Gallery
Ripe (2017)
A short film by Lisa Kusanagi
"Ripe" is part of Kusanagi's ongoing multi-disciplinary art series "Psychosomatic Erosion" which examines the politics of women's bodies as they are hyper-sexualized in media and culture--bodies on the front lines of pleasure-selling industries. Commercials and porn industries shape, distort, and dehumanize our sexuality, sense of identity, desires, sexual norms, ideas of pleasure, and relationships. This aesthetic phenomenon affects our body image across the spectrum of female-identified and gender nonconforming bodies. The work pushes for greater awareness: What are the consequences of this phenomenon?
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Directed and Produced by: Lisa Kusanagi
Director of Photography: Richard Dominguez
Original Music by: Ran Bagno
Makeup by: Rashida Bolden
Assistant Director: Beau Dobson
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The film has been screened across the United States, Mexico, Canada, Spain, and Germany
A short film by Lisa Kusanagi
"Ripe" is part of Kusanagi's ongoing multi-disciplinary art series "Psychosomatic Erosion" which examines the politics of women's bodies as they are hyper-sexualized in media and culture--bodies on the front lines of pleasure-selling industries. Commercials and porn industries shape, distort, and dehumanize our sexuality, sense of identity, desires, sexual norms, ideas of pleasure, and relationships. This aesthetic phenomenon affects our body image across the spectrum of female-identified and gender nonconforming bodies. The work pushes for greater awareness: What are the consequences of this phenomenon?
⎯
Directed and Produced by: Lisa Kusanagi
Director of Photography: Richard Dominguez
Original Music by: Ran Bagno
Makeup by: Rashida Bolden
Assistant Director: Beau Dobson
⎯
The film has been screened across the United States, Mexico, Canada, Spain, and Germany
Rewilding (2016)
Choreographed & Directed by Lisa Kusanagi
Dancers: Freshman dance major students of Universidad de las Américas Puebla (México)
Music: Ran Bagno (Edited by Arcadio M. Lanz)
Costume, Hair & Makeup : Lisa Kusanagi
Lighting & Stage Design: Lisa Kusanagi
Prop Master: Jose Eduardo Espinosa Yayo
Venue: Auditorio Guillermo y Sofia Jenkins, Universidad de las Américas Puebla
Rewild (verb) - Restore to its natural uncultivated state
Link to excerpt of Rewilding
https://vimeo.com/193778761
Choreographed & Directed by Lisa Kusanagi
Dancers: Freshman dance major students of Universidad de las Américas Puebla (México)
Music: Ran Bagno (Edited by Arcadio M. Lanz)
Costume, Hair & Makeup : Lisa Kusanagi
Lighting & Stage Design: Lisa Kusanagi
Prop Master: Jose Eduardo Espinosa Yayo
Venue: Auditorio Guillermo y Sofia Jenkins, Universidad de las Américas Puebla
Rewild (verb) - Restore to its natural uncultivated state
Link to excerpt of Rewilding
https://vimeo.com/193778761
We Participate We Contribute We Benefit and We Are Victims Simultaneously (2015)
Choreographed & Directed by Lisa Kusanagi
Dancers: Dance major students of Universidad de las Américas Puebla (México) Perla Andrea Becerra Castro, Yessica Portillo García, Valeria Arrieta de León, Jose, Angel Cuevas Machorro, Patricia Hernandez Portillo, Maria Fernanda Fragoso Rubio, Sebastián Santamaría, Marisol Delgado Servín, Noelia Sosa, Cintia García Zúñiga
Music: Glenn Miller Orchestra, Michael Wall & Darren Morze, Jocelyn Pook
Venue: Universidad de las Americas Puebla, Auditorio Guillermo y Sofia Jenkins (Mexico)
This is Kusanagi's latest dance work choreographed for students of Universidad de las Americas Puebla in Mexico, in which she explores and investigates complex sociopolitical realities through the lens of Trinh T. Minh-ha’s quote “Liberation opens up new relationships of power, which have to be controlled by practice of liberty.”
