Makoto Hirano , Dance Theatre Artist

Makoto Hirano Profile

MISSION

Makoto Hirano makes highly interdisciplinary, time-based art. The conceptual basis for his work stems from questions about identity. Performances are created through the colliding, fusing, and gentle kneading of multiple performance genres – dance, theatre, poetry, stand-up comedy – to create an honest and humorous piece of art.

BIOGRAPHY

Makoto Hirano is a Philadelphia-based multidisciplinary artist. Founder of amorphous performance group OMNiBUS, his works have been presented nationally in numerous venues and festivals. In addition to performance work, Makoto is a Facilitator with Artists U, an artist-run professional development program founded by Andrew Simonet. Makoto is a recipient of an Independence Foundation Fellowship and an APIA Residency at the Asian Arts Initiative, and has served as a panelist for the Philadelphia Cultural Fund. A former-U.S. Marine, Makoto studied dance at Columbia College Chicago (IL) and earned his BFA at Temple University (PA).

PERFORMER/COLLABORATOR HIGHLIGHTS

Love Unpunished and PAY UP – Pig Iron Theatre Company

The Happiness Lecture – Bill Irwin commissioned by The Philadelphia Theatre Company

Wandering Alice – Nichole Canuso Dance Company

Car and Store – Kate Watson-Wallace/anonymous bodies

Selective Sight, Still Unknown, and Here – Subcircle

Makoto Hirano Selected Works

Boom Bap Tourism ('09)

A highly interdisciplinary, solo performance project. Loosely autobiographical, humorous, and sexy, BBT is about shedding and regenerating. About the lifecycle of ideas and identities. About questioning and reexamining what we know.

Selling Water ('08)

A humorous slam poetry/monologue that speaks and sprays venon while pondering the existence of truth in work and in life.

The Order and The Stranger ('05)

The first in a trilogy of works reconsidering the Japanese-American internment during WWII in response to the current contextualization of national enemies.