Tamiko Washington (USA)
Workshop Presentation
"American Noh Theatre:
An Innovative Form of Theatre Movement"
Tamiko Washington
Professor Tamiko Washington holds an M.F.A. in Acting from the University of California, Irvine. Her seventeen-year history as an accomplished actor, voice, and movement teacher lead her to originate American Noh Theatre based on the traditional movements of Japanese Noh Theatre and Suzuki Master Tadashi Suzuki. Her proven effective vocal methodology can be accredited to her extensive study with Linklater and Fitzmaurice specialists such as Dudley Knight, Catherine Fitzmaurice, Isabel Kirk, Dennis Krausnick, Tina Packer, Christine Adaire, Keely Eastley, Margaret Jansen, Lisa Wolpe, Adrienne Johns, and Louis Colaianni.
Workshop Overview
The purpose of the project is to present a practical workshop/master class of American Noh Theatre ending with participants performing a ten to fifteen minute American Noh Theatre piece.
American Noh Theatre is a movement form based on Tadashi Suzuki’s method of movement for actor training called Suzuki Movement.
Tadashi Suzuki is considered one of the foremost contemporary theatre artists within the field of movement training for actors. The Noh Theatre of Japan and its stylized movements of the feet and hands are the origins by which Mr. Suzuki reinvented how actors recreate the illusion of reality in productions with their feet and bodily gestures.
American Noh Theatre follows the same principles of Suzuki Movement with the exception of including movements that interconnect with Expressionist Dance. Expressionist Dance is a European dance form related to the German expressionist movement. This dance form allows a performing artist to connect to the visible world through the intensity of his or her feelings. There is also the exploration of the visible world through a subjective perspective by revealing distorted human behavior to demonstrate an underlying emotional effect involving physical, psychical, and spiritual events. American Noh 
Theatre also incorporates the use of Noh plays (written by Zeami Motokiyo) and Japanese Shakuhachi Flute music to demonstrate the theatrical elements listed.
The objective of the project is to allow performers, performing arts educators, and teachers from around the world to experience a new, original, and innovative movement art form.
