Phare Ponleu Selpak performance (Photo: Phare Ponleu Selpak)Weekend Beat: The circus comes to town every day for impresario
September 15,2007
BY MAYUMI SAITO, STAFF WRITER
Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
A six-member circus troupe thrilled Japanese children and their parents in Shibuya, Tokyo, last month, building human towers, juggling and performing back flips and other stunts as they portrayed the everyday life of Cambodian street children.
The two-day appearance was the last stop on the Cambodian troupe's monthlong Japan engagement.
The addition of a few Japanese words to the dialogue onstage and the troupe's beaming smiles kept the audience enraptured.
The troupe members--age 17 to 22--represented Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPS), an NGO that operates a circus school located at a refugee camp near the Thai border. Six music school students from the same NGO played traditional Cambodian music during the shows. Also, works by students from the organization's art school were exhibited in the theater lobby.
The eight-city tour kicked off in Okinawa and wound up with the performances in Tokyo on Aug. 15-16.
"This Cambodian circus tour was the culmination of what I've been doing for years," the event coordinator, Keiichi Nishida, 63, says. "I wanted to work with these poor but tough kids and let people see their resilience through circus art."
Nishida is the general director of the nonprofit International Circus Village Association based in Midori, Gunma Prefecture. He has brought international circuses to Japan and coordinated workshops for more than 20 years while managing his own circus school.
Nishida visited Battambang, Cambodia--an area hard-hit by war and littered with land mines--for the first time in September last year with the help of a circus acquaintance from France.
There Nishida met Khuon Det, the founder of PPS, a commune operating the circus, art and music schools. "I was overwhelmed when I heard the music students playing and saw the art students working on drawings spread over their classroom floor," he says. "The circus school's gym was packed. You could feel the energy as the kids practiced. I left wanting to convey what I had seen and heard--the energy and the determination of the children--to kids in Japan."
Nishida's love-at-first-sight experience with the Cambodian circus children helps to explain why he became deeply involved in circus culture decades ago.
Born in 1943 in Tokyo, he grew up with little interest in circuses. He majored in German literature at Waseda University and initially planned to go on to grad school after obtaining his undergraduate degree in 1968.
However, the chaotic student movement in the 1970s changed his post-university direction. Nishida went to work part time for a weekly magazine covering social issues published by Waseda alumni. One day while gathering facts for an upcoming editorial, he met a playwright and soon found himself writing articles about underground theater culture.
Then his career took another twist. While he was involved in the theater, a friend took him to see the now-defunct Sekine Circus in Futako-Tamagawa, Tokyo. Ishida was fascinated. "I thought circuses were fading away. But the physicality displayed by the performers was powerful and captivating," he says.
After visiting the head of the troupe, Nishida was hired as a gofer for Sekine Circus in 1976. For a year and half he ran errands: coordinating shows; meeting with fire department officials prior to performances; recruiting roustabouts to set up tents and organizing props.
His passion for the diminishing art spawned the support group Sakasu Bunka-no kai (Circus culture group) in 1979 and involved 70 to 80 other circus fans. The same year, Nishida started publishing an affiliated circus journal Kyokuba to Kyokugei (Feats of horsemanship and acrobatics) that featured overseas circuses.
Nishida and like-minded circus aficionados spent a lot of time discussing their dream: to build a circus theme park containing a school, theater and library. The fan club lasted until 2004.
"But years went by without any visible achievement," he says. The circus theme park remained a pipe dream. There were five circus troupes in Japan at the time. Two later folded their tents. There are three active circuses today--105-year-old Kinoshita Circus; Kigure Circus, in business since before World War II; and 11-year-old Pop Circus, Nishida says.
He founded AfterCloudyCompany (ACC), initially an editing and planning company, in 1984. In 1988, he was asked to coordinate an overseas circus troupe's visit to Japan, when Duskin Co. built the circus-concept restaurant Carnival Plaza in Osaka.
Ishida's company eventually came to specialize in international circus troupes and performers. It brought the first circuses from Mongolia and Vietnam to Japan.
In 1994, 1996 and 1998 Nishida also produced an original circus performance, Merveille, at Takarazuka Family Land in Hyogo Prefecture. The amusement park is now out of business.
Guy Caron, who later directed the Canadian troupe Cirque du Soleil's 2000 Dralion show, directed Merveille, employing Canadian performers and using original music, costumes, lighting and choreography.
Nishida says Caron is one of his most valuable friends among his long list of circus acquaintances. Caron taught Nishida the importance of show presentation rather than simply the technical aspects. Further, "Caron, who was the executive director of the National Center of Cirus Arts in France, inspired me to lighten up even when I was distressed over the stagnant circus school project. He taught me to stay positive while doing my favorite circus work," Nishida wrote in one of his three books on circus.
In 1997, Nishida finally built his circus library in Midori, a mountainous district with a population of 53,000 in Gunma Prefecture. It soon took shape as a circus village, where performers, clowns or those hoping to learn the ropes live and work together. Some residents are from overseas.
