Ex*p girl

  N E W S H O W: Paris Syndrome- CULTUREMART- January 17th, 18th, 19th HERE Theater, 8:30pm. http://www.here.org/see/now/ ____________________________________________________________ ________ Paris Syndrome, an original dance theatre piece created by Ex.Pgirl, is based on a phenomena of extreme culture shock that occurs to some Japanese tourists when they visit Paris. They experience a psychological meltdown due to the realization that "the city of love" does not meet their idealized expectations. Annually, as many as twelve Japanese tourists fall victim to it, primarily women in their thirties. Paris Syndrome will explore themes of madness, ideals, love, beauty, and cultural misunderstanding.In a recent article released by the BBC, Caroline Watt states: "Around a million Japanese travel to France every year and many of the visitors come with a deeply romantic vision of Paris… The reality can come as a shock. But for the Japanese -- used to a more polite and helpful society in which voices are rarely raised in anger -- the experience of their dream city turning into a nightmare can simply be too much. This year alone, the Japanese embassy in Paris has had to repatriate four people with a doctor on board the plane to help them get over the shock. They were suffering from Paris Syndrome." The only permanent cure is to go back to Japan – and never return to Paris.Ex.Pgirl is at the very beginning of the development process for this new project, where we will explore the themes of madness, ideals, love, beauty, and cultural misunderstanding that Paris Syndrome addresses. Using our trademark video interviews, we plan to use a married couple in their early forties who tell of how they met and give anecdotes of their relationship. Using the cultural backgrounds of our cast, we will begin the development process with a series of exploratory improvisation sessions that encourage personal stories, associations, and stylistic models on which to base this project. Paris Syndrome will feature a lot of dance, spoken scenes, language games, video interviews, and an original score composed by our company composer, who lives in France._____________________________________________________ _________________ Ex.Pgirl is a movement theatre company that creates original work for the stage.In 2002 Ex*pgirl premiered its first production, Ablution, created for the American Living Room Festival at HERE Arts Center. Ablution was selected to participate in “The Best of” the American Living Room Festival 2002 as well as The Artists of Tomorrow Festival in 2003. Soon, Ex.Pgirl was invited to participate in HERE’s Artist in Residency program (HARP), where they developed their second work Waving Hello, which premiered at HERE in November 2004 and was the recipient of the Franklin Furnace Grant for Performance Art as well as a commissioning grant from NYSCA. In March of 2005 Waving Hello was invited to perform at Brown University. Ex.Pgirl will present their third work, 10 Plates, in NYC in October 2007. For 10 Plates, Ex.Pgirl was the recipient of a NYSCA grant, a Chashama agrant, an Urban Artist Initiative Grant, as well as a Swing Space grant from LMCC._______________________________________________________ ____________ (PHOTOS BELOW OF 10 PLATES PART OF HERE'S CULTUREMART 07' with: Suzi Takahashi, Bertie Ferdman, Kiyoko Kiwagashi, Valerie Issembert, Soomi Kim)