Choreographed & Directed by Lisa Kusanagi
Dancers: Dance major students of Universidad de las Américas Puebla (México) Perla Andrea Becerra Castro, Yessica Portillo García, Valeria Arrieta de León, Jose, Angel Cuevas Machorro, Patricia Hernandez Portillo, Maria Fernanda Fragoso Rubio, Sebastián Santamaría, Marisol Delgado Servín, Noelia Sosa, Cintia García Zúñiga
Music: Glenn Miller Orchestra, Michael Wall & Darren Morze, Jocelyn Pook
Venue: Universidad de las Americas Puebla, Auditorio Guillermo y Sofia Jenkins (Mexico)
This is Kusanagi's latest dance work choreographed for students of Universidad de las Americas Puebla in Mexico, in which she explores and investigates complex sociopolitical realities through the lens of Trinh T. Minh-ha’s quote “Liberation opens up new relationships of power, which have to be controlled by practice of liberty.”
Walking on Eggshells (2015)
Conception & Directed by Lisa Kusanagi
Performance & Text by Benjamin Frankenberg & Lisa Kusanagi
Sound Score by Maxwell Transue
Presented by Harlem Stage
Venue: Harlem Stage (NY)
Conception & Directed by Lisa Kusanagi
Performance & Text by Benjamin Frankenberg & Lisa Kusanagi
Sound Score by Maxwell Transue
Presented by Harlem Stage
Venue: Harlem Stage (NY)
itsy bitsy (2015)
A short film by Kusanagi Sisters
Conception, Directed, & Produced by: Lisa Kusanagi & JuJu Kusanagi
Performance by: Lisa Kusanagi & JuJu Kusanagi
Director of Photography: Annisa Amalia
Production Designer: Lisa Kusanagi
Edited by: JuJu Kusanagi
Music by: Chakita, Maxwell Transue and Tony Denove
Production Assistant: Mitchell Gustin
According to the research, there are 9 different types of intelligence; naturalistic, musical, logical-mathematical, existential, interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, linguistic, intra-personal, and spatial. We question how can other intelligence besides linguistic and logical-mathematical, which are considered the “intellectual” in most academic institutions, gain more respect and recognition. Are there any other and more intelligence exist? So often we feel our aesthetics, ideas, imaginations, and minds are colonized by white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. We reject colonization of our imaginations. Because our perceptions and imaginations are reality. We must de-colonize our imaginations, in order to think and create freely in our own logical senses.
"itsy bitsy" has been screened across the United States (17 states) and at festivals and venues in Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Chile, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Albania, Kenya, China, and Indonesia. It has received many awards including First Place in pre-professional category at 2016 Utah Dance Film Festival (UT) and Audience Choice Award at the 2015 40 NORTH Dance Film Festival (CA). Critic Megan Stevenson wrote, "The sisters, in canary yellow lipstick, performed delicate finger dances in a mushroom forest, sipped through novelty straws, carefully stepped over eyeballs on a bark floor, and played mushrooms like musical wine glasses. ...In this film (and often in the world), sometimes weirdness is paradise" (Seattledances.com). The film has been screened in 15 countries at over 30 festivals, 5 universities, 3 galas, and many venues including AMC Theatres, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, and the JW Marriott Hotel Los Angeles LED billboards.
Link to itsy bitsy
https://vimeo.com/210891144
A short film by Kusanagi Sisters
Conception, Directed, & Produced by: Lisa Kusanagi & JuJu Kusanagi
Performance by: Lisa Kusanagi & JuJu Kusanagi
Director of Photography: Annisa Amalia
Production Designer: Lisa Kusanagi
Edited by: JuJu Kusanagi
Music by: Chakita, Maxwell Transue and Tony Denove
Production Assistant: Mitchell Gustin
According to the research, there are 9 different types of intelligence; naturalistic, musical, logical-mathematical, existential, interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, linguistic, intra-personal, and spatial. We question how can other intelligence besides linguistic and logical-mathematical, which are considered the “intellectual” in most academic institutions, gain more respect and recognition. Are there any other and more intelligence exist? So often we feel our aesthetics, ideas, imaginations, and minds are colonized by white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. We reject colonization of our imaginations. Because our perceptions and imaginations are reality. We must de-colonize our imaginations, in order to think and create freely in our own logical senses.
