Faustin Linyekula, Le Cargo. Photo: Agathe Poupenay.

Each year, we gather dozens of remarkable artists who work at the edges of contemporary practice, at the intersections of forms and styles and mediums. But just because the artists in the TBA Festival cross disciplines doesn’t mean that their work doesn’t have anything to offer the dance purists in our audience. If you’re looking for that virtuosic wonder of bodies moving on stage, look no further—we’ve got you covered with a whole roster of dancers and choreographers putting forward distinctive new voices.

Visionary butoh choreographer Kota Yamazaki will present (glowing), the lastest work by his Fluid Hug-Hug Company. Yamazki’s unique style seamlessly blends contemporary practice with traditional dance forms—in fact, his company’s mission is to promote the free and fluid exchange of diverse creative perspectives, hence their name. This work takes Yamazaki’s butoh background as a starting point for an investigation of both classical Japanese aesthetics and traditional African dances through a collaboration with artists from Senegal and Ethiopia. By turns fluid and energetic, you can expect a bold and graceful performance, a conversation in movement between practitioners from around the world. And, to further entice you to this one-night-only show, dancer Ryoji Sasamoto just received a Bessie nomination for his performance in the work!

Alongside Yamazaki, we also welcome back PICA alum Faustin Linyekula, a truly influential and powerful figure in contemporary dance. Hailing from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he runs Studios Kabako in Kisangani, Linyekula’s practice uses dance and movement as a tool to address the complex and tragic histories of his home country. In this TBA performance—his first solo—Linyekula presents a particularly personal look at his youth in the Congo, venturing back to his earliest memories of dance and music as a young boy. Through personal narrative and his compelling choreography, Linyekula will investigate his very relationship with dance.

US-based, Zimbabwe-born choreographer Nora Chipaumire also explores the colonial legacies of Africa, albeit from a very different angle than Linyekula. As the recipient of the 2012 Alpert Award in Dance, she explained that, “My work as a dance maker has been largely about radicalizing the way the African body and art making is viewed at home and abroad.” In Miriam, Chipaumire creates her first character-driven dance to engage the various forces acting on women: the tensions of home and society, imperialist and racist pressures, and sexual objectification. Along with dancer/actress Okwui Okpokwasili, Chipaumire’s performance will showcase her strong, charismatic style in a new more theatrical format.

If you’re interested in dance and movement-based work, you shouldn’t limit yourself to the choreographers listed in the guidebook. Under the direction of playwright Toshiki Okada, Japanese theater company chelfitsch has pioneered a unique theatrical style that pairs colloquial everyday speech patterns with stylized, idiosyncratic movements. The text of Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech concerns the mundane interactions of millennial office workers, but presents this spare, humorous dialogue through a repetitive and exaggerated series of mis-matched gestures. The result of this juxtaposition is a distinct new approach to theater with a feeling more similar to contemporary dance. In other words, it’s a perfect TBA moment: discovering a parallel between artists working across continents and mediums.

With TBA:12, we’re especially proud of our global lineup—this year, PICA will welcome artists from a dozen different countries across Asia, Africa, North America and Europe. Think of it as an international tour of contemporary artistic practice. It’s a chance to find commonalities across borders and experience the regional differences of vernacular styles. By bringing this diversity of artists, TBA creates a unique dialogue between artists and a ground for future collaborations and installations to take root.

Of all of the work we’re bringing, we happen to have a strong cluster of projects from Africa. In presenting a few artists, we hope to avoid the “flattening” impulse of labeling an individual as a distinctly “African” artist, as though any one artist could speak for an entire continent. Africa is a broad continent, with myriad distinctions and cultures and practices, but so often there is a tendency to exoticize international projects and hold them up as capturing the spirit of a region. These artists we’re bringing are making vital, powerful projects that are based in their everyday experiences, but make an impact across cultures.

Zimbabwe-born and US-based choreographer Nora Chipaumire will present Miriam, her first foray into a more character-driven dance, along with the incredible dancer Okwui Okpokwasili.

Renowned dancer Faustin Linyekula returns to TBA after many years to present his first-ever solo performance, Le Cargo, Linyekula delves into his early memories of dance and music, continuing his powerful investigations of the Congo’s tumultuous and violent history.

The African projects continue onto the late-night stage of THE WORKS, with a unique inter-continental collaboration between Portland band BRAINSTORM, and a host of African musicians, both in the Sahel region of West Africa and here in Portland. Skype performances, YouTube covers, and more bring global pop music together online and IRL.

One such international collaboration actually connects our African projects with a large contingent of projects by renowned Japanese performers working across music, dance, and theater. It’s an interesting moment to consider the Japanese art scene—what does it mean to be making working post-Fukushima? How are artists reflecting on the concerns and experiences of their country? In (glowing), TBA alum Kota Yamazaki works through some of the seminal ideas of Japanese aesthetics by way of a long-running collaboration with artists from Senegal and Ethiopia.

Voices & Echoes sees the return of sound artist Aki Onda, who has curated a trio of influential experimental musicians from Japan. Akio Suzuki, Gozo Yoshimaso, and Otomi Yoshihide blend traditional and invented instruments with sound art, poetry, and striking performance.

Working in a similarly experimental vein, director Toshiki Okada has made a definitive mark on Japanese theater with his company chelfitsch. In Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech, his uniquely choreographed style of performance will be in full display—it’s theater that will appeal to dance lovers, and a wry take on contemporary Japanese office life.

Crossing the Pacific to North America, we’ll also be presenting an amazing young Mexican theater company, Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol, with two politically-minded “documentary” plays. Their works excavate Mexican social and political history through a blend of video and live performance, shedding light on this contemporary moment in the process.

But the international artists don’t just work on stage. Curated by Zvonimir Dobrovic of Queer New York International, Perforations presents a trio of Serbian and Croatian site-specific performance projects by Petra Kovacic, Biljana Kosmogina, and East Rodeo. Through the rooms and hallways of Washington High School, these three artists will present a satirical political campaign, a musical installation, and an abstract performance.

Within End Things, the visual art program at TBA, Italian artist Alex Cecchetti will lead a daily “relay” performance, Summer is not the prize of winter; French artist Isabelle Cornaro will create large-scale painted murals in the PICA offices derived from her films; and Dutch duo Van Brummelen & De Haan will present a filmic recreation of the famed Pergamon frieze, stolen from Turkey and residing in Berlin.

So many of these artists cross datelines, work with peers and collaborators from multiple countries, and reflect an increasingly global culture, while remaining indebted to their cultural differences. It’ll be a big TBA for anyone looking to discover new international ideas. I feel like I took a trip just writing about all of these projects!