"I hope the circus village provides a home where Japanese performers can spend their lives and initiate cultural exchanges with other countries around the world, as well as passing down the circus culture to the next generation," he says.
Nishida created the clown group Goninbayashi starring five women as a village project in 1998. He booked performances for the group in Japan in 1999 and overseas the following year.
The same year, the International Circus Village Association officially gained NPO status and started collaborating with ACC.
In 2001, Nishida turned a shuttered local elementary school building into the Sori International Circus School. As Japan's first circus school, it recruited students as young as junior high school graduates for a four-year program. Students were to cook their own food, while living near the Gunma campus.
Two instructors from Kiev teach basic acrobatic and aerial classes. There are now 17 students, up from an original enrollment of five, Nishida says.
"The circus demonstrates the power of life, and living together bonds the members in the village. I've seen kids who rarely communcated start talking," he says.
Two graduates, Atsushi Takamura, 23, and Hiromi Kayama, 28, received four-month contracts with the Moscow State Circus (popularly known as the Bolshoi Circus) touring in London this year. Takamura trained in Ukraine and Kayama in Mongolia after leaving Nishida's school.
Nishida sees a new trend in circuses worldwide. "Circuses used to be all about technique. Now more artistic and spiritual expression is blended with the original physical technique," he says. "The story-telling, artistic characteristic is quite visible in European circuses, especially in France and Belgium," Nishida says. Meanwhile, he considers the world's most successful troupe, Cirque du Soleil, commercial entertainment that falls somewhere in between art and technical demonstration.
Nishida has been honored with numerous awards for his contribution to Japan's circus culture, including the Ashiwara Eiryo Award in 1990 and the Tokyo distinguished cultural award in 2003.
This summer Nishida worked as the circus-act coordinator for popular singer Yumi Matsutoya's spectacular show "Shangri-La III." He arranged for the Moscow State Circus to take part in the show.
He has served as a judge for the street performance event Tokyo Heaven Artist since 2002. Nishida just finished screening applicants for the event that will take place around Tokyo in October.
He is currently preparing vaudeville comic, clown and juggler Iori Mikumo's solo show "Sabaku-ni Kakaru Niji" (Rainbow over the desert) scheduled for Tokyo's Theater X on Oct. 16-17.
Nishida says: "Today, the popularity of the circus is picking up a bit due to the emergence of Cirque du Soleil and street performances. I still hang on because I feel the straightforward, physical performances and daily training give us something to pass on to the next generation."
Nishida's mission to pass on this way of life continues. Six students have graduated from his circus school and are now working as street performers in Japan or at circuses overseas, he says.
* * *
For more information, visit International Circus Village at <> and AfterCloudyCompany at <>.
The two-day appearance was the last stop on the Cambodian troupe's monthlong Japan engagement.
The addition of a few Japanese words to the dialogue onstage and the troupe's beaming smiles kept the audience enraptured.
The troupe members--age 17 to 22--represented Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPS), an NGO that operates a circus school located at a refugee camp near the Thai border. Six music school students from the same NGO played traditional Cambodian music during the shows. Also, works by students from the organization's art school were exhibited in the theater lobby.
The eight-city tour kicked off in Okinawa and wound up with the performances in Tokyo on Aug. 15-16.
"This Cambodian circus tour was the culmination of what I've been doing for years," the event coordinator, Keiichi Nishida, 63, says. "I wanted to work with these poor but tough kids and let people see their resilience through circus art."
Nishida is the general director of the nonprofit International Circus Village Association based in Midori, Gunma Prefecture. He has brought international circuses to Japan and coordinated workshops for more than 20 years while managing his own circus school.
Nishida visited Battambang, Cambodia--an area hard-hit by war and littered with land mines--for the first time in September last year with the help of a circus acquaintance from France.
There Nishida met Khuon Det, the founder of PPS, a commune operating the circus, art and music schools. "I was overwhelmed when I heard the music students playing and saw the art students working on drawings spread over their classroom floor," he says. "The circus school's gym was packed. You could feel the energy as the kids practiced. I left wanting to convey what I had seen and heard--the energy and the determination of the children--to kids in Japan."
Nishida's love-at-first-sight experience with the Cambodian circus children helps to explain why he became deeply involved in circus culture decades ago.
Born in 1943 in Tokyo, he grew up with little interest in circuses. He majored in German literature at Waseda University and initially planned to go on to grad school after obtaining his undergraduate degree in 1968.
However, the chaotic student movement in the 1970s changed his post-university direction. Nishida went to work part time for a weekly magazine covering social issues published by Waseda alumni. One day while gathering facts for an upcoming editorial, he met a playwright and soon found himself writing articles about underground theater culture.
Then his career took another twist. While he was involved in the theater, a friend took him to see the now-defunct Sekine Circus in Futako-Tamagawa, Tokyo. Ishida was fascinated. "I thought circuses were fading away. But the physicality displayed by the performers was powerful and captivating," he says.
