Bloom - new step dance show with video projection

Aim

Aiming the costs of finishing and developing BLOOM from a work-in-progress production to a tour ready performance

ABOUT US

Hi!!!

This is Monika.

Monika is an amazing video artist and dance artist. And she is originally from Poland and living in Scotland for many years.

This is Kae.

Kae is amazing step dancer and step dance teacher and a book keeper. She also plays music and she's originally from Japan and lives in Glasgow for 18 years.

We're here to talk to you about our new collaboration called BLOOM, in which I do dance and music and Monika does video projections

OUR JOURNEY – HOW WE MET

We met while co-directing our first short step dance film in 2020.

For this project we chose to challenge the traditional step dance by placing it in the playground.

The choreography was created to the original music composed by Japanese harp player Riko Matsuoka. Riko created an unusual composition by using Japanese children play song called ‘Antagata Doko Sa’   ‘Where are you from’ and musical forms from the North and South of Japan along with Scottish traditional music formats. 

The film was shot and edited by Monika and premiered in Dance Live in 2021.

NEW PROJECT - BLOOM

This time we are exploring step dance and video projection in the context of live performance

BLOOM is a personal story danced by Kae to music inspired by Scottish tradition and supported by my video work.

It begins with homage to City of Glasgow where she is now and ends with a tribute to enduring image of Japan, the cherry blossom the sakura, the origin of her family name.

The project also features Kelvingrove Dancers which is a community dance group led by Kae

DEVELOPMENT

We are currently looking to raise £4,000 to develop BLOOM This amount would allow us to redesign the set and pay for materials and the construction.

We would like to make it more portable than the one we have at the moment so that we can travel with it and take it to different venues around Scotland and beyond.

We also would like to pay for technical support with programing of the projections in QLab and improve the running of the show. 

Your help in raising this amount will be greatly appreciated and we hope you can come and see the show.

Thank you for watching.

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BLOOM

Dance, Music & Choreography - Kae Sakurai

Camera, Edit, Set & Lighting - Monika Smekot

Collaborators: 

Michael Smith

Ainsley Hamill

Kath Bruce

Lucie Hendry

Kelvingrove Dancers

Special thanks:

Residency support - The Work Room 

Mentoring - Omari Carter, The Motion Dance Collective 

Edit recordings & Loop training - Anders Rigg

Space - Tramway, GTAC, Acting Coach Scotland

This project successfully funded on 31st October 2023