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Press Contact: Sha Sha Higby(415)868-2409
cell: 415-860-6648
October 31,2009
shasha@shashahigby.com
http://www.shashahigby.com

Evocative sculptural costume and puppetry
Sha Sha Higby."In Clouds of Tea"
WHAT:  Legendary international performance artist, Sha Sha Higby,
whirls within a densely, lacelike thicket of her own design "In Clouds of Tea", premier of exotic sculptural costume & puppetry dance, in a profound drama of memory and timelessness. Internationally renowned for her evocative and haunting performances, Higby is influenced by her studies in Asia, Noh Theater, Butoh, shadow puppets. "
SFBayGuardian:” a new world of expression …..evolving canvasses to animate stories of life, death, and rebirth.”SF Chronicle: borrows from the past, and creates something wholly unique!...always mesmerizing performance art hero, Sha Sha Higby
WHEN:     Friday, & Saturday, December 11 & 12, 8 p.m WHERE:   presented at Live Oak Theater 1301 Shattuck Ave at Berryman,Berkeley 94709 HOW MUCH:     $18 adv/$22 door (Fri & Sat), $10 children TICKETS & INFO:BrownPaperTickets.com 800.838.3006 info:415) 868-2409, http://www.shashahigby.com
   Sha Sha Higby with her unique sculptured-costume performance art. …moves fluidly inside an intricate, lacy mesh of twigs, batiked fabrics, handmade leaves, seedpods and large and tiny masks,puppets, overlaid with kaleidoscopic projections, until her nearly naked body emerges from its evocative cocoon. ".” It is a slow unfolding of almost primordial , dreamlike , other worldly images and sounds. The ability to bring a meditative state of mind to this performance is a definite plus. If you can slow down internally for the 60 minutes the show runs ,and allow it to just pass over/through you it can be a deeply moving, almost to the point of tears , experience.( SFFringe)
: International performance/sculptural artist, Sha Sha Higby is known for her evocative and haunting performances using the exquisite and ephemeral body sculpture she meticulously creates herself and moves within. Elaborate sculptural costume, dance , and puppetry explore magic and emotion, creating atmospheric world within the borders between death and an Higby started out making dolls and pursued the art of puppetry and sculpture in her early years. Ms. Higby has performed her unique body of work throughout the United States, and internationally in Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Slovak, Bulgaria, Singapore, Australia, Switzerland, England, Belgium, Germany and Holland. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including the National Endowment for the Arts Solo Theater Artist Fellowship, The Zellerbach Family Fund, the California Arts Council New Genre Individual Artist Fellowship.
She studied for one year in Japan in 1971, observing the art of Noh Mask and theater and then received a Fulbright-Hayes Scholarship to study dance & shadow puppet making and performance arts in Indonesia for 5 years at the Academy of Music, Central Java, Indonesia. In addition to traveling throughout Southeast Asia to Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), she received an Indo-American Fellowship to study the textile arts of India, and a Travel Grants Fund from Arts International to study in Bhutan.She has also recently studied lacquer arts in Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan through the auspices of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission.
“When Sha Sha Higby was a child, she once sewed a dress with 25 petticoats of different colors, so she could lift each skirt and become something else.Today, the theme of transformation-and the concept of being hidden under massive quantities of material-remains prevalent in her work, though she'upgraded the media. Wood, leaves, paper, silk, lacquer, ceramics and gold leaf form her fantastical costumes, while Noh theatre, Butoh and shadow puppetry inform her performances, which could be labeled as "sculpturalcostume in motion." In fact, Higby's performances are so ethereal that shesometimes can't find the words to describe them: "The theme is that there's something beyond our own world."
review of “The Glass Jungle”
“When Sha Sha Higby was a child, she once sewed a dress with 25 petticoats of different colors, so she could lift each skirt and become something else.
Today, the theme of transformation-and the concept of being hidden under
massive quantities of material-remains prevalent in her work, though she's
upgraded the media. Wood, leaves, paper, silk, lacquer, ceramics and gold
leaf form her fantastical costumes, while Noh theatre, Butoh and shadow
puppetry inform her performances, which could be labeled as "sculptural
costume in motion." In fact, Higby's performances are so ethereal that she
sometimes can't find the words to describe them: "The theme is that there's
something beyond our own world."

Her latest transformation is The Glass Jungle, inspired by a Buddha with
glass eyes she saw on a trip to Burma. "The eyes were blown at a factory in
the jungle," she explains. "There was glass everywhere. The title just
popped into my head." Evoking the desert atmosphere of glass and the
different seasons, the piece combines her White Ash on Water (2004) costume
and her new Glass Jungle costume, a skeletal design comprised of fine metal,
bamboo and felt, among other things. Like the petticoats, she will shed the
first to reveal the second. "Then another masked head will float down from
the ceiling to top it off like a flower emerging, blooming, fading,
dissolving, returning. I want my audience to feel all these emotions.

