본문 바로가기


Contemporary Dance Festival: Japan + East Asia

 

Friday, January 10 & Saturday, January 11, Performances @ 7:30 PM

Japan Society: 333 East 47th Street

 

Featuring: Where we were born / Choreographed by Ruri Mito and Performed by Co. Ruri Mito (Japan)

…and, or… / Choreographed by I-Ling Liu and Performed by Wei-Ting Hung and Jyun-Yi Lin (Taiwan)

Trivial Perfection / Choreographed and Performed by Dae-ho Lee with C.Sense (South Korea)

 

leedance.jpeg

Trivial Perfection / Choreographed and Performed by Dae-ho Lee, Jung-hwi Park, Ji-soo Ryu and Tae-jun Yoon

 
New York, NY, December 4, 2024 – In January 2025, Japan Society’s Contemporary Dance Festival: Japan + East Asia brings groundbreaking artists from the other side of the globe to New York audiences, in two performances onlyFriday, January 10 and Saturday, January 11 at 7:30pm at Japan Society (333 East 47th Street).  Presented as part of Japan Society’s 2024-2025 Performing Arts Season, this 20th installment of the Contemporary Dance Festival: Japan + East Asia delivers a vibrant slate by visionary international choreographers and performers representing Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.  
 
The 2025 Contemporary Dance Festival: Japan + East Asia features
 
From JapanWhere we were born, choreographed by Ruri Mito and performed by ensemble Co. Ruri Mito, weaves and unravels delicately and intricately connected dancers, creating one kaleidoscopic body.  This work arrives at Japan Society in a New York premiere, following performances at PS21 (January 4 & 5; Chatham, NY) in a North American company debut organized by Japan Society.
 
From Taiwan…and, or…, choreographed by I-Ling Liu, a former dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, features two dancers whose relationship rapidly shifts through delicate and sharp movements in a non-music/sound environment.  North American premiere.

From South KoreaTrivial Perfection, choreographed and performed by Dae-ho Lee with ensemble C.Sense, builds complex shapes in this crescendoing, exuberant piece combining modern dance, hip-hop and martial arts.  North American premiere.
 
These works will be presented as an evening-length program on Friday, January 10 and Saturday, January 11 at 7:30pm.  On both nights, audiences are invited to arrive by 7:05pm to watch a special solo performance in the Society’s lobby titled Matou, 15-minute work choreographed and performed by Ruri Mito, which receives its New York City debut after touring the world to critical acclaim.  The pre-show lobby performance is open to the public; a ticket is not required. 
 
This festival, which over the course of nearly three decades has enjoyed 19 action-packed installments, celebrates defining artists of the present moment. Japan Society celebrates the 20th landmark presentation of this proud tradition with the first slate of performances to be entirely in person since 2019.  Since 2004, this highly selective program has been assembled by the Society’s Artistic Director, Yoko Shioya, who was recently awarded the Taiwan Cultural Collaboration Medal from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture in 2023 in recognition of her efforts to provide an international platform for new choreographers’ works from East Asia and give them U.S. premiere opportunities.
 
About Japan Society's Contemporary Dance Festival 
From 1997-2019, Japan Society's Contemporary Dance Showcase acted as a vital incubator for Japanese and East Asian choreographers, introducing them to the U.S. during the annual Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) Conference and serving to launch and support their international careers.  A leading platform for the introduction of Japanese choreographers and companies, the Dance Showcase expanded in 2008 to include artists and works from the broader East Asian region, including Taiwan and South Korea.  Many Dance Showcase “alumni” have gone on to perform in major venues such as Jacobs Pillow Dance, Walker Art Center, The Kennedy Center, The Joyce Theater and others.  Through dozens of debuts and premieres, the Dance Showcase has introduced Kota Yamazaki, Jo Kanamori’s Noism, the late Ko Murobushi and his Ko & Edge Co. and chelfitsch Theater Company, among many artists who rose to international acclaim.  In 2019, this popular event in Japan Society’s Performing Arts Program appropriately has changed its name to Contemporary Dance Festival to continue and further its mission to present artists and works that push the envelope of contemporary dance throughout Japan & East Asia. 
 
 
Tickets & Information
Friday, January 10 at 7:30pm (followed by an Opening Night Reception)
Saturday, January 11 at 7:30pm (followed by an Artist Q&A)
Tickets are $43 / $32 Japan Society members. 
 
Ticketholders also receive complimentary, same-day admission for one person to Bunraku Backstage, on view at Japan Society Gallery through January 19, 2025.  To view the exhibition please show ticket/receipt to the Welcome Desk for free admission before the performance.
 
