KE 2017 - THE WINNERS!!

HERE ARE THE CHILDREN'S CHOICE AWARDS 2017

KYOTO EXPERIMENT

Very Futuristic/とても近未来だったで賞
& there was no decoration on your stage/ステージにかざりがついていなかったで賞
-> RAM CAMP in Kyoto 2017

Couldn’t Understand because the Words Were in English and It Was Too Dark/ 暗すぎたのと英語だったから意味がわからなかったで賞
& Super miracle everything was brilliant/スーパーミラクルぜんぶよかったで賞
-> Researchlight: Something there

It was so great that I wanted to record it so I can watch it again/ おもしろかったからビデオでとってもう一度みたいで賞
& The action was too crazy and made me feel nervous/
アクションがすごすぎてヒヤヒヤしたで賞
-> Teppei Kaneuji: Tower

I hope you will come back/また来てほしいで賞
& It was so beautiful I couldn't take my eyes off it/きれいすぎてくぎづけになったで賞
-> Xiaoxing Sun: Here Is the Message You Asked For... Don't Tell Anyone Else ;-)

It was dark and made me feel lonely/くらくてさみしくなったで賞
-> Naoko Tanaka: Uninternalized (light)

The show made me consider award/考えさせられたで賞
-> Marcelo Evelin: Demolition Incorporada; Sick Dance

I was so suprised, I almost dislocated my jaw/ びっくりしてアゴがはずれそうになったで賞 -
& BEST OF THE BEST/ベスト・オブ・ザ・ベスト賞
-> Heiner Goebbels & Ensemble Modern: Black on White

The music was too slow and made me sleepy/ 音がゆっくりすぎて眠くなったで賞
-> Ryoji Ikeda & Eklekto: music for percussion

I was suprised that there were many movements I have never seen/ みたことがない動きが多くてびっくりしたで賞
-> Trisha Brown Dance Company: Anthology: Trisha Brown

Sounded like being in a forest of temptation/ ゆうわくの森にいるような音だったで賞
-> Minhee Park: No Longer Gagok: room 5

Teamwork/ チームワーク賞
-> Takuya Murakawa: Independent Living

It was so funny that we all tried to mimic it award/ おもしろすぎてみんなで まねしてしまったで賞
-> Yudai Kamisato / Okazaki Art Theatre: The Story of Descending the Long Slopes of Valparaíso

KE 2017 - The Story of Descending the Long Slopes of Valparaíso

So, the very last show of the CCA 2017 at the Kyoto Experiment Festival was The Story of Descending the Long Slopes of Valparaíso by Yudai Kamisato and Okazaki Art Theatre. We went again to the Kyoto Art Center and enjoyed the evening.

Riko noticed that her outfit looks like a Minion today. 

KE 2017 - Takuya Murakawa: Independent Living

The second typhooooooon made our day a bit dark and wet but we had a good time watching Independent Living!!

First of all, braiding Jana's hair on the minibus...

KE 2017 - Heiner Goebbels & Ensemble Modern: Black on White

We had another double show day. First, we saw Heiner Goebbel's show Black on White.

It was great seeing Heiner after doing CCA at his Ruhrtriennale for three years (2012-2014). He was very welcoming to the VIP and told us that he is curious to hear what new award he will get this time! If you want to know what kind of awards he got from the Children's Choice Awards before, check out his website. He mentions all his awards there! 🏆

KE 2017 - Two Artist Talks (Minhee Park & Xiaoxing Sun)

We had a double date today! We talked to Minhee Park and Xiaoxing Sun about their shows. 

Finally we got some answers about those stuffed animals and Minhee's show that made the kids feel majestic. 

Sani and Riko gave us a little performance before the QnA

KE 2017 - No longer GAGOK: room 5

This time everything was a bit different and special. At No longer GAGOK: room 5 by Minhee Park only one person was allowed to enter the performance at a time. So we took only 4 judges and each of them had to experience the performance by themselves. 

 Sani and Shoko on the minibus. Sani as cool as always.

KE 2017 - Unverinnerlicht

Yesterday we took the jury to Unverinnerlicht by Naoka Tanaka.

Walking the red carpet. The jury is still a bit shy but we'll get there.

Lots of broken chairs on the stage.

KE 2017 - Here Is the Message You Asked For...Don‘t Tell Anyone Else ;-)

Today's show was Here Is the Message You Asked For...Don't Tell Anyone Else ;-)

by Xiaoxing Sun. We were very surprised by the ending of the show and a bit overwhelmed. The jury had a hard time focusing on anything else afterwards. Was that the intention of the show?

On our way to the show we found this giant umbrella 

in front of the Kyoto Art Theater Shunjuza

KE 2017 - Researchlight Tour #2

Round 2 of the Jury viewing researchlight's SOMETHING HERE. It was a packed couple of hours with lots of singing on the minibus.

KE 2017 - Workshop #3 - Choosing the Awards!

We had the 3rd workshop with the Kinrin Elementary School kids: deciding the award categories.  

KE 2017 - Workshop #2! What Kids Can't Do

Today we ask the Kinrin Elementary School kids what they are allowed to do (and not allowed to do!).

