*1 NDT
Netherlands Dance Theatre is a company based in The Hague, Netherlands that was founded in 1959 by former dancers of the Dutch National Opera & Ballet. Rather than dancing traditional works based in ballet technique, the new company produced a succession of new works that brought in a mix of modern dance. The 1970s were the era of Hans van Manen and Glen Tetley, then from 1978, Jiri Kylian became the artistic director and led the company for nearly 20 years to make it one of the world’s leading contemporary dance companies. From 2011, Paul Lightfoot took over as artistic director. The company actively supports young choreographers, commissioning works in the past from Ohad Naharin, Saburo Teshigawara and others, and recently Crystal Pite and Marco Goecke have served as associate choreographers. The main company is NDT I and the junior company is NDT II (established 1978).
*2 Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
Born 1976 in Belgium. Began artistic activities as a choreographer in 1999 and has presented works on commission from numerous European theaters. He founded the Eastman company in Antwerp in 2010, producing works like Babel and Tezuka and forming international partnerships with theaters such as Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie and the Parc de la Villette (Paris) and Sadler’s Wells (London). Since 2015, he has served as artistic director for Royal Ballet Flanders.
*3 Gaga
Gaga is a physical training method developed by Ohad Naharin, the former artistic director of Israel’s representative contemporary dance company, Batsheva Dance Company. The method has two formats, “gaga/dancers” oriented toward dancers and “gaga/people” for people in general. The instructors convey images and timing to the participants verbally in workshops designed to awaken participants to physical sensations and movements through the individual’s internal dialogue.
*4 Crystal Pite
Born 1970 in Canada. After dancing in the Ballet British Columbia Dresden and Germany’s Frankfurt Dance Company in the 1990s, Pite began artistic activities as a choreographer from her base in Vancouver. In 2002, she started her own company Kidd Pivot and in 2006 she choreographed a piece for NDT for the first time and from 2008 became an associate choreographer for NDT. Since then, her choreography for The Paris Opera, The Royal Ballet of Great Britain and the National Ballet of Canada have met with critical acclaim.
*5 HOME
This was a performance work performed for the Saitama Triennale 2016 in an installation set up in an old traditional Japanese style house in the city of Iwatsuki. It was based on a concept, direction, video and photographs by Netherlands-based pianist and artist Tomoko Mukaiyama, with Yutaka Endo serving as video and technical director and Ema Yuasa as performer for a tour of 22 performances over a 3-month period. The choreography was also done jointly.
*6 Gaka (Song of Songs)
A performance work based on a concept by pianist, artist and director Tomoko Mukaiyama that sought a new form of ritual combining music, dance, vocals and prayers. With direction and stage art by Mukaiyama and choreography by Un Yamada and music composed by Ukrainian composer Maxim Shalygin, and costumes and stage art creation by Ting Gong. The performers included Ema Yuasa, Tomonori Kanzaki and female dancers of Company YAMADAUN.
*7 enchaîne
This work premiered from February 28 to March 2 at The International House of Japan in Roppongi, Tokyo in Volume 2 of a site-specific series of performances for the pre-festival program of Dance New Air 2018. It featured site composition by architect Tsuyoshi Tane, costumes by Tamae Hirokawa (SOMARTA), technical design by Yutaka Endo and performance by Allan Falieri, James vu Anh Pham and Ema Yuasa.
Performance: Allan Falieri, James Vu Anh Pham, Ema Yuasa
Space Direction: Tsuyoshi Tane
Costume: Tamae Hirokawa
*8 XHIASMA Project
An outgrowth of the experimental performance XHIASMA staged in 2018 at the Roppongi Art Site by Tamae Hirokawa, media artist Akira Wakita and Ema Yuasa, this project in progress has continued with ongoing research in collaboration with artists of different genres to explore the possibilities of performing arts.