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Xstream project 2
THE LONG STRONG HAPPY DEATH
Composition, Direction & Choreography: Akiko Kitamura
Saturday, November 1 – Monday, November 3, 2025
Venue: Theater Tram
Concept, Direction, Choreography, and Performance:
Akiko Kitamura
Music Director:
Hiroaki Yokoyama (agehasprings)
Performance and Choreography:
Asami Ida
Ikumi Otsuka
Ikumi Kurosu
Yu Kuroda
Yukio Suzuki
Kei Tsujimoto
Yuki Nishiyama
Performance and Vocals:
Mayanglambam Mangangsana Meitei (India)
Collaborator:
Rhosam Villareal Prudenciado Jr. (Philippines)
Sat, Nov 1: 7:30 PM
Sun, Nov 2: 2:00 PM / 6:00 PM
Mon, Nov 3 (Public Holiday): 3:00 PM
Theatre Tram
Setagaya Public Theatre Ticket Center (by phone or at the box office)
Tel 03-5432-1515 (10:00-19:00)
About
The second installment of “Xstream Project” by Akiko Kitamura,
who has produced numerous international collaborative works grounded in fieldwork.
Artists from India, the Philippines, and Japan move back and forth between their respective realities and social histories,
creating a phantasmagoric dance that casts light on the intersection of memory and death.
This work was shaped through dialogue with many collaborators encountered in different places, including artists and researchers based in the Philippines, India, and Japan.
During the field research—which unfolded as if guided from Manila to Zamboanga and onward to Tawi-Tawi—we shared fleeting moments with Sama communities who live alongside the sea, as well as with people forging new lives in urban settings. In order to listen closely to the voices of living bodies that exist in the shadow of large structures such as law and institutional systems, we—travelers by nature—were constantly aware of the limits of what we could touch and reach. Separated by distance and borders, communication nevertheless continued through outstretched hands. These muddy, physical traces of movement, and the words exchanged with distant others, became the starting point of everything.
June 26 – July 10, 2024
Philippines, Luzon Island (Manila, Quezon City, Banahaw)
Philippines, Mindanao Island (Zamboanga City)
Research Members:
Akiko Kitamura / Hiroaki Yokoyama / Mayanglambam Mangangsana Meitei / Yurika Kuremiya
Research Support (Manila):
Santamaria, M.C.M., L.L.D., Professor, University of the Philippines Diliman /
Radzmina Jaha Tanjili / Felicidad A. Prudente, Ph.D. / Myra Beltran /
Mayumi Hirano / Mark Salvatus
Research Support (Zamboanga City):
Adelaida Ahaddas / Darna Ahaddas / Salma Ballati / Katrina Ballati /
Brainy Ilul / Patrick Ilul / Saripa Ilul / Suray Ahaddas /
Thelma Ahaddas-Muzarin / Adie Muzarin / Zailla Muzarin /
Carlo Pangkalan / Wilma Sergio
May 25 – 31, 2025
Philippines, Tawi-Tawi Island
Research Member:
Rhosam Villareal Prudenciado Jr.
Research Support:
MSU Tawi-Tawi College of Technology and Oceanography /
Aljemedin S. Jaudinez / Nursida Diamson Jaluddin / Cresina P. Abdilla /
Abdulkadil T. Jani / Carlo Ebeo (Commissioner, National Commission for Culture and the Arts) /
Rafdy Reech D. Nurullaji
Lecture:
Kazushi Nagatsu
August 4 – 15, 2025
Manipur, India
Research Members:
Hiroaki Yokoyama / Mayanglambam Mangangsana Meitei
Research Support:
Junjun Khestrimayum – assistant
In the creation of this work, we received support and assistance from an immense number of people—far more than can be listed here. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all of them.
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.
Dramaturg:
Yurika Kuremiya (DEZAR inc.)
Costume Design:
Rie Usui
Costume Production:
Sawa Tobita, Mio Honjo
Video:
Takaki Sudo
Music Provided by:
Moro Beats
Kenny Chingangbam (Saaiyon)
Heisnam Yaikhomba Singh (Yai)
Stage Manager:
Masato Kawaguchi (Rayon Vert)
Lighting:
Taichi Kutsumi
Sound:
Daisuke Hoshino, Noho Ikeda
Public Relations:
Yasue Konaka
Production Photography:
Hiroyasu Ohora
Production Assistant:
Kanako Iwanaka
Graphic Design & Production:
Keiichi Hayashi
Produced by:
Office ALB (General Incorporated Association)
Co-produced with:
Setagaya Arts Foundation
Setagaya Public Theatre
Supported by:
Setagaya City
Funding:
Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture
Arts Council Tokyo [Tokyo Arts and Culture Creation Grant]
Japan Arts Fund
In Cooperation with:
KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre
Sugar Sound
Saison Foundation
Asian Cultural Council
Production Support:
Setagaya Public Theatre