 
2025 Contemporary Dance Festival Featured Works and Artist Biographies: 
 
Matou / Choreographed & Performed by Ruri Mito (pre-show lobby performance)
The Japanese word matou denotes wearing, putting on, or being dressed in clothing.  Figuratively, it also refers to the process by which the outer layer of our skin is continually renewing and replacing itself, much as snakes shed their skin.  Matou, a solo performance by dancer-choreographer Ruri Mito, explores the body as a mysterious, haunted vessel, impossible to comprehend or observe in its entirety because it is in constant flux, its cells endlessly dying and regenerating.  This evocative solo has traveled to festivals and competitions around the world, winning first prize in the international Solo Dance Contest at the Gdańsk Dance Festival in 2017.  Kim Dunphy, in the Sydney Morning Herald, called Matou a “mesmerizing spectacle, ghastly and grueling, but also gorgeous.” 
 
Choreographer & Performer: Ruri Mito
Music: Yuta Kumachi
Lighting: Akiyo Kushida
Costume: Tomoko Inamura
 
Where we were born / Choreographed by Ruri Mito and Performed by Co. Ruri Mito
 
In Where we were bornMito continues to scrutinize and explore the body as the primal, defining element of human existence.  Choreographed by Mito and performed by the eight dancers of her Co. Ruri Mito, the group delicately and intricately interweave together and unravel in complex, twisting shapes to explore the origins of life, presenting an intense and highly skilled work that showcases many bodies moving as one.
 
Choreographer: Ruri Mito
Performers: Lena Hashimoto, Fuko Ikegami, Sae Kodama, Risa Makino, Miyu Motegi, Mai Sasaki, Mariko Shibata, and Maho Takahashi
Textile Motif: Sachiko Kamei
Music: Chie Nakajima
Lighting: Akiyo Kushida
Costume: Tomoko Inamura
 
Ruri Mito started studying dance at 5 years old at The Modern Ballet Institute, Tokyo.  She graduated from the Japan Women’s College of Physical Education with an MA from the Department of Movement Science Dance Studies.  Mito was a member of the dance company Leni-Basso from 2004 to 2010. Following this, she became an international freelance performer and has since been actively performing all over the world and received many prizes for her work.  The internationally known choreographers she has worked with include Wim Vandekeybus, Sasha Waltz, Damien Jalet, among others.  In 2017, she received the Tatsumi Hijikata Memorial Award, and in 2020, she received the Newcomer Award from the Japanese government’s Agency of Cultural Affairs for her group choreography.  She was a Fellow of the Saison Foundation from 2020 to 2023. 
 
Co. Ruri Mito was launched by Ruri Mito in 2017.  In 2019, the company won the Special Jury Prize at the Spiral Independent Creators Festival in Tokyo.  The company had its first tour in 2019, and recently toured Europe in March 2023, travelling to Paris, Budapest, Bucharest and Prague.  Works produced by the company include, by year, The Lake (2017), Sumika and Residence (2018), MeMe and Hedda Gabler (2019), Where we were born (2020), NOBODY IS HERE (2023), and the three-year project TOUCH (2021 to 2024).
 
…and, or…Choreographed by I-Ling Liu and Performed by Wei-Ting Hung and Jyun-Yi Lin
 
I-Ling Liu’s …and, or… is a thrilling duet of delicate and sharp movements that exude a physical drama in a non-music/sound environment.  The piece pulls at multiple concepts throughout, as the two dancers explore the many aspects of what constitutes relationships, and their boundaries. The back and forth of decision-making is exemplified in the stuttered flow of the performers’ movements, and the push and pull of boundaries is portrayed in the difference between approaching versus overstepping them. The connection between both dancers rapidly shifts as boundaries are pushed, crossed and irreversibly changed. … and, or… won the 2022 Jury Prize of the Yokohama Dance Collection Competition I in Japan.
 
Choreographer: I-Ling Liu 
Performers: Wei-Ting Hung and Jyun-Yi Lin
Lighting: Yan-Yi Lo
Costume: Chih-fan Huang 
 
I-Ling Liu is a contemporary dance artist from Taiwan, formerly a Bill T. Jones dancer.  She received a BFA from Taipei National University of the Arts and was a former member of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company (U.S.) for 11 years.  Liu choreographs with a focus on reminiscence, trauma, social observation, and re-definition of body “technique.”  She has also been collaborating with visual artists, photographers, composers, directors, and actors in theater and film.  Since 2020, Liu has participated in Ming-Wei Lee’s work Our Labyrinth and performed in the Metropolitan Museum and the Tate Modern. Since 2019, she has been collaborating with the Taiwanese filmmaker Hui-Yu Su as the Choreographer / Performer / Movement Director in several productions, such as The White Waters which has toured internationally.  In 2022 she performed Still(Life) in Taipei by Xavier Le Roy & Scarlet Yu.  She is currently a Part-Time Assistant Professor at the Taipei University of the Arts.
 