"itsy bitsy" has been screened across the United States (17 states) and at festivals and venues in Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Chile, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Albania, Kenya, China, and Indonesia. It has received many awards including First Place in pre-professional category at 2016 Utah Dance Film Festival (UT) and Audience Choice Award at the 2015 40 NORTH Dance Film Festival (CA). Critic Megan Stevenson wrote, "The sisters, in canary yellow lipstick, performed delicate finger dances in a mushroom forest, sipped through novelty straws, carefully stepped over eyeballs on a bark floor, and played mushrooms like musical wine glasses. ...In this film (and often in the world), sometimes weirdness is paradise" (Seattledances.com). The film has been screened in 15 countries at over 30 festivals, 5 universities, 3 galas, and many venues including AMC Theatres, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, and the JW Marriott Hotel Los Angeles LED billboards.
Link to itsy bitsy
https://vimeo.com/210891144
16 Day Return Policy (2014)
Choreographed & Performed by Lisa Kusanagi
Presented by Movement Research at the Judson Church
Venue: Judson Memorial Church (NY)
"16 Day Return Policy" is one of Kusanagi's on-going multi-medium performance series, "Psychosomatic Erosion," which deals with hypersexuality and the politics of women’s bodies: how commercial and porn industries shape and distort our sexuality, sexual desire, sexual identity, gender identity, sexual norms, ideas of pleasure, and human relationships.
This work has been/will be presented at
D.I.R.T. Festival 2017 - Revot(ing) Times Holding Our Ground (CA) March 25 & 26, 2017
Performática 2016 (Mexico) April 17-23, 2016
Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival / RAD Fest 2016 (MI) March 18, 2016
Movement Research at the Judson Church (NYC) March 9, 2015
Draftwork II/ Hollins University (VA) June 22, 2014
HATCH Presenting Series (NYC) May 24, 2014
Judson Church STUFFED (NYC) May 7, 2014
Draftwork I/ Hollins University (VA) April 26, 2014
Link to 16 Day Return Policy
https://vimeo.com/97370498
A Work in Progress (2014)
Choreographed & Performed by Lisa Kusanagi & Dana Livermore
Presented by Roanoke Ballet Theatre
Venue: Roanoke Ballet Theatre (VA)
Choreographed & Performed by Lisa Kusanagi & Dana Livermore
Presented by Roanoke Ballet Theatre
Venue: Roanoke Ballet Theatre (VA)
Information WasteLand (2013)
Choreographed & Performed by Lisa Kusanagi
Venue: Hollins Theatre (VA)
Link to Information WasteLand
https://vimeo.com/105772377
Beyond Words (2011)
Choreographed & Directed by Lisa Kusanagi
Performed by Colette Bakke, Sara Cofiell, Stefanie Giani, Lisa Kusanagi, Helen, Leibman, Trisha Neel, Alexis Nicolai, Aimée Otterson, Cassie Sherman, Jared Wiltse
Duet: Lisa Kusanagi & Jared Wiltse
Presented by American College Dance Festival & Sonoma State University
You don't understand. It's like someone's squeezing your heart. It's like you're trapped in a bottomless swamp. It's like you're a monochrome object in a world full of color. Hurts? Not only that. It really aches. Deeply, gradually, ...endlessly.
"Let me weep over my cruel fate and sigh for my lost freedom. May the pain shatter the chains of my torments just out of mercy." - Gorge F. Handel
Link to Beyond Words
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTlQf1ATcZc
Choreographed & Directed by Lisa Kusanagi
Performed by Colette Bakke, Sara Cofiell, Stefanie Giani, Lisa Kusanagi, Helen, Leibman, Trisha Neel, Alexis Nicolai, Aimée Otterson, Cassie Sherman, Jared Wiltse
Duet: Lisa Kusanagi & Jared Wiltse
Presented by American College Dance Festival & Sonoma State University
You don't understand. It's like someone's squeezing your heart. It's like you're trapped in a bottomless swamp. It's like you're a monochrome object in a world full of color. Hurts? Not only that. It really aches. Deeply, gradually, ...endlessly.
"Let me weep over my cruel fate and sigh for my lost freedom. May the pain shatter the chains of my torments just out of mercy." - Gorge F. Handel
Link to Beyond Words
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTlQf1ATcZc
