movement combinations.” As a dancer, Chen recognized the precious opportunity to work with Zhang, understanding that “learning Chinese sword dances from a martial artist is more effective than learning it second hand from a Chinese dance or Chinese opera teacher.” Further, Chen reflected that “growing up [in the United States] can be confusing culturally. To learn from Master Zhang makes me feel rooted and connected, goes back hundreds of years.” Their work together has deepened Chen’s understanding of her Chinese culture and roots. When executing movements taught to her by Master Zhang, Chen expressed that “I feel it in my bones. The movement fit like a glove. I have never felt that before.” The previous articles reflect recent site visits to current participants in the Alliance’s Apprenticeship Program. Text and photos by Sherwood Chen, Associate Director and Apprenticeship Program Manager for the Alliance for California Traditional Arts. In Memoriam: Asako Takami
Asako Takami By Chaitee Sengupta Editor’s Note: On November 3, 2007, San Francisco Bay Area Odissi dancer Asako Takami passed away after a four-year battle with ovarian cancer. Takami was born in Nigata, Japan, and became involved in Odissi dance at the age of 20. She was a college student studying art and Japanese design when she was first exposed to Indian dance. At that time she began studying Kathakali and Manipuri, two of India’s classical dance forms. Later she saw a performance in Tokyo by legendary Odissi dancer Sanjukta Panigrahi and was profoundly moved by the performance. She told Hinduism Today in 2000, “I was very shocked that one human body can change the space and energy. I didn't think I could do that with my body, but I wanted to. Right after this performance, I met my teacher, KumKum Lal, who was visiting Japan from India. I went to her place and said I wanted to study Odissi. She just started teaching in her kitchen. That's how I began in 1983.” For seventeen years, Takami traveled to India for several months at a time, training with KumKum Lal in Delhi, and with Lal’s teacher, Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, in Orissa, the home of Odissi dance. Takami is the founder and artistic director of the East Bay-based Pallavi Dance Group. In 2005, Takami was a master artist in the Alliance’s Apprenticeship Program with apprentice Chaitee Sengupta. In March 2004, my Odissi dance teacher Asako Takami and I applied for the Alliance’s Apprenticeship Program. The application asked, “Why do you want to work with this master artist?” My answer was, “Anyone who meets Asako knows that she is very reluctant to call herself a teacher or even think of herself as a teacher. To me though, she embodies so many qualities as both a person and a dancer that I admire and strive to emulate, which is why I sought her out as my teacher. Asako is such a beautiful, precise, and graceful dancer. Her knowledge and faithfulness to the traditional choreography is so detailed and conscientious. As a person and a dancer, Asako is so humble and unassuming and free from egotism or a competitive nature. In the world of dance this is a rare and precious type of person, especially to have as a teacher. She encourages all her students to experience the joy of dancing by freely sharing everything she can offer.” Of her experience with Odissi, Asako told the Alliance, “For me dancing, performing and teaching Odissi dance is a form communication, a tool of connecting with people and with my deeper self. This dance form nourishes and cultivates my personal life and from that I deepen my practice. “When I came to the US, everyone around me was talking about ‘identity.’ It made me think a great deal of my Odissi practice as a Japanese person. It was and is a creative conflict. When I dance, perform, study with my Indian teachers, I know my approach, my devotion, is different. Over the years I've slowly recognized that my approach is something already there, inside the form, an honesty, in how I can and must approach this foreign form. I always come back to this truth, that this strict form creates a pure, distinctive power, an energy which I feel with my particular body. It is not about being Oriyan or Indian or Japanese, it is about dancing, that humanness. I am outside of the culture that this dance is deeply rooted in. There is an inherent abstraction to my approach.” We found out early that summer that we were accepted into the Apprenticeship Program. We also found out that Asako had been diagnosed with cancer. That summer and fall she went through intense and difficult cancer treatments—surgery, radiation, chemotherapy. The treatment ravaged her body, but amazingly by spring she was well enough again to dance and teach, and we were able to work together through the apprenticeship. I was incredibly lucky to learn a beautiful abhinaya (expressive story telling) piece from her, called Sahki He, a traditional item in the Odissi repertoire from the Gita Govinda, a 12th century Sanskrit lyrical poem.
Asako Takami (right) and Chaitee Sengupta At the time I did not know that our work together in the Apprenticeship Program would be my last chance to study Odissi with Asako. Her cancer returned later that year. After another round of medical treatments and a long stretch of alternative healing efforts she passed away on November 3, 2007. She is survived by her parents, her sister, and her partner Ralph Lemon, as well as an international community of friends, students and people she has inspired. As her student and friend, I feel so proud and lucky to have had the opportunity to spend time with her and study dance with her. In October I had the opportunity to meet KumKum Lal, Asako’s teacher, for the first time when she was visiting ailing Asako in San Francisco. She told me that of all her students, she only taught Sakhi He to Asako. How wonderful that Asako could pass this on to me. I thank the Alliance for making it possible. AdvocacyTake Action! – AB 1365From California Arts Advocates AB 1365 (D-Karnette) requires that 20% of existing sales tax charged in two specific retail categories pertaining to arts, crafts and music be transferred to the California Arts Council. If this bill becomes law, it will generate in the first year more than $30 million for the California Arts Council and its grants programs. If this bill becomes law, funds will be transferred in the first quarter to the California Arts Council. Register your support for AB 1365: California Arts Council: funding: sales and use tax revenue. AB 1365 must pass out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee in January 2008 and go to the Assembly floor for a full vote of the State Assembly by January 31. The bill needs a 2/3 vote of the State Assembly to go to the next step, the State Senate. If this bill does not get to the Senate, it will die. Take the first step to keep this bill alive! Ask colleagues, board members of arts organizations, chambers of commerce, vendors, and neighborhood councils to register their support for AB 1365. TAKE ACTION! Register your organization's support by writing Assembly Member Betty Karnette. Address your letter of support to: The Honorable Betty Karnette RE: Support for AB 1365 Sales and use tax revenues: funding of the California Arts Council. LOCATION: Assembly Appropriations Committee Karnette Capitol Office – Fax #: (916) 319-2154 CC: Ms. Dana Mitchell, Consultant for the Arts, Entertainment,
Sports, Tourism and Internet Media – Fax # (916) 319-3451 Click here for a generic sample letter (word document) that you and your colleagues can use to copy and paste, and save on your desktop for this bill and future communications with your elected officials at all levels of government. Examples of letters in support of AB 1365 can be found on the resource page of the California Arts Advocates website. California Arts Advocates' executive director, Lisa Caretto, president Brad Erickson and lobbyist Kathy Lynch will be in Los Angeles to present information about AB 1365, the transfer of sales tax to the California Arts Council, at the Arts for LA Advocate Briefing on Tuesday, December 11, 2007, 2:00 pm – 3:30pm at the Autry National Center, Wells Fargo Theater. Click here to RSVP for the briefing. |
