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Akiko Kitamura
Collaboration Across Japan, Central Asia, and Ireland
Echoes of Calling – Gushland –
A heaven-sent body writhes on earth
To whom does the heaven-sent earth belong
After the map of avarice has collapsed
Those arriving at the land so barren
Hear the sounds of a small one crooning
All sorts of holes in the body turn into ears
Voices come in waves, surging and crashing
The spirited body fights and resonates, again and again
The rhythm’s pulses turn into the land’s seeds and flowers
Announcing Cast Change
As part of the measures against COVID-19, the Japanese government has announced to maintain the current border restrictions until the end of February.
Accordingly, the following artists will not be able to join the performance in Japan in person:
Dancer: Minte Wolde
Musicians: Doimnic Mac Giolla Bhríde, Diane Cannon
Their appearance in the live performance will be limited to film and music. We appreciate your kind understanding.
https://www.spiral.co.jp/access
No reserved seating.
Profile
Kitamura Akiko is a choreographer, dancer and director. Her background includes ballet, street dance, and Indonesian martial arts. She founded her dance company, Leni Basso, in 1994 while studying the Graduate School of Letters, Arts, and Sciences at Waseda University, from where she also received her MA. She stayed in Berlin as a trainee of the Agency for Cultural Affairs Overseas Training Program for Artists in 1995. Since her return to Japan, she has been implementing her own theory of choreography, the Grid System, and her own directing style that mixes and develops dancing, light, rhythm and image.
She was commissioned to present her work at the 2001 Bates Dance Festival and 2003 American Dance Festival (ADF) in the United States. The “enact oneself” that she choreographed for the ADF, was selected the Best Dance of the Year in North Carolina. One of Kitamura’s masterpieces, titled “finks” (2001), has been performed in more than 60 cities internationally and awarded Best Dance Piece of the Year by the Montreal Hour Magazine in 2005. She also created “ghostly round” for Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin which was highly esteemed in many countries globally.
In 2010, Kitamura started her solo career and engaged in international co-production projects including “To Belong” with Indonesia and “Cross Transit” with South East and South Asian countries. These productions were also performed at the Japan Society in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and many other cities. Moreover, the “vox soil” presented in 2018 and first performed at the Kanagawa Arts Theatre (KAAT), won the 13th Japan Dance Forum (JaDaFo) Awards Grand Prix. In 2020, she started a project titled “Echoes of Calling,” crossing the borders of Ireland, Central Asia and Japan.
Kitamura studies ‘the use of the human body as a medium’ in practical theatre, applying theories about the human body, direction, and dancing. Based on ‘physical thinking’ through the spread and deepening of dance expression, she keeps looking for the appeal of human bodies and the good communication generated from creative activities and art performance.