NINJAMAMALICKUM!!!
Offering Vocal Destruction© for Ninja Academy since 1979.
WARNING: Slight highbrow matter in the following text. Or, just get to know a Ninja by simply clicking on stuff in the upper right-hand column. Please ENJOY!
Ninjamamalickum, a.k.a. Jasmine Orpilla, is a Filipina-American vocal performance artist raised in Saudi Arabia and Japan with musical roots in her grandmother’s barrio of Salindeg in Ilocos Sur, Philippines. Strongly marked by her experiences performing for significant world theatre and opera directors Ariane Mnouchkine, Peter Sellars, Akira Matsui and Master Pei Yanling, she teamed up with both ARTA (Association de Recherche des Traditions de l’Acteur) and Grenoble’s Theatre 145 in France, in order to further her passion for world theatre traditions in performance and their relevant connection to both her heritage and her political beliefs in art for social change.
Her resulting multi-disciplinary vocal performance art pieces earned her attention in Parisian and Berlin performance festivals as well as the eventual prize from the City of Paris for original electroacoustic-experimental-jazz composition, based on her translation of Bertolt Brecht’s poetry into French Sign Language (Festival Metiss’Age- l’Amour;, Les Chantiers de Blaye, Vues d’Ici 2003; Prix Paris Jeunes Talents, 2004). Her various lyrics and vocal arrangements also received national radio play in France and have distribution throughout Europe (SACEM; Radio France; Edel Records). Her first recording in the USA was itself an international musical exchange, in vocal improvisation with experimental guitarist Nels Cline.
The only professional Filipina-American artist performing in Paris in the ’90’s, Jasmine eventually co-starred on several French national television series and films (TF1 2002-2004), participated in the creation of Theatre du Soleil’s “le Dernier Caravanserail,”and was featured in numerous Parisian theatre companies in the collaboration of original musical theatre works (Les Blancs Manteaux, Les Deschargeurs, Theatre du Chaudron, Cabaret Sauvage). Ironically, she would perform onstage not only in Ilocano but also in fluent French, German, Japanese and Chinese, yet not in her native English until her return to the USA in 2006.
In California, her work as a performance artist has been featured on KTLA Morning News and for art festivals and galleries throughout L.A. (Skirball Cultural Center, OTIS, Cannibal Art Flower, Hangar 1018, etc). With Ninja Academy, she has sung at most commercial and underground L.A. venues such as the Knitting Factory, the Crash Mansion, the Steve Allen Theatre, the Echo, the Upright Citizens Brigade with Matt Walsh and Tim Meadows, to name a few. In 2008, Jasmine completed a performance tour of the United States in a one-woman, eight-multi-ethnic-character show dealing with the controversies of racial diversity in America. In Spring ‘09 she was selected to perform back to back in both ArtTalk (Pasadena Playhouse District, Boston Court Theatre, in solo performance) and ArtNight Pasadena ‘09, for which she and her fellow Ninjas were awarded a grant to perform from the city’s Arts & Culture Commission and the Division of Cultural Affairs…
DISCLAIMER: Ninjamamalickum may attack in various sounds, shapes and forms at random local art happenings, live concerts, video, radio broadcasts, theatre and musical collaborations at a town near you. Please be advised in advance of the effects of these sudden appearances.
…For upcoming performances, click on “All New Live Shows.”
Thank you! 
© 1999-2009 by Jasmine Orpilla, All Rights Reserved.
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