KE 2017 - Workshop #1 at the Kinrin Elementary School

Happy as Larry

Happy as Larry

Shaun Parker & Company (Australia)

Saturday 13 February 2010

Dance in Australia never ceases to amaze me; I wish more of it would tour to Canada and show us what dance should and can be.

Combining dance, ballet, break-dancing, movement, and roller-skates, this high-octane performance unwaveringly captures our pursuit of happiness and the pain, failure, misery, absurdity, self-loathing, determination, love and humour we encounter on the way.

A simple stage set-up, a backdrop was created using a series of flats attached back to back, which the performers moved in and out of, rotated around the stage, and which provided a platform to demonstrate their physical abilities, acted as a scene changer and a blackboard. Crayola should sponsor this show; chalk has never been used more effectively.

Highlights included the opening scene with a single performer staring defiant and deadpan out into the audience. Quiet slow laughter became increasingly more frantic, uncontrollable, exuberant. It took us (myself and the Jury, and I’m pretty confident I could speak on behalf of the audience) more time than I’d like to admit to realize the laughter was coming from the same person. All the while deadpan, unmoving. Jury Members=amazed.

Another highlight was a dancer jumping manically, feverishly up and down against a large bright yellow chalk sun, absorbing its rays. I have never seen dance so vividly convey unbridled emotion. She was bursting with joy.

The showstopper for the Jury was the ‘wardrobe malfunction’. In the midst of great physical feats of awe-inspiring roller-skating, spinning, flipping, and a final handstand, shorts somehow ended up around ankles. A new term for me, his “rude bits” were exposed according to the Jury, amid gasps, outcries, laughter and unstoppable giggles. (To anyone concerned with the inappropriateness of youngsters seeing “rude bits,” I offer you this: first, they’ve already seen worse on TV; and second, we were in the balcony.) None-the-less, expect a new award for this one....

All in all, I think we left happier than Larry. I for one turned into a sunbeam.

Jeppe Hein: Appearing Rooms

Appearing Rooms

Jeppe Hein (Denmark)

Thursday 11 February 2010

Like many site-specific, social-practice sculptural installations, Appearing Rooms invites audience members to enter, participate, and engage directly with it and each other. Water jets shoot up and create four distinct square rooms made up of 12 water walls, which appear and disappear creating a constantly changing environment in which to move. Held in a room at times like a jail cell, the walls suddenly collapse allowing escape and entry into another room, where the same cycle but different relationships begin and end. The interaction between participants is what is most interesting; some are left behind, teased, caught in between, tormented by the wait for a wall to drop, inspired to jump over walls as they emerge, or successfully dodge parents who are unwilling to get themselves wet.

Who doesn’t want to play in a fountain? Hands down, a soaking wet Jury is a happy Jury.

Hein’s Smoking Bench also deserves special mention.

Les Sept planches de la ruse

Les Sept planches de la ruse (Seven Boards of Skill)

Compagnie 111 and Scènes de la Terre (France/China)

Wednesday 10 February 2010

Using the basis of the Chinese game Seven Boards of Skill, or Tangram, the performance intricately weaved 14 Chinese performers trained in acrobats and opera, with a large Tangram (made up of 5 triangles, 1 square and 1 parallelogram) that filled the stage. With grace, agility, and a lot of humour, these performers created landscapes, mountains, an ocean, a cityscape, all the while climbing, falling, conquering, and at times being squished (a particular Jury favourite).

The opera singers created sounds and melodies that the Jury had never heard, and perplexed (and at times bored) them, the result of their inability to understand the Chinese verse.

With these shapes, unlikely dancers, they created new positive and negative spaces, relationships, movements, and breath-taking moments of mathematical genius. Pythagorus would have knelt down in awe. The first half proved more adventurous and exciting than the more languid second half, according to the Jury, which made them feel like they were in math class. Zzzzz.

Cecile Williams: Contained

Contained

Cecile Williams (Australia)

Monday 8 February 2010

After spending weeks collecting the plastic rubbish that washed up on the shores of Christmas Island, visual artist Williams created miniature dioramas that collectively tell a narrative of the histories of the Chinese and Malay peoples on the Island. Scenes, people, and backdrops are elaborately carved into lost flip-flops, WWII air raids created by a fleet of tiny plastic soldiers and fighter planes, and the plight of the detained immigrant workers in the mines are pieced together with bits of detritus. The volume of which, according to the Jury, blatantly calls for action.

Some Jury Members were bored, others captivated by the stories and documentary, and some more interested in cataloguing the refuse. At last count, the exhibition had over 20 different dinosaurs.

Antony and the Johnsons with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra

Antony and the Johnsons with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (UK/USA/Australia)

Saturday 6 February 2010

Surprise opening act, Waso, featured a DJ with a solitary dancer wrapped in white tulle moving slowly across stage, winding and unwinding herself. An overall dark tone that blended soft and fluid gestures, countered by long silver knife-like claws and aggressive angular movements. Overall, the Jury was a bit unsure of what to make of the opening act, scared a bit, but taken by the wardrobe change that occurred from the silver bikini to the black shiny bikini, both of which appeared to look like they came from a spaceship.