After visiting the head of the troupe, Nishida was hired as a gofer for Sekine Circus in 1976. For a year and half he ran errands: coordinating shows; meeting with fire department officials prior to performances; recruiting roustabouts to set up tents and organizing props.
His passion for the diminishing art spawned the support group Sakasu Bunka-no kai (Circus culture group) in 1979 and involved 70 to 80 other circus fans. The same year, Nishida started publishing an affiliated circus journal Kyokuba to Kyokugei (Feats of horsemanship and acrobatics) that featured overseas circuses.
Nishida and like-minded circus aficionados spent a lot of time discussing their dream: to build a circus theme park containing a school, theater and library. The fan club lasted until 2004.
"But years went by without any visible achievement," he says. The circus theme park remained a pipe dream. There were five circus troupes in Japan at the time. Two later folded their tents. There are three active circuses today--105-year-old Kinoshita Circus; Kigure Circus, in business since before World War II; and 11-year-old Pop Circus, Nishida says.
He founded AfterCloudyCompany (ACC), initially an editing and planning company, in 1984. In 1988, he was asked to coordinate an overseas circus troupe's visit to Japan, when Duskin Co. built the circus-concept restaurant Carnival Plaza in Osaka.
Ishida's company eventually came to specialize in international circus troupes and performers. It brought the first circuses from Mongolia and Vietnam to Japan.
In 1994, 1996 and 1998 Nishida also produced an original circus performance, Merveille, at Takarazuka Family Land in Hyogo Prefecture. The amusement park is now out of business.
Guy Caron, who later directed the Canadian troupe Cirque du Soleil's 2000 Dralion show, directed Merveille, employing Canadian performers and using original music, costumes, lighting and choreography.
Nishida says Caron is one of his most valuable friends among his long list of circus acquaintances. Caron taught Nishida the importance of show presentation rather than simply the technical aspects. Further, "Caron, who was the executive director of the National Center of Cirus Arts in France, inspired me to lighten up even when I was distressed over the stagnant circus school project. He taught me to stay positive while doing my favorite circus work," Nishida wrote in one of his three books on circus.
In 1997, Nishida finally built his circus library in Midori, a mountainous district with a population of 53,000 in Gunma Prefecture. It soon took shape as a circus village, where performers, clowns or those hoping to learn the ropes live and work together. Some residents are from overseas.
"I hope the circus village provides a home where Japanese performers can spend their lives and initiate cultural exchanges with other countries around the world, as well as passing down the circus culture to the next generation," he says.
Nishida created the clown group Goninbayashi starring five women as a village project in 1998. He booked performances for the group in Japan in 1999 and overseas the following year.
The same year, the International Circus Village Association officially gained NPO status and started collaborating with ACC.
In 2001, Nishida turned a shuttered local elementary school building into the Sori International Circus School. As Japan's first circus school, it recruited students as young as junior high school graduates for a four-year program. Students were to cook their own food, while living near the Gunma campus.
Two instructors from Kiev teach basic acrobatic and aerial classes. There are now 17 students, up from an original enrollment of five, Nishida says.
"The circus demonstrates the power of life, and living together bonds the members in the village. I've seen kids who rarely communcated start talking," he says.
Two graduates, Atsushi Takamura, 23, and Hiromi Kayama, 28, received four-month contracts with the Moscow State Circus (popularly known as the Bolshoi Circus) touring in London this year. Takamura trained in Ukraine and Kayama in Mongolia after leaving Nishida's school.
Nishida sees a new trend in circuses worldwide. "Circuses used to be all about technique. Now more artistic and spiritual expression is blended with the original physical technique," he says. "The story-telling, artistic characteristic is quite visible in European circuses, especially in France and Belgium," Nishida says. Meanwhile, he considers the world's most successful troupe, Cirque du Soleil, commercial entertainment that falls somewhere in between art and technical demonstration.
Nishida has been honored with numerous awards for his contribution to Japan's circus culture, including the Ashiwara Eiryo Award in 1990 and the Tokyo distinguished cultural award in 2003.
This summer Nishida worked as the circus-act coordinator for popular singer Yumi Matsutoya's spectacular show "Shangri-La III." He arranged for the Moscow State Circus to take part in the show.
He has served as a judge for the street performance event Tokyo Heaven Artist since 2002. Nishida just finished screening applicants for the event that will take place around Tokyo in October.
He is currently preparing vaudeville comic, clown and juggler Iori Mikumo's solo show "Sabaku-ni Kakaru Niji" (Rainbow over the desert) scheduled for Tokyo's Theater X on Oct. 16-17.
Nishida says: "Today, the popularity of the circus is picking up a bit due to the emergence of Cirque du Soleil and street performances. I still hang on because I feel the straightforward, physical performances and daily training give us something to pass on to the next generation."
Nishida's mission to pass on this way of life continues. Six students have graduated from his circus school and are now working as street performers in Japan or at circuses overseas, he says.
* * *
For more information, visit International Circus Village at <> and AfterCloudyCompany at <>.
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