History

1978 Great Leap was founded by Artistic Director, Nobuko Miyamoto, and became a leading cultural voice for Asian Americans nationally, with the band WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW and original musicals such as CHOP SUEY and TALK STORY I & II.

1992 In response to the Los Angeles Uprising of 1992, Great Leap expanded its mission to become a multicultural arts organization, sparking a popular new theater piece, A SLICE OF RICE, FRIJOLES, AND GREENS, with Asian, Latino and African American artists sharing the stage. It toured colleges and developed into a show that reached over 50,000 youths yearly in schools through the Los Angeles Music Center on Tour Program. To this day this show continues to entertain and inform audiences with the artful telling of personal stories that leap cultural boundaries.

2000 To create bridges between diverse communities, the TO ALL RELATIONS residencies used creative story-sharing techniques and developed performance works engaging community members. With a mix of Mexican, Jewish and Japanese Americans we created MEMORIES OF BOYLE HEIGHTS; Detroit’s urban gardeners were celebrated in I DREAM A GARDEN; and after 9/11, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians and Jews came together to create SACRED MOON SONGS.

2005 COLLABORATORY was designed to share Great Leap’s rich legacy of creative practices with the next generation of artists. Each 8-week artist mentorship program culminates in a collaborative performance exploring various themes including, identity, immigration and the environment. We have done nine cycles of COLLABORATORY working with over 55 artists. In 2008 we mentored artists of different faiths to create LEAPS OF FAITH, which was presented in 2009 at the Parliament of World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia. It was there that indigenous peoples from around the world sent us home with a directive: “Do something about the environment.”

2010 By the summer of 2010 Great Leap released our first environmental music video, BYO CHOPSTIX on YouTube. Its success sparked a series called ECO-VIDS, which now include MOTTAINAI and CYCLES OF CHANGE, with each video suggesting small changes that can make a big difference to the environment. At the same time our ECO-ARTS INNITIATIVE continues to engage communities on the local level through residencies, workshops and performances. For example, MOTTAINAI was accompanied by public participation dance that engaged 10,000 people in Southern California in 2011, and more in 2012. Our aim is educating, activating and creating a voice for people of color in the environmental conversation.

Staff

Nobuko Miyamoto (Founder & Artistic Director) is a artist who uses music, theater and dance for her own work as well as for projects she creates with communities. Originally a dancer on Broadway and in films such as Flower Drum Song and West Side Story, her involvement in social change movements of the ‘60s galvanized her as an activist and inspired a re-conceptualization of her role as an artist. This led to her co-creation of the seminal Asian American album A Grain of Sand with Chris Iijima and Charlie Chin, and her founding of Great Leap in 1978. Her later performances, musicals and albums have continued to probe themes of identity, as well as the intersections of cultures & faiths, and our connection with Earth. More recent projects include her touring lecture/performance What Can A Song Do?, and producing, songwriting and performing in Great Leap’s series of environmental music videos, "Eco-Vids". Miyamoto has been recognized with the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World Award, and California Arts Council Director’s Award for her contribution to the arts in California.

Karen Hayes (Interim Executive Director) has been an arts administrator and fundraiser for over twenty years, for organizations including the Armory Center for the Arts, California African American Museum, American Friends Service Committee and the Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance. She has designed and implemented arts programming for diverse audiences in public spaces, community centers and schools statewide. Karen wrote the inter-disciplinary curriculum resource guide Freedom on Our Minds, about how African American artists have defined, sought and expressed the notion of “freedom.” She has an MFA in filmmaking from UCLA and is completing an authorized documentary on Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Dan Kwong (Associate Artistic Director) is an award-winning multimedia performance artist, playwright, visual artist and teacher who has been presenting his solo work nationally and internationally since 1989. His works combine personal narrative with historical context to explore the many facets of social identity. His book, From Inner Worlds to Outer Space: The Multimedia Performances of Dan Kwong (University of Michigan Press) was published in 2004, and the significance of his work has been noted in A History of Asian American Theatre (Cambridge Univ. Press).Since 1990 he has been affiliated with Great Leap where he manages and performs in A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Greens, is Project Director of COLLABORATORY, and Director & Editor of the Eco-Vids series.

Lluvia Higuera (Operations and Marketing Associate) has been working with non-profits artistically and administratively for the last 15 years, from the Armory Center to the Arts, LACMA, LA's BEST, to the HeArt Project. And is a photographer as well!

Artists

Choreographer:
Young Ae Park

Music Producers/Arrangers:
Quetzal Flores
Derek Nakamoto

Performers:
D’lo
Claire Day
Cesar Domingues
Ruben Guevara
Yolanda Hester
Saria Idana
Shishir Kurup
Dan Kwong
Arlene Malinowski
Lynn Manning
Chic Street Man
Charlie McClung
Paulina Sahagun
Gabriel Tenorio
Carla Vega

Musicians:
George Abe
Quetzal Flores
Martha Gonzalez
Charles Kim
Rev. Masao Kodani
Sean Miura
Nancy Sekizawa
Carla Vega
Danny Yamamoto
Benny Yee

Board of Directors 2013

Meryl Marshall-Daniels, President
Two Oceans Consulting Group
Los Angeles, CA

Charles McClung, Jr., Secretary
Attorney, McClung & Davis Law Offices
Laguna Beach, CA

Kenneth S. Hayashi, Treasurer
CFO Roger’s Poultry
Yorba Linda, CA

Eugene Ahn
Media Architect
Los Angeles, CA

Clara Chiu
Executive Assistant, Asian Pacific American Legal Center
Los Angeles, CA

Molly Miles
Immersive Marketing
Los Angeles, CA

Nobuko Miyamoto, ex officio
Founder/Artistic Director, Great Leap, Inc.
Los Angeles, CA