DANCE TRUCK PROJECT

This is a site-specific project that uses the cargo box of a truck as a unique movable stage which allows the performance to incorporate the surrounding landscape. The project was launched in 2012 as a co-production with the Offsite Dance Project and the Japan Dance Track Association in collaboration with the original Dance Truck in the US. With a focus on contemporary dance, cutting-edge artists from a variety of disciplines participate in this project. The project builds networks with various cities and explores the effective use of vacant land in cities and new forms of mobility of for dance. Since 2019, the project has been organizing DANCE TRUCK TOKYO, co-producing it with the Japan Dance Track Association in various locations of Tokyo.

Since 2019, the project has been organizing “DANCE TRUCK TOKYO”, co-producing it with the Japan Dance Track Association in various locations of Tokyo.

#1 Yokohama | 7-9 Sep 2012
#2 Yokohama | Date: 14-15 Feb 2013
#3 Yokohama – Tokyo – Fukushima – Miyagi | Date: 7 Sep-14 Oct 2013
#4 Kyoto – Tokyo – Yokohama - Oita | Date: 4 Oct-15 Nov 2014
#5 Tokyo in Roppongi Art Night 2015 ｜Date: 25-26 Apr 2015
Curator: Yoko Higashino

DANCE TRUCK TOKYO
http://dance-truck.jp/tokyo/en-index.php

RE/PLAY Dance Edit

Junnosuke Tada created Re/Play in 2011 for his company Tokyo Deathlock. The piece explored the intent and meaning of re-production through the bodily repetition of physical movement. This new version of the piece is a re-creation of the theatrical work done by replacing the actors with choreographers and dancers. Since its premiere in Kyoto in 2012, it has been re-made and re-staged in Yokohama, Singapore, Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Kyoto, Manila (Philippines), and Tokyo with dancers from different parts of the world. Popular songs are repeated continuously while eight dancers push themselves to total exhaustion. The endless structure of the piece which subverts the reason and meaning of dance reveals the urgency of life and the chaotic nature of contemporary society and turns the concept of dance on its head.

Premiere performance｜Date: 4 Feb 2012 / Venue: Former Risei Elementary School, Kyoto
Yokohama version｜Date: 14-16 Feb 2014 / Venue: Steep Slope Studio, Yokohama
Singapore version｜Date: 17-20 Feb 2016 / Venue: 72-13, Singapore
Cambodia version｜Date: 24-25 March 2017 / Venue: Department of Performing Arts, Phnom Penh
Kyoto version｜Date: 25-26 Nov 2017 / Venue: Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto
Philippines version｜Date: 13-14 Jan 2018 / Venue: Power Mac Center Spotlight, Manila
Tokyo version｜Date: 9-11 Feb 2019 / Venue: Kichijoji Theatre, Tokyo
http://www.wedance.jp/replay/english.html

FY2017 Edition Leaflet (English, Japanese)　30 April 2018
http://www.wedance.jp/replay/img/replay2017.pdf

Borrowed Landscape Project

This is an international co-production project with Heine Avdal　and Yukiko Shinozaki, Belgium-based artists. Collaborating with artists from Europe and Japan, it is created and performed site-specific pieces in which bodies, sounds and objects intervene in a variety of indoor and outdoor spaces to subtly reverse the familiar everyday landscape into the extraordinary. Japanese playwrights Toshiki Okada and Yukio Shiba and the interactive performance artist Tetsuya Umeda participate in the project, in addition to leading choreographers in the world of contemporary dance. It is a highly accessible initiative that challenges conventional notions of the performing arts.

Borrowed Landscape-Yokohama #1
Date: 28 Oct-1 Nov 2011 / Venue: A model home “HOUZE”, Yokohama

Borrowed Landscape-Yokohama #2
Date: 22-26 Aug 2012 / Venue: M/M GRAND CENTRAL TERRACE, Yokohama

“distant voices –carry on” 〜Aoyama Shakkei
Date: 10-12 Oct 2015 / Venue: Spiral Hall, Tokyo
*Dance New Air 2016 pre-performance Site-Specific Series vol.1
http://dancenewair.tokyo/dna2016/distantvoices-en

Art education

Since 2009, we have coordinated the school program, Yokohama Arts and Culture Education Program. The program provides classes to enhance children's communication, expression and creativity, mainly through experiencing contemporary dance. Moreover, we have coordinated the next generation program, School of Dance at the dance festival, Dance Dance Dance @ Yokohama held every three years in Yokohama. A new project with the same name by young dancers was also started as an offshoot of this activity. The group is exploring new ways to bring contemporary dance into local communities through the Kids Dance Theater, which is an outreach program for local theaters and the Dance Education Lab, which explores the possibilities of arts education.

Honmoku Art Project

This project is set in the Honmoku area of Yokohama, which has nurtured a unique culture of its own. There was a base camp for the U.S. military here for 37 years after the war. In the 1990s, the Mycal Honmoku shopping complex was built on the former base site and attracted a great deal of attention. Many people in Honmoku still have strong memories of that time. This project is an attempt to create new memories of the town through various art forms. The Honmoku Art Project features a site-specific character created by a close relationship with the local people and fieldwork carried out in the town. The project provides an opportunity to re-evaluate Honmoku from a new perspective. These activities have had a ripple effect on the revitalization of the area, which include events such as the Performer 70 HONMOKU, which featured avant-garde movement art of the 1970s, and the pilot operation of a new art center, HONMOKU AREA-2, which was a former movie theater.

