The TERASIA Collective

Born in Tokyo in 1987, Yukari Sakata graduated from the Department of Musical Creativity and the Environment at Tokyo University of the Arts and then honed her skills working as a stage technician at theatres around Japan. At Festival/Tokyo 2014, she directed “Rashomon | Yabunonaka” in collaboration with Al-Kasaba Theatre from Palestine. In recent years, she has experimented with applying the ideas and techniques of theatre to the format of the exhibition. Her long-term project “Dear Gullivers” with the architect Jorge Martín García was featured in the Spanish pavilion at the 16th Venice Biennale in 2018. Sakata employs collaboration with existing narratives as a means of attempting artistic interventions in communities.

Born in Hyogo in 1987, Miho Inatsugu started her career in the theatre while studying at Tokyo University of the Arts. She works as an independent actor, mainly for the stage. Her acting credits include productions by Okazaki Art Theatre, Sample, Toshiki Okada’s chelfitsch, Mikuni Yanaihara Project, Busstrio, Office Mountain, and Tokatsu Sports. She has played a wide range of roles in Japan and abroad, including in “Always Coming Home” (2019), a Japanese-Polish co-production directed by Magda Szpecht. In productions directed by Yukari Sakata, she has appeared in “BOMBSONG” (2008), “Proserpina” (2009), “Khail Taiha” (2017), and “Tera” (2018, 2021).

Born in Tokyo in 1983, Kyojun Tanaka is a drummer, percussionist, and composer. He started his musical career since he was a student in Tokyo University of the Arts. Following time with the likes of Naruyoshi Kikuchi’s dCprG, he attained his Ph.D., and is currently a rhythm-addicted university staff who travels the world in search of rhythms that make one want to “embrace.” Kyojun performs with his unit MIDOUTEI and the Latin jazz band Septeto Bunga Tropis. He is also engaged in the research and musical training of hsaing waing at the National University of Arts and Culture in Myanmar. “Tera” (2018) was his first participation in Yukari Sakata’s works, and he also performed in its shows in Tunisia (2019).

Born in Saitama in 1992, Maho Watanabe is a translator and dramaturg who works in and around art, media, and humanitarian work. In 2014, during her year abroad in the West Bank as an Arabic Studies student, she joined the director Yukari Sakata in “Rashomon | Yabunonaka,” a theatre co-production by Palestinian and Japanese artists. This marked her first involvement in performing arts, followed by numerous international collaboration projects, festivals, and workshops. Her translation of “Lilac Duhaa (Death in the Era of IS)” by Palestinian playwright Ghannam Ghannam won the 2019 Odashima Yushi Award for Drama Translation.

Narumol Thammapruksa is a performing artist and a self-defense artist, or an Aikido artist, with a special interest in social issues.

She portrays the performer’s experiences by developing a technique called autobiographical storytelling, which tells stories of the individual’s views on societies in parallel with the present world. On the other hand, this also portrays how one was oppressed and how others are affected by oppression. Other than plays, she is also interested in non-verbal movement, including mime, modern dance, and using masks. The director breaks the old tradition of the imagined “wall” that separates the performers from the audience. Throughout the performance, every now and then, she urges the audience not to be taken by its stories. She uses symbolic language to deconstruct and reconstruct.

At present, she is on the committee of the Peace Culture Foundation, whose aim is to build the culture of peace, promoting non-violence through social art activities and Aikido practices. She hopes that these activities will help foster love and compassion, empathy, and diversity, aiming for harmonious societies.

www.sonokoprow.com

Sonoko Prow is half Japanese and half Thai-Chinese, working as a director and performer. She has a multi-disciplinary, passionate, and multi-cultured background which makes her an extraordinary performer. She has created her own self-discovery and development program, which she uniquely applies to her Butoh performances.

Sonoko also founded Khandha Arts’n Theatre Company. She works as its director, performer, workshop provider, collaborating with world-renowned artists producing works for stage performances and arts festivals.

Kram Thum is a traveler, graphic designer, and interior designer. He graduated in Buddhist Studies from Delhi University, India.

When he returned to Thailand, he merged his traveling experiences with designs in various graphic and interior design projects he co-created, such as Karmakamet hotel and X2 at Koh Samui.

