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In the Garden (with Ryuichi) - 2023
This dance was choreographed in homage to the late composer Ryuichi Sakamoto as part of Sakamoto Blue Sky organized by UMass Amherst and played on their youtube channel for the month of August 2023.

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Premiere of In the Garden (with Ryuichi), as part of the tribute project Sakamoto Blue Sky in homage to the late composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. The tribute project will be posted on the youtube channel of the Fine Arts Center of the University of Massachusetts August - September. In the Garden (with Ryuichi) will premiere on September 7th.

Acclaimed choreographer Molissa Fenley brings a new dimension to Sakamoto Blue Sky this week. Naturally, Fenley pays tribute to the late electronic film music visionary Ryuichi Sakamoto一 through dance. In the Garden (with Ryuichi), Fenley’s two-part dance, which she performs to birdsong is presented in cinematic fashion and unfolds in some ways like a film score, spurring the viewer to feel and internalize as well as to ponder and interpret.

Born in Nevada in 1954, Fenley grew up in Ibadan and Lagos, Nigeria, and returned to the United State to attend Mills College. She moved to New York in 1975 and founded Molissa Fenley and Company in 1977. The company has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Sakamoto Blue Sky is the UMass Fine Arts Center’s five-part tribute to Sakamoto, who passed in March. New world premiere works by composers who knew and/or were inspired by Sakamoto will be unveiled each Thursday through September 21. To see view the previous installments — Sirintip’s “memories,” and Ken Ueno’s “How Many More Times Will I See the Full Moon?”— and learn more about the series, visit the Fine Arts Center website: https://umassarts.site/sakamotobluesky-fenleyfb

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