Honmoku Art Project 2013｜Date: 22 Nov-15 Dec 2013
Honmoku Art Project 2014｜Date: 22-24 Nov 2014
Honmoku Art Project 2015｜Date: 12-13 Dec 2015 / Program Director: Chikara Fujiwara
Honmoku Art Project 2016｜Date: 29 Oct 2016-21 Jan 2017 / Director: Natsuki Ishigami
Honmoku Art Project 2017｜Date: 11 Oct-10 Dec 2017

Performa 70 HONMOKU
DANCE DANCE DANCE @ YOKOHAMA 2015

In the 1970s artists from various genres boldly interacted and tried to reexamine art from its roots. In collaboration with the dance festival, Dance Dance Dance @ YOKOHAMA 2015 in Yokohama, this project looks back on the avant-garde movements of the 1970s and attempts to explore how that experimental spirit is being renewed in contemporary art. Under the supervision of Ryoichi Enomoto, an embodiment of that era, and in collaboration with local film and music producers, contemporary art standard-bearers from legendary artists in their respective fields were gathered together for a talk, film screening, performance and reception. A new art hub, HONMOKU AREA-2, a former movie theater, was used as the venue for the events and also served as the opening of the new center.

Date: 31 Jul-2 Aug 2015 / Venue: HONMOKU AREA-2, Yokohama
Supervisor: Ryoichi Enomoto

We dance

This is a dance community forum organized by artists for five years starting in 2009, with the aim of revitalizing contemporary dance. Artists from a variety of disciplines acted as directors/curators and developed experimental and cross-cutting performances, workshops and talks. It was an attempt to cultivate and illuminate the potential of diverse artists and to revitalize the dance scene. We are currently supporting the works and projects that have emerged from this forum.

We dance 2009｜Date: 31 Jan-2 Feb 2009 / Venue: Yokohama Port Opening Hall, Yokohama / Curators: Mika Kurosawa, Natsuko Tezuka, Megumi Nakamura, Zan Yamashita, Kota Yamazaki, SKANK, Asa Ito

We dance 2010｜Date: 9 Jan- 14 Feb 2010 / Venue: Yokohama Port Opening Hall and Steep Slope Studio, Yokohama / Curators: Tsuyoshi Shirai, Natsuko Tezuka, Kitamari, Daisuke Kishii, Shinichi Takashima, Taku Unami

We dance 2011｜Date: 8 Jan- 20 Feb 2011 / Venue: Steep Slope Studio and Yokohama Creativecity Center, Yokohama / Program Directors: Pijin Neji, Kitamari, Chiharu Shinoda

We dance Kyoto 2012｜Date: 3-4 Feb 2012 / Venue: Former Risei Elementary School and UrBANGUILD, Kyoto / Program Director: Kitamari

We dance Yokohama 2012 | Date: 22-23 Sep 2012 / Venue: KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Yokohama / Co-Producer: Momoko Shiraga

INSIDE/OUT
Time to build and dance moments

This is a dance program on the theme of Architecture and the Body in collaboration with the Setagaya Art Museum. It was launched in 2009 as a retrospective for the work of Shozo Uchii, who designed the museum. We produced a site-specific performance inside and outside the museum and performed Mika Kurosawa’s new solo piece in a private residence built in the Showa era.

INSIDE/OUT 2009｜Date: 19 Dec 2009 / Venue: Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo
Artists: Yukio Suzuki + Takayuki Fujimoto + Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Mika Arashiki, Yukari Kakiuchi

INSIDE/OUT 2010｜Date: 31 Jul-1 Aug 19 2010 / Venue: Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo
Artist: Yoko Higashino

INSIDE/OUT 2012｜Date: 18-22 Jan 2012 / Venue: Former Kosaka Residence, Tokyo
Artist: Mika Kurosawa

Japan-U.S. Dance Collaboration

This is a circulating dance program at the TBA Festival by PICA, Portland, U.S. We performed a series of site-specific works created in residencies in the town with artists from Japan and the Northwest region of the U.S. Moreover, workshops and outreach programs were held in collaboration with Seattle’s Velocity Dance Center and 4Culture. While introducing a diverse range of Japanese contemporary dance, we also create new collaborations between artists from Japan and the U.S. that inspire each other.

Time-Based Art Festival 2010 “On Thirteenth” | Date: 17-18 Sep 2010
Artists: Zan Yamashita + Ezra Dickinson, Yukio Suzuki + Wayne Horvitz

Time-Based Art Festival 2011 “Edges” | Date: 14-17 Sep 2011
Artists: Yukio Suzuki + Wayne Horvitz, Yoko Higashino, Ho Ho-Do

Tamagawa Art Line Project 2008
Tamagawa Theatre

This is a performance project as part of the Tamagawa Art Line Project, a community development project in which citizens and companies work together on railways, stations, and towns in the lower reaches of the Tama River. Three spirited writers and directors create and perform new works on the stage of the three-car trains of the Tokyu Tamagawa Line. It takes about 10 minutes to get from Kamata Station to Tamagawa Station. With the keywords “body” and “words”, the performance unfolded, involving passengers and even the scenery seen from the window as part of the play.

Date: 2-3 Nov 2008 / Venue: Tokyu Tamagawa Line, Tokyo
Artists: Yukio Shiba, Shigeki Nakano, Zan Yamashita