As part of his Symphony Tour, accompanied by a 36-piece orchestra conducted by Rob Moose, Antony's voice and lyrics are spellbinding. As is often the case at the symphony (well, many art performances), a good number of audience members are lulled to sleep, through sheer ennui, or surrendering to the sounds that envelop them. One Jury Member was overtaken by Antony’s magical powers, falling into a deep trance that gave him super powers to sleep through two standing ovations and an encore, and which required fairly vigourous shaking to wake him. Bravo.

The range and clarity of Antony’s voice is astounding, as is the emotion he conjures, further accentuated by the orchestra. A highlight was his remake of Beyoncé’s Crazy, a more subdued version full of longing, which scored high points with the Jury. A generous and lively performer, he chitchatted with the audience, went on tangents about his love for his granny who wanted to (or maybe did) knit sweaters for little birds (I want to meet her), and his responsibility as a public figure to advocate for various underrepresented and marginalized communities and causes. His love of performing emanated from the stage.

Top points also go to the large crystalline sculpture suspended above the orchestra, which absorbed a rainbow of lights creating a chandelier one might expect in a palace on Mars.

PS. If you ever have the chance to hear Antony live, I beseech you, go. Recordings do not do him justice.

La Fura dels Baus

Opening Celebration

La Fura dels Baus (Spain)

Friday 5 February 2010

Along with the Children’s Choice Awards Jury, the Haircuts by Children stylists and their families joined us for the opening night performance of La Fura in the Supreme Court Gardens among thousands of onlookers.

A massive scale spectacle, the performance incorporated 60 locals harnessed together and suspended 150 feet in the air, dangled from a construction crane. Together they created a moving choreographed grid, brightly lit with changing colours that contrasted with the fireworks that became their backdrop in the starry sky. The dangling people and the fireworks were a huge hit among the Jury and hair stylists.

On the ground was a huge cage wheel led by a Roman-like vicious chariot-driver, with acrobats suspended inside, as it churned through the audience, which frantically ran every-which-way to avoid being squashed. The exciting adrenalin rush felt by most of the adult audience translated into a group of nearly 80 panic-stricken youth who were too short to see what was going on and were at the mercy of a much taller herd who were only concerned about getting out of the way of the rolling cart than what they themselves might trample in their attempt.

Frightening for obvious reasons, and boring because we couldn’t see anything; both for the wrong reasons.

Jury criteria: what we're looking for !

OK artists, performers, directors, producers, and everyone behind the scenes who makes a show a show: THIS IS IT!

These are the unofficial (and constantly changing) criteria established by our judges from Roseworth Primary School, the Official Jury of the Perth International Arts Festival 2010, and what they're looking for to evaluate your performance.

Be prepared to dazzle, amaze and mystify the Jury. Bribes ARE welcome!

Singer with the best pitch

Most beautiful dancer

Person who tried the hardest

Best shoes

Best guitar hero

Most awkwardest voice

Most catchiest tune

Most lovable (I loved it the most!)

Craziest instrument

Most funniest dancing

Most coolest moves

Best magician

Most romantic

Most experienced

Most boring

The person who talked the most in one act

Most intelligent so I had to concentrate

Most organized

Most mysterious

Most adult

Best kiddish

Best role model

Most weird

Most environmental

Most minimal show

Biggest ensemble

Best choreographer

Most dramatic

Looks like the most expensive

Most magical

Silliest

Prettiest girl

Most handsomest boy

Most shiny dress

Most similar voice to a pop star, ________

The most functions on an instrument (like a space ship)

Best producer

Most funniest act

Most acrobatic show

Craziest costume

Craziest hairstyle

Scariest

Best musician

Happiest

Most dirty language

Wildest show

Most emotional

Best make-up

Most flexible person

Most original

Most realistic

Most talented

Most fit person

Most surprising act

Person who forgot their lines

Least violent show

Most instruments

Most disguises

Best show ever

Loudest show

The Children's Choice Awards - Perth International Arts Festival 2010

Welcome to the Children’s Choice Awards at the Perth International Arts Festival, with 42 9- and 10-year-old Jury Members from Roseworth Primary School.

As the official judges of the Perth International Arts Festival, the Children’s Choice Awards Jury will be attending a performance almost every single day over the next three weeks. Like any awards ceremony the judges will respond to criteria that they have created from their vast expertise. Our CCA Jury will take rigorous notes during and after each performance, and will collectively determine the 50 award categories and winners. At the awards ceremony each Jury Member will present an award described in their own words.

The Children’s Choice Awards presents youth in positions of power, where their opinions and voices matter proving that they can be articulate and critical. It is also a decisive intervention into the festival and its structure. As the jury attends each show, they are themselves a mini performance as announcements and audience members welcome them. We ask a lot of our fellow artists, as they share their limelight with the jury, and at times deal with a bit more rustling than usual, and for this, we offer our sincere thanks.

Please join the Jury throughout the Festival, and feel free to take photographs, request autographs and ask questions. Finally, join us on Saturday 27 February 2010 at 2pm at His Majesty’s Theatre for the Children’s Choice Awards Ceremony, where the Jury will award the most coveted awards.