A work-in-progress performance exploring objects and body; artist talk and reception featuring world-renowned choreographer/dancer and Japan Cultural Envoy Un Yamada and Brooklyn based sound/visual artist Sachiyo Takahashi.
Un Yamada（director of Co. Yamada Un, Choreographer/Dancer ）
After some training in gymnastics, ballet, traditional folk dance, Butoh, Un Yamada started her career as a choreographer in 1996. She has also been active as a solo dancer since 1998. The wide sources of her ideas include music, visual art, literature, academic fields, fashion, and diverse body movements. Her dance, which cannot be described simply as a contemporary or Butoh, is sensitive, energetic and dynamic, attracting worldwide attention.
After she won The French Embassy Prize for Young Choreographer at the Yokohama Dance Collection Solo x Duo Competition in 2000, she moved to France. She established her dance company Co. Un Yamada in Tokyo in 2002.
Now she performs in Japan, Asia, Europe, Middle East, and did some collaboration works with the fields of music, drama, opera, academic, traditional local performing arts. She organized workshops targeting any person, and got involved in cultivating dancers in Asia and Middle East.
She received the 8th Japan Dance Forum Award in 2013. In 2014, she was designated as the Japan Cultural Envoy for East Asia, and also received the New Face Award of Minister of Education Awards for Fine Arts. Now she is visiting Middle East, Africa, Europe and Asia as the Japan Cultural Envoy in 2017 (Mar–Sep).
Website : http://yamadaun.jp/
Sachiyo Takahashi
Sachiyo Takahashi is an artist, composer, and performer.
Coming from a broad background in music — from Classical to traditional Japanese music to Electroacoustic — Sachiyo's work centers around storytelling accompanied by finely-crafted audio that is integrated with other sensory elements. She explores the border between narrative and abstraction in a minimalist manner to generate fables for the subconscious.
Sachiyo founded Nekaa Lab in 2006 together with other “lab members" (stuffed toys and tiny figurines). She has been producing performances, installations and
writings, while observing human nature from alternative perspectives. Sachiyo's Microscopic Live Cinema-Theatre — unique performances projected from a miniature stage — has been appraised as a quirky yet imaginative merging between theatrical and cinematic experiences.
She is a recipient of The Jim Henson Foundation grant 2017, and currently developing her new piece Everything Starts from a Dot, which will premiere in fall 2018.
Sachiyo currently lives in Brooklyn yet sometimes can be seen strolling the back alleys of Japan, where she is originated.
Website: www.nekaa.org
