artistic collaboration Susanna Beltrami
assistant to the staging Matteo Bittante
with the soloist of Susanna Beltrami Dance Company
Fabrizio Calanna, Alice Carrino, Cristian Cucco, Giulia Murgianu, Lara Viscuso
light designer Marcello Lumaca
produced by
CRT Milano
in collaboration with
Change Performing Arts
Compagnia di Danza Susanna Beltrami/DanceHaus
with the support by
Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan
Leonard Eto, one of the most renowned and innovative Japanese drummers, in 2014 has been appointed as "Japan Cultural Envoy" by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan. He got the opportunity to organize a world tour of the meetings with musicians, dancers, choreographers and directors in various countries.
During this long year the Teatro dell’Arte of Milan offered him a place - as the residence artist of the CRT Milan - to develop his project blendDRUMStheatre, and bring the result of his international experiences and cross his creative path with the ones of other Italian artists.
Under the title blendDRUMStheatre - that the name already shows the nature of his artistic research - Leonard aims to compose a "Trilogy of Taiko (Japanese drums)", with the development of a precise dramaturgy of feelings, which have been always associated with the sound of drums.
His approach is a unique for the originality of his musical creations. He creates an amazing range of emotions with his instruments – despair, euphoria and all the gradations between the two opposites – making regularly the audience drop to his feet. Eto loves the music that stimulates the dance and loves the audience dance to his music.
LEONARD ETO
The performances of Leonard Eto are a concentration of sound energy and instrumental virtuosity, where this innovative artist can exploit the full potential of the range of color and tone of the Japanese drum "taiko", revisiting the meanings and percussive techniques with a singular expression.
Leonard Eto was born in New York in 1963. In 1984 Leonard joined the famous Japanese taiko drum group, Kodo’, for which he was the music director and composer for many years. In 1992 Leonard started his solo activities, which led him gradually to mold the ways in which taiko is performed and to direct his vision toward multidisciplinary projects, which combine the music with dance, live painting and the electronic images.
He has performed in 50 different countries and has collaborated with artists from various disciplines such as Bob Dylan, INXS, The Chieftains, Bon Jovi, Michael Kamen, Ray Cooper and Roger Taylor, Zakir Hussain, Andreas Vollenweider(harp), Milton Cardona, Doudou Ndiaye Rose, Max Roach, Michael Shrieve, Siouxsie Sioux, The Creatures,Patrick Dupond and Nina Anianashvili .
Besides the concerts, Leonard also works as composer. His original works have been featured in film productions such as "JFK", "The Lion King", "The Thin Red Line" and "The Hunted" and others.
SUSANNA BELTRAMI DANCE COMPANY
The Susanna Beltrami Company was born in September 2008 with the desire to raise a new generation of dancers. The choreographer has built an ensemble of young professionals, led by a tireless tension on the evolution derived from the continuous challenges. The path and goal of the company is the reworking of the intrinsic mechanisms of the dance, which proceed blending contemporary languages. Its peculiarity is the artistic avant-garde scene, conceived not only as a theater stage, but as research in the context of site-specific. Multiple artistic creations and collaborations among the most recent, "The Vent Noir" - Festival Exister, "Estrad’eau" - Milan Fashion Week 2013, "Homesick" - Next 2013 collaboration with Milanoltre and "blendDRUMStheatre" of Leonard Eto – CRT Milano.