" She adds, "My work is never linear. It's very open, so people can interpret it
differently." See if you can find the words to describe it.”
-Karen McKevitt courtesy of www.theatrebayarea.org
visit www.shashahigby.com.

Reviewer: Been there...
5 Stars
“If Sha Sha Higby were in Japan she would be designated as a national treasure. Having said that , this show will not work for everybody. There is no discernible plot or agreement at the end as to "what it was about". It is a slow unfolding of almost primordial , dreamlike , other worldly images and sounds. The ability to bring a meditative state of mind to this performance is a definite plus. If you can slow down internally for the 60 minutes the show runs ,and allow it to just pass over/through you it can be a deeply moving , almost to the point of tears , experience. There is no explanation. A rare opportunity to see her perform close up.”

July 1-27,2008
Press Contact: Sha Sha Higby(415)868-2409
cell: 415-860-6648
April 4,2008
shasha@shashahigby.com
http://www.shashahigby.com

Evocative sculptural costume and puppetry
Sha Sha Higby."A Cloud of Glass"
July 11-19, 2008
WHAT:     Legendary international performance artist, Sha Sha Higby,
whirls within a dense, lacey thicket of her own design "In a Cloud of Glass", premier of exotic sculptural costume & puppetry dance, in a delicate drama of memory and timelessness. Internationally renowned for her evocative and haunting performances, Higby is influenced by her studies in Asia, Noh Theater, Butoh, shadow puppets, and textiles "...her monumental props and costumes are...strung together with silk, wood, leaves and lace slither leisurely across you imagination." Hiya Swanhuyser, SF Weekly
WHEN:     Friday, & Saturday, July 11,12,18,19 8 p.m.
WHERE:     presented at NOHSpace
     2840 Mariposa, at Florida, San Francisco, 94110
HOW MUCH:     $18 adv/$22 door (Fri & Sat), $10 children
TICKETS & INFO:
     (415) 868-2409, http://www.shashahigby.com
     Also available at BrownPaperTickets.com
(also Performance in San Jose August 24th,San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles BrownPaperTickets.com), & Tickets (415) 868-2409. These performances coincide with two exhibitions of Sha Sha's costumes June-August at the Bolinas Museum (www.bolinasmuseum.org) and the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles.(www.sjquiltmuseum.org/calendar) Workshops in Bolinas Aug 2 &16
:
For Immediate Release August 1-24
August 24, 2008
6pm
Higby brings one of her popular performances to San Jose for the first time with a showing of her new production, In a Cloud of Glass. Bringing together sculptural costume, dance, and puppetry, In a Cloud of Glass explores the atmospheric world within the magical borders between death and life, and reflects Higby’s recent travels to Myanmar and Thailand. The evening performance opens with the San Francisco Indonesian Dance Company Harsanari presenting traditional Indonesian dance. The performance includes a processional gamelan and accompaniment to Higby’s performance by the award-winning Balinese orchestra Gamelan Anak Swarasanti. In a Cloud of Glass will be performed on Sunday, August 24 at 6pm next door to the Museum at 510 South First Street in downtown San Jose. Tickets are on sale now at http://sjquiltmuseum.org/calendar_august.html or by phone at 408.971.0323 x21 or by phone at 415.868.2409. Tickets are: $20 in advance with a $5 rebate at the door for members with membership card; $10 children; $25 at the door (if available).
In Javanese Moonlight is co-presented by the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in
San Francisco, Indoarts and Harsanari, the San Francisco Indonesian Dance Company. ” said
Museum Curator Deborah Corsini. “Like batik artists, whose work is deliberate and slow—not
infrequently taking months or even years to produce one stunning length of cloth—Higby mines the
spiritual meaning in the physical discipline required to devote up to two years developing a complex
sculptural form. As stationary art objects and as moving sculpture in her performances, these forms are an
invitation to a meditative space, where time slows down and we find ourselves quietly contemplating
life’s mysteries.”

Folds of Tea (Detail)

“Glass Cloud” Close up

“Cloud of Glass” Big Mask & Shield

“In Folds of Tea “(5 by 7)

Glass Jungle II

“Glass Cloud “ Small Mask & Shield

Sculpture Schedule Biography Interview
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　 Shop Membership 日本語 Cottage Copyright © 2008 Sha Sha Higby