In 2010 he got a chance to work with world-renowned Japanese multi-disciplinary artist Tadasu Takamine in Japan and Thailand in a performing arts project named “Melody Cup.”

He is currently an astrology teacher at Suwannakhomkham Foundation, Bangkok.

After graduating in music from Mahidol University, Great lectured in Japan at Kanda International Language Studies University, teaching music and religions in South East Asia and Thai music performances. Afterward he studied for his doctorate at SOAS, the University of London in Ethnomusicology. After his graduation, he became a lecturer at SOAS.

With his specialties in Thai and experimental music, he became a member of Korphai, the renowned contemporary Thai music band since 2000. He also co-produced the musical soundtrack of Homrong films on Thai music in 2004. He also got selected as the Thai musicians representative to perform in the Asia Traditional Music Orchestra in Seoul, South Korea. In 2019 he produced and performed his music in Mahajanaka performing arts, highlighting the Buddha’s past life, with Pichet Kluncheun, which was performed in various cities in the UK.

Currently, he is the permanent lecturer in Performing Arts at Chiang Mai University.

Torpong Samerjai is an artist who specializes in Lanna music. He graduated from Chiang Mai University in Thai arts and cultures.

He performed and directed various music events in Chiang Mai. In addition to his musical talents, he also works as a Lanna and ethnic music scholar. He is also the editor of a book about Lanna percussion musicians.

At present, Torpong is affiliated with the cultural promotion centre of Chiang Mai University.

A barista of a coffee corner in a kids’ bookstore, namely ‘Bookish Buffalo.’ A filmmaker of an independent studio called ‘Mayim Studio.’ A writer with various pen names. A person interested in religions, philosophy, soul searching, what’s going on in society and at the margin, who tries to communicate his thoughts via documentaries, feature films, short stories, novels, essays, poems, and songs. Currently, apart from making coffee, his time is spent on a long documentary about political demands in Thailand, film script writings, and other writings.

Kamizu is an artist and art therapist who has pursued a career in visual art for over two decades. Actively involved in numerous domestic and overseas art projects and workshops over that time, she strongly believes that art can bring peace and mindfulness to anyone. Her philosophy is that every human being is an artist from a different perspective; it is just that some do not notice this themselves. She hopes art can be a platform to interact with people and connect them to themselves, to each other, and to nature as part of an emotional journey. Her works are research-based, and extend beyond painting and drawing. Kamizu has presented four solo exhibitions to date in Myanmar, Japan, and Malaysia. In addition, she has participated in numerous international art festivals, art fairs, and artist residencies. Her works have been featured in more than twenty group exhibitions at venues in Myanmar, Austria, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. She is also one of the founders of Expressive Therapy Space, where she facilitates and runs art and healing workshops and programs.

Born and raised in Myanmar, Khin Thethtar Latt, a.k.a. Nora, is a multimedia artist who started her art career in 2009. She is currently based in Yangon, Myanmar.
Nora’s creative approach is constantly changing. Early in her career, she started with painting and performing using a narrative storytelling style, focusing on self-discovery and reflection within the society in which she was born and grew up.
She is also a filmmaker, and has continually evolved as a multimedia artist while experimenting with different techniques and mediums.

Ngu Nway is a contemporary art and performance artist born in 1991. Born in the town of Pyinmanar, she is currently based in Mandalay. Daughter of the artist U Tin Maung Oo and Daw Khin Aye lwin, she studied under Daw Cho Cho Aung (Panthu Sandar Art Schol) and U Suu Myint Thein (Alin Dagar Art School). Since 2010, she has participated extensively in children’s art shows, group exhibitions, and performance art shows. Among the most notable of those was Made by Heart, a family art exhibition exploring memories of her deceased parents, featuring more than 80 paintings.
Ngu Nway’s artistic works primarily address her emotional world and her environment, including the experiences of people currently living in her country. She also started her brand, Canvas, through which she has designed and produced limited-edition T-shirts and bags since 2017.

