Great Leap's Mission:
Great Leap is a Los Angeles based multicultural performing arts organization dedicated to creating and presenting original works in theater, music and dance. Through the creative and collaborative process of performances, workshops and community residencies, Great Leap works with professional artists and community partners to instill a deeper understanding and a sense of connection between diverse peoples. Founded in 1978 by Artistic Director Nobuko Miyamoto, Great Leap is rooted in the Asian American community and promotes cross-cultural exchange with local and nationwide audiences.
Great Leap's History:
Founder/Artistic Director Nobuko Miyamoto started Great Leap in 1978 to promote positive images of Asian Americans through theater, music and dance. At a time when many of the roles available to Asian Americans were extremely limiting, Great Leap provided Asian American performers with the opportunity to create work that helped fight stereotypes, racism and discrimination.
In the early 1970s, Miyamoto, Chris Iijima and Charlie Chin, wrote and produced the first album of contemporary Asian American music, A Grain of Sand. This pioneering trio re-united for the first of many Reunion Concerts in October 1997, and has since performed at venues such as UC Berkeley and the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, as well as at the Smithsonian Institution, where the seminal album is now housed.
Great Leap’s early works include Talk Story, a musical pastiche of stories relating the experience of Asians in America, which toured California and Hawaii in 1987. This was followed by the critically acclaimed Talk Story - Chapter 2 in1989, which played for six weeks at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. In 1992, the need for bridging the cultural chasm between Asian Americans, African Americans and others was highlighted by the Los Angeles Uprising.
Great Leap quickly responded to the changing social climate in Los Angeles and throughout the nation. A Slice of Rice, which had been a theater presentation of first-voice stories by Asian Americans since 1991, was re-conceptualized into A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Greens in 1997, featuring stories from the Asian American, African American, Latino and deaf experiences. The initial response to A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Greens was overwhelming. For many audiences of color, this was the first time they had the opportunity to see Asian Americans, African Americans and Latinos sharing a stage, and presenting performances that addressed issues and concerns pertinent to their own experiences and lives.
Following the success of Great Leap’s ensemble works, Miyamoto created A Grain of Sand, the solo saga of one Asian American woman breaking through the forces of silence to find her own song. Through a poetic fusion of story, song, movement and video imagery, Miyamoto tells her compelling pilgrimage from the days of Japanese relocation to the LA uprising. Grain premiered at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in 1995.
Great Leap Today:
Great Leap continues to tour A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Greens, A Grain of Sand, and the Reunion Concert to colleges and universities throughout the country. Since 1989, we have been an active participant in the Music Center On Tour program, which regularly presents the children’s version of A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Greens to elementary, middle, and high schools throughout Southern California, reaching well over 500,000 young people. Great Leap also often collaborates with other arts organizations, such as the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. In 2001, Great Leap worked with members of the Dance Exchange and community participants to create the Los Angeles Hallelujah Project, which was presented at the Skirball Cultural Center.
In 1995, Great Leap began a national community residency program, To All Relations, which works with community members from underserved groups the opportunity to participate in the artistic process and share their visions of community through workshops and a culminating performance. Some of the communities where we have led this intensive community residency program include Phoenix, Watts, San Jose, Detroit and Boyle Heights.
Currently, Miyamoto is collaborating with PJ Hirabayashi and Yoko Fujimoto to create a new work, Ichigo Ichie, which is slated to begin touring in Fall 2004. We are currently in our ninth year of summer residencies at the University of Southern California, where we have developed an Arts and Yoga for Youth program that supplements the University’s Upward Bound academic tutoring program. To date, more than 1,200 multi-ethnic, at-risk youth have participated in this intensive summer residency.
Throughout our 25-year history of producing socially relevant work in local communities, Great Leap has received many awards and accolades. In 1998, Great Leap’s commitment to using the arts as a powerful force for social change earned us recognition as a “Promising Practice” by President Clinton’s Initiative on Race for One America. Great Leap is also the proud recipient of the 1998 President’s Award from the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission. In 1999, Great Leap was named Coca Cola Artists of the Year for our work with the Music Center on Tour program.
In 2001, Great Leap was selected as one of eleven nationwide recipients of the prestigious New Generations grant, funded by Doris Duke Charitable Foundation/The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In 2002, Artistic Director Nobuko Miyamoto was awarded the Trio Trailblazer Award by the University of Southern California EOP/Upward Bound. Most recently, Miyamoto received the 2003 Leadership for a Changing World award, a program of the Ford Foundation that seeks to recognize leaders who are developing creative solutions to tough social problems.
Great Leap also produces spiritual music, multicultural stories for children and adults in collaboration with Bindu Records.
Great Leap's Future:
Great Leap is currently developing a new arts mentorship initiative, Co-LABoratory, This project will give emerging artists experience working in diverse communities and using the arts to promote social change.
Co-LABoratory is an artist/leadership training program designed to bring new artistic energy into the Great Leap mix. Veteran artists from various disciplines will collaborate with fresh, developing artists in workshop training sessions, focusing on the process involved in creating work, leading story gathering workshops and performance. Beginning in 2004, this program will serve the following purposes:
- foster inter-cultural, inter-generational, inter-disciplinary and inter-faith collaborations
- develop a new generation artist/leaders
- share and pass on Great Leap’s cultural memory and legacy
- engage theater, music, dance, spoken word, writers, visual and media artists
- nourish involvement between artists, community activists and spiritual leaders
- provide a space for discussion, exchange and sharing of practices
- deepen ties between diverse peoples through sharing of stories, cultural traditions and spiritual wisdom
- educate and involve ourselves in concerns and projects that elevate consciousness about our interconnectedness
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