Lenora

Lenora has directed, choreographed, and produced her own works performing nationally and internationally. In recent years she has been developing a cycle of works based on the investigation of ones ever changing perspective on the past and on memory. This cycle includes A Timeless Jump with cellist Loren Kiyoshi Dempster (2005), You Quietly… (2006) and Gale Winds & Turiya (2007) with choreographer/dancer Elaine Wang, and Exposed (2007). The works give visibility to issues of women’s health, mental health, and to a journey that is deeply rooted in unveiling experiences seemingly private in public performance. Lenora’s work evokes traces of memory, of vulnerability, and taps into inner desires, secrets, and stories of family, community, and transformation by the painting of portraits through narrative and gesture. Within her work there is a sense of unbreakable resilience, of unstill stillness, of a range in energy and movement that is both violent and fluid, haunting and ancient, manifesting from her own internal timing. Lenora’s movement language captures a speed and precision similar to that of martial arts and a detail in gesture and communication to the likeness of sign language. As if sculpting sound with the body, she possesses a quietness with rumble. For her, the integration of movement and sound, dance and music, is an organic intertwining and lays the foundation for communication, conversation, and interaction. The multicultural perspective and multidisciplinary approach to Lenora’s work, stems from a history of collaboration with artists such as saxophonist Francis Wong, Japanese (odori) dancer/taiko artist Melody Takata, American Indian vocalist/bassist John-Carlos Perea, Cuban and Brazilian percussionist Jimmy Biala, cellist Loren Kiyoshi Dempster, and flautist/taiko artist Kaoru Watanabe. Her dance works can be seen as conversations integrating unique movement languages influenced by modern dance, ballet, Japanese drumming (taiko), martial arts, sign language, improvisation and jazz music.