Winner of the 2009 IZZIE for OUTSTANDING COMPANY PERFORMANCE

c(H)ord commissioned by YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS.

Premiere  APRIL 24 2008

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) presents inkBoat in the world premiere of c(H)ord, April 24 through 26, 2008. Continuing its long-standing relationship with Artistic Director Shinichi Iova-Koga (a Wattis Artist in Residence at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 2002 (performing “Onion”) and in 2004 presenting the award winning “Ame to Ame”), YBCA has commissioned this exciting work that represents the innovative, hybridized theater happening on the international stage.

c(H)ord binds the cacophony of lives erupting from the mud. Stained by ancestry, folk culture, wild nature and nostalgia, these creatures scuttle and crawl, tear at the earth and sing to the sky. Multitudes of histories unearth, bones clatter and reverberate under the skin. Shinichi Iova-Koga collaborates with Joshua Kohl (of Degenerate Art Ensemble), Yuko Kaseki, Sten Rudstrøm, Takuya Ishide, Dohee Lee, Sherwood Chen, Dana Iova-Koga and Heini Nukari. These Japanese, Finnish, German, Korean and American artists create a collision of light and motion, raucous vocals and percussion. Visually evocative, c(H)ord boils dance theater down to the raw elements. Eloquent. Provocative. A singularly stunning world of figures trapped between then and now, alienation and friendship.

The design team, comprised of Frank Lee and Mary Lois Hare (set design), Allen Willner (lighting design) and Johnny Kim (costume design), will be integrating their experiences with architecture, floral design, sculpture, painting and textile design to create the world of “c(H)ord”- a world that will blend industrial and natural elements, function and beauty.