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It all began with a couple of drywall stilts, gravity, and a bad dream
about a red monkey.
Monkey Waterfall, a dance theatre company,
was founded by Yukie Shiroma, Ben Moffat, and Michael Harada to explore the intersection of dance and theatre. The Honolulu-based Company uses Asian and Western dance, theatre, storytelling, masks, and puppets to create performances for adults and children. The Company performs and conducts residencies locally, nationally, and internationally. In 1996 the Company was commissioned by Honolulu Theatre for Youth to perform their show, Monkey and the Waterfall and Other Mythologies for over 12,000 O‘ahu elementary school students. After completing a world tour in 1998-99, the Company formed a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation. At the same time, Monkey Waterfall decided to shift its primary focus away from overseas touring, choosing instead to devote its energies towards teaching and performing at home.
Monkey Waterfall is dedicated to its belief in the power of art to examine and embody in a non-linear, often humorous fashion, topics of concern to our contemporary existence.
“There is a vibrant contemporary sensibility that pervades their performance. The choreography is delightfully eccentric and very original with a deep sense of the instinctive which informs it.”
Eddin Khoo, New Straits Times (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)