 
Trivial Perfection / Choreographed and Performed by Dae-ho Lee with C.Sense
 
Trivial Perfection is a work that portrays the “mosaic” art technique through body movement—a certain overall shape comprised of a combination of smaller pieces.  A well-crafted mosaic is one made up of insignificant pieces to create a different kind of perfection; it unites small moments/ideas that may seem trivial and unrelated.  In this work as well, random sensory movements scatter across the stage, building up gradually into a united perfection.  The four male dancers of the emerging South Korean-based C.Sense perform this crescendoing, exuberant piece that combines multiple movement methods such as modern dance, hip-hop and martial arts.
 
leedaeho.jpg
Choreography: Dae-ho Lee
Performers: Dae-ho Lee, Jung-hwi Park, Ji-soo Ryu and Tae-jun Yoon
Live Music: Hyun-soo Kim
 
After graduating from Sejong University in South Korea, Dae-ho Lee, the representative choreographer of C.Sense, joined Tatmaroo Dance Company as a company member, before working with cie.toula limnaios in Berlin, Germany from 2016 to 2018.  After returning to Korea in 2018, he worked with various Korean choreographers including Jang-hyun Ryu, Hyo-seung Ye, and Jin-yeop Cha, and was featured in multiple ARKO (Arts Council Korea) Selection, National Theater Company of Korea, and Korea National Contemporary Dance Company productions.  He appeared in the Hermes VIP launch show in 2023 and continues to work on his choreography and dance films.  His main works include The Rare Things, Paradise, Entrance, and Wish. In 2021, Dae-ho Lee co-founded the company C.Sense with Jung-Hwi Park as a platform to develop their own projects.  The company, comprised of four exceptional emerging male dancers from South Korea, has developed a raw, instinctive dance style that draws from street dance and martial arts in addition to other forms of contemporary dance.
 

Japan Society launched its 2024-2025 Performing Arts Season with the Fall 2024 Series Ningyo! A Parade of Puppetry, beginning with Basil Twist’s Dogugaeshi, a 20th anniversary revival of Twist’s Bessie award-winning fusion of mind-bending contemporary puppetry and nearly extinct traditional puppetry techniques from Japan’s Awa region (September 11 – 19) and continuing with National Bunraku Theater, the long-awaited return of traditional bunraku puppet theater brought to New York City by Japan’s National Theatre (October 3 – 5) and Shinnai Meets Puppetry (November 7 – 9).  The series concludes with The Benshi Tradition and the Silver Screen: A Japanese Puppetry Spin-off (December 12 & 13), with modern benshi star Ichiro Kataoka and shamisen musician Sumie Kaneko joining forces across two separate screenings of silent samurai classics. This series coincided with Japan Society Gallery's fall exhibition, Bunraku Backstage, which continues through January 21, 2025.
 
In Winter/Spring 2025, Japan Society presents this 20th installment of the Contemporary Dance Festival: Japan + East Asia (January 10 – 11).  Next, the French gothic horror Le Barbe Bleue gets a Harajuku makeover in Shuji Terayama’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle (January 15 – 18), a mazelike retelling of the original tale and the Bartok adaptation by underground theater / filmmaker legend Shuji Terayama, further subverted into a wild burlesque showcase by the crossdressing, all-female company Project NYX, all directed by experimental theater veteran Kim Sujin.  The season continues with the 19th installment of the Annual Play Reading, presenting the play the far side of the moon (March 10), a haunting meditation on aging and loneliness in the modern era written by Izumi Kasagiand directed by NYC-based Skye Kowaleski.  Following the play reading, traditional Japanese instrument rockstars The Shakuhachi 5 have their North American debut concert in The Shakuhachi 5: Shakuhachi Vogue – A Visual Concert (May 16), featuring an impressive range of new and traditional works over four centuries to the backdrop of a mesmerizing video collage of ukiyo-e images, designed by visual artist Tei Blow. The season culminates with the music series Shun Ishiwaka: Jazz Transcending (June 5 & 7), in a set of two contrasting programs, one on each night, that place the rapidly transcendent star percussionist and musician Shun Ishiwaka front and center for American audiences.
 
?