Little Tokyo 2013 New Year Performance

These images are from the dress rehearsal of "Kotohajime" a New Year's performance put together every year featuring multi-cultural performing arts. The above image is of a Korean Dancer.

The set design was put together by JACCC's Artistic Director Hirokazu Kosaka

Another image of the Korean dancer

I enjoy shooting the dress rehearsal because it comes with a different energy than when with an audience, and it allows for images with a higher contrast. In this image are the Modern Level III Dancers from the Colburn School's Trudl Zipper Dance Institute.

Another image of the Modern dancers.

Near the end of rehearsal I ran out of black and white so tried to capture a couple of images with color. This may be one of my favorite all-time color images, it features a fellow writer and friend.

At the end of the Kotohajime performance, Mr. Kosaka emerges and performs a purification rite by the shooting of the first arrow of the New Year, a Zen Archery tradition. Again, this is from the rehearsal so the archers are not in traditional clothing, so it almost seems like a moment is caught that was meant to stay secret.

At the end of the Kotohajime performance, over 500 roles of paper tape descend to the stage at the moment the New Year's arrow hits the target.

As I have had the honor and great pleasure of pulling the cord that releases the paper tape for nearly 7 years  I was able to capture these images right after they dropped in the performance.