C u r r e n t a n d U p c o m i n g P r o j e c t s
Miller is leading faculty in the Department of Theatre and Dance as a new Associate Chair starting in August 2022.
Miller is leading faculty across campus in the creation, development, and further implementation of The Creative Computational Media certificate program. The certificate was established through a collaboration between ICS, Academy for Creative Media (ACM), Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and the Department of Theatre and Dance.
Miller is directing the Department of Theatre and Dance Kennedy Theatre concert “Form within a Form: Echoes and Reverberations.” Her artistic excellence has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts award in the support and creation of this concert. Kennedy Theatre’s largest dance production of the year features dynamic, interactive, and powerfully innovative collaborations between original dance, music, mixed media, scenic art, and costume design within live performance. The production focuses on deeply investigative creative processes with themes of nurturing, nourishing, sustaining, transmission, and transformation that also explore immersive perception and physical University of the Arts working on the production include Samjin Kim and Jae Hyuk Jung. Additional original creative contributions by U.H.M. Dance and Music faculty and local Hawai‘i artists include choreography by Sai Bhatawadekar, Kaʻohinani Yojo Daniels, Betsy Fisher, Kara Jhalak Miller, Amy Schiffner, and Jonathan Clarke Sypert, music by Keith listening through the senses and body. Featured internationally renowned choreographers from the Korea National Cross, Takuma Itoh, and John Signor, and, movement-based media art by Larry Asakawa. These visionary artists are dedicated to creating fine contemporary productions with a wide range of dance genres that everyone can enjoy. Form Within a Form is an exceptional opportunity for audiences in Honolulu to have access to these luminous dances and unique choreographic creations.
Miller’s primary outreach activities for Fall 2022 involve the sponsorship of a residency with visiting guest artists Samjin Kim and Jae Hyuk Jung. The choreography by these faculty, from the prestigious Korea National University of Arts (K’ARTS), will be staged on our UHM Department of Theatre and Dance students. K’Arts is an international and elite conservatory located in Seoul, South Korea. Their residency will impact and benefit UHM undergraduate and graduate student theatre and dance students, UHM and LCC music students, and the broader student population through their faculty research in the classroom and courses as well as students who attend the performances to see their work, potentially reaching over 3000 students on the UHM campus.
Miller is creating two new choreographies, “Elements” and “Momentum” for the Form Within a Form: Echoes and Reverberations concert. “Momentum” is a collaboration with UHM composer Takuma Itoh and a cast of 9 dancers. Elements is a collaboration with Leeward Community College composer and faculty John Signor and features a cast of over 50 performers.
Miller is working with over 50 local dance businesses, schools, halau, for profit and non-profit organizations to create a network of support for a thriving health, wellness, and performing arts industry in a post pandemic world.
Miller is very active in the local Oahu performing arts community. She believes that resilience and adaptability are essential for dance businesses to thrive and requires an expansive imagination and commitment to creating a financially viable, stable, and growing performing arts industry. She is most recently involved in creating a partnership between the Department of Theatre and Dance with the Hawaii State Art Museum. The Dance Degree courses will perform at the First Friday Festivities in December. These performances engage multiple local dance teachers, educators, choreographers, and directors reaching audiences across Hawai‘i.
Miller’s dance company, Jhalak Dance Company, will be featured at the HiSAM “Honolulu Dance Collection: Reconnection” in October. She is also currently developing a new work in progress for a company performance at Chinatown’s BāS Bookshop where her curated collection of dance photography books will be highlighted in the coming months.
Miller has been invited by Dr. Sai Bhatawadekar to submit to the Journal of Dharma Studies and is in the process of developing a paper for publication focused on the reinvention, transformation, and physical culture in the crossroads of dance and yoga practices. The paper will be published for a journal issue and is connected to the conference on Contemplative Studies and Practices: Asian and Transnational Perspectives.
Miller is an invited participant and collaborator with Dr. Suparna Banerjee for the “The body archive: surer agun dance” project which will culminate in a short film and research paper. The aim of the project is to investigate how a dancer’s body can be regarded as an archive. Through this film, we draw a parallelism between an archive and our body. “Surer agun”, a Tagore song, was choreographed by Pradipta Niyogi, a Kathak dance guru and performer in the 1970s for a dance school named Surochanda (Palta, West Bengal, India), founded by Abanti Das. The project broadly is expected to explore the role of a dancer in the preservation of collective movement knowledge and its transmission.
Miller’s creative research and choreography is the subject of two recent dissertations, and, an upcoming documentary film by Emmy award winning filmmaker Larry Asakawa.
Miller has a vision for a UHM Dance Media Initiative to cultivate an environment of innovation and excellence where student and faculty dancers and choreographers are empowered and have the necessary tools to conduct dance research through live interactivity in dance and media, video choreography, video projection design for dance, and online real time performance exchange through opportunities to train with renown artists in the fields of dance on camera, screendance, and digital dance performance. Part of this vision requires an upgrade to renovate the UHM Dance Studio with state of the art technology for the performing arts. Creating space for and having access to technology in the studio will serve as a critical tool towards better supporting the educational interest and needs of our UHM Theatre and Dance students as they prepare for careers in the 21st century. Not only will access to this technology directly impact and benefit our current and future dance and theatre majors, it will also impact the wide range of students from other degree areas that actively participate in our classes and productions to fulfill personal interest as well as degree diversification requirements. Links: Dance Studio Technology Renovation Proposal
