BACK WORDS
Originally from Mt. Pleasant Michigan, Jonathan’s flexibility is not natural. He was simply well trained.
After graduating U.C. Berkeley in Asian Studies and Geography he was awarded a Fulbright to Japan to conduct research toward his PhD in Design of Sacred Space of New Religious Movements. His second research year was spent in a wood cabin with an outhouse in the Northwest Mountains of Kyoto. It was during that year he changed course from academics to acrobatics after seeing a Chinese Contortionist in Nagasaki and Canadian Clown in Tokyo.
Unable to touch his toes at 22, Nosan moved to London for a year of physical theater and circus training, then three years as a contortion student of Mr. Lu Yi at the San Francisco Circus Centre.
Jonathan moved to Manhattan in 1998 and has since developed a unique performance and teaching style. His work has been featured in film, fashion, television/commercials and on stage. 2010 brought the premier of both his performemoirt piece BAGABONES and the launch of his online store of the same name featuring upcycled bags and t shirts. He is partner in Acroback Productions, a performance design firm catering to international galas and events.
He is an avid potter at Mud, Sweat and Tears studio in Manhattan
It is as if yoga, mime, butoh, acrobatics and contortion had all been ingeniously crammed into the meat grinder of physical theatre to create an original and exciting new art form...
-Robert Lepage
Bagabones
A truly amazing contortion who provides the show with its single most disturbing image
-The New York Times
Twyla Tharp’s The Times They Are A-Changin’
Like any athlete, Nosan broadens what we think the human body is capable of, and shows us that it is possible to push beyond what we believe to be the physical limits of this world.
-nytheatre.com
Bagabones
©2013 Jonathan Nosan