Radanar was born in Yangon, Myanmar in 2001. Spending two years at a community school run by a Western charity organization in Mae-Sot, Thailand, she came in contact with open culture and performances having both Western and Asian influences. This experience sparked her fascination with the human body and movement. Radanar cultivated this interest during her teenage years, developing it yet further in 2018, when she participated in a theatre workshop organized by the New Yangon Theatre Institute (NYTI). Since 2018, she has been studying dance with a contemporary dance teacher. Due to Myanmar’s lack of educational programs for performing arts, she developed her sense of self as a performer and artist through theatre and contemporary dance workshops organized by foreign cultural organizations.
Radanar cherishes the connection between nature, mind and body. She believes the body is a vessel and art itself, and that artistic exchanges between the body and mind open many opportunities. In 2019, Radanar performed as one of the NYTI ensemble performers in the play The Grand Balcony directed by Ruth Pongstapone with May Thet Zaw in Yangon, also being invited to perform the play at the Bangkok International Performing Art Meeting (BIPAM) in the same year. In 2020, she performed in The Knots directed by Anne-Kathrin Klatt.

Red started practising moving images at Hanoi Doclab in 2015. Her short film Summer siesta: 6th hour counting from dawn (2017) was exhibited at Fundacion PROA (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and White Chapell (London) She is also a member of AJAR Press, an independent publishing house based in Hanoi. In June 2019, she had her first art residency at Á Space (Hanoi), and coordinated her first solo exhibition, Mùng mung. She has practiced organizing mixed experimental music/film/performance programs at Heritage Space since 2018. In late 2019, she began researching contemporary dance and theater production. She has been collaborating with H2Q Art, MORUA, the choreographer Ngo Thanh Phuong, Mat Tran Ensembles, and other artists. Her experiences include various projects including Method; L’EGO (Kinergie Studio), X-PROJECT, Sound Barrier, Through the door then…, Eye See Ai, 1936, and more. She was chosen to be a participant of Producers Camp 2021, organized by the Taiwan National Theater & Concert Hall.

Linh Valerie Pham (Creator, Theatre Director) is an experimental theatre and puppetry artist based in Vietnam. A theatre graduate of Sarah Lawrence College (New York), she is interested in movement, puppetry, breath, pretty words, ugly words, and all things magical. Her aim as an artist is to tell stories in a way that disrupts and destabilizes order. Her works have been showcased at the Goethe-Institut (Hanoi), A Space – Experimental Arts (Hanoi), the Vincom Center for Contemporary Arts (Hanoi), The Factory Contemporary Arts Center (HCM City), Soul Live Project (HCM City), Institut Francais Indonesia (Jogjakarta), CPR – Center for Performance Research (New York), Dixon Place (New York) and many other venues. She served as artist-in-residence at Rimbun Dahan (Malaysia), Udaipur (India), ASSITEJ Next Generation Tokyo (virtual) and a Fellow of Arts for Good Singapore. Valerie is also the Founder and Artistic Director of Mat Tran Ensemble, a performing arts collective with a focus on inclusive and socially-engaged practices. She and Mat Tran are grant recipients of British Council’s Connections through Culture Fund, Digital Collaboration Fund as well as ASEF and Prince Clause’s Mobility Fund, amongst many others. Ritualistic actions and repetitive movements are central to many of her recent works such as burn/city (Pesta Boneka – International Puppetry Festival, Indonesia 2020) and Gieu Ty Can (VCCA, Hanoi, 2021).

Dindon W.S. (Director) is the Chairman and Director of Teater Kubur, Jakarta. His works include: Raong raong, Danga dango 1,2, Sirkus Anjing, Tombol 13 Topeng Monyet Bola Plastik, SandiwaraDol, Trilogi Besi, and many more. Teater Kubur employs the physical theater method as the foundation of their rehearsals. The searching process lives on always in the heart of this director, who has experience in giving workshops and engaging in cross-cultural collaborations overseas to find new meaning for his spirit. His care and awareness of social reality continuously drive him to open up space for new possibilities which may be seen as impossible by another. Dindon participated in the Asian Contemporary Theatre Collaboration Hotel Grand Asia (2005) and directed the Asian Contemporary Theatre Project On/Off (2008, Theatre Tram, Tokyo).