Movers Platform
Movers Platform, launched by Hiroaki Umeda (choreographer, dancer, visual artist), is an event/platform to show uniqueness in movements. It proposes values and perspectives towards dance and choreography of the next generation.
Movers Platform is a dance collective project Initiated by famous Japanese dancer, choreographer and visual artist Hiroaki Umeda. It was first co-produced in 2020 by the Yokohama Dance Collection (Japan) and ARTWAVE from the National Culture and Arts Foundation (Taiwan). The production was a success in bringing together production teams and dancers from Taiwan and Japan as one of the fringe programs of the Tokyo Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama in 2020.
In 2020, when the production was first performed, our director, Yi Kai Kao, also participated in this Taiwan-Japan co-production. Alongside Wang Ning, an emerging dancer in Taiwan eventually became the movers for 2020 productions. Continuing in the sloop, as an international platform, Thinkers’ Studio stayed in cooperation with an administration and venue cooperation unit for Taiwan, even when Movers platform #2 in 2021 was performed online due to travel restrictions caused by the international epidemic.
After a short intermission from the pandemic era, The year 2023 marked the first year after the international epidemic was lifted and it is also the last year for Hiroaki Umeda to serve as the resident choreographer of the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse No.1. To carry on the Taiwan-Japan partnership of 2020 and 2021, Thinkers’ Studio is invited back to production this winter. As a platform, we are heading forward to another year of cooperation with the Yokohama Dance Collection and to further deepen the partnership and development of the Movers Platform.
Movers Platform is a cross-country physical research and production that proposes to value and perspective towards dance and choreography of the next Asia generation. It is an event/platform to show uniqueness in movements.
Although there are various dance styles around the world, there are dancers, or Movers, who have unique movements that cannot be categorized in those existing dance styles. The unique Movers who have ʻcurrentnessʼ in their body often do not belong to any of them, and therefore might not be recognized in the society.
In this platform, Hiroaki gathers several movers who have unique movement vocabulary, and compose their movements to create a performance. As a director and curator, Hiroaki oversees the overall structure of the performance, but his role here is not a choreographer. The performance is neither Umedaʼs choreographic work nor an improvisation jam. It is another form of platform where each mover can show their unique movements.
In addition, in terms of production, the Movers Platform also symbolized an actual practice of co-production between Taiwan, Japan and the global production platforms, regarding its online and offline hybrid production format among all these years.
Date: 2nd and 4th Dec, 2023
Time: 18:30~ Talk, 19:00~ Performance
Venus: ZOU-NO-HANA TERRACE, Yokohama, Japan（Google Map）
Taiwan Production Team:
Producer and International Manager: KAO Yi Kai
Administration and Junior International Manager: LEE Tsz Wai, Vivien
Promotion: KUO Chin Ming
Taiwan Representing Artists: WANG Ning, WANG Chu Hua
Organizer: Yokohama Dance Colletion
Cooperation: Thinkers’ Studio (TW), WestK (Hong Kong), Connected A (Korea), DAN.C.CE UNITIVA (Greece)
Taiwan Sponsor: National Culture and Arts Foundation
photo credit：Sugawara Kota
Choreographer, dancer, and visual artist from Tokyo. After studying photography, he broadened his interest in physical expression and independently pursued cross-disciplinary dance art, incorporating visual art and digital expression without the shackles of any specific method. He began presenting works in 2000, and the piece he performed at the YDC 2002 “while going to a condition” received international acclaim. Since then, he has performed as well as created installations focusing on human physical senses in more than 150 cities throughout 40 countries, including France. Also involved in sound, video, and lighting design, Umeda’s work is highly acclaimed in the context of visual art for his methods of combining original movement and digital technology.
In April 2022, Umeda became the first resident choreographer of Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse No.1, one of Japan’s leading dance centers, where he creates, performs, and promotes dance with new ideas.
Ning WANG, b.1991, is a contemporary dancer and choreographer from Taipei, Taiwan. Ning has performed, choreographed, and collaborated with artists from Taiwan and internationally. She engaged in various forms of multi-disciplinary arts, including dance, theater, contemporary circus, percussion, new media, experimental (VR) film, and performance art.
Ning met Contact Improvisation and learned deeply from 2016. Improvisation gradually became her artistic praxis. 《丨丨》The Other (2018) focuses on the gendering spectacle of human bodies to create hybrid teasing curls under the spectatorship on the ground of nudity. Movement (2021) questions how the body and theatrical elements compose ‘a dance performance’. It was nominated for The 20th Taishin Arts Award. Cracking (2023) takes the concept of ‘body as time tool’. Attempt to uncover the multiple body politics from physical movement. Currently, she was starting to make dance-videography. Seeing body as medium, to explore the intertextuality narratives between individuals and society.
Ning has participated in several international exchange programme from 2020, including ARTWAVE “Movers’ Platform#1 Taiwan/Japan”, [CP]3 (organized by Dance Nucleus, Singapore), and Connect with SEA (Gender & Sexuality): Residency Onsite & Online. Recently worked with: CHOU Shu-Yi, KU Ming-Shen, Jérôme Bel×CHEN Wu-Kang×YEH Ming-Hua, Hiroaki Umeda, Choy Ka-Fai, CHEN Yi, LIU Yu, Candy Bird, Alex Schweder×Ward Shelley, etc.
Taipei,Taiwan
She graduated from the Dance Performance Department at Taipei National University of the Arts and currently works in
the field of performing arts. In recent years, she has collaborated with artists from various art disciplines,
including theater, visual arts, and performance art. In her current artistic concept, the focus lies in the idea that “consciousness guides body behavior to generate movements, and how body performance can articulate inner experiences.” This exploration extends beyond the physical realm, as she also ventures into theater and photography, in addition to her dance works.
“Yokohama Dance Collection” is an international dance festival that consists of various programs such as programs aiming to discover and foster promising young choreographers, collaborative programs with domestic and overseas dance communities and festivals, and performances by internationally active choreographers.
In addition, being in partnership with YPAM (Yokohama International Performing Arts Meeting) and taking place in the same period, YDC strengthens solidarity of creators in contemporary world as well as regional and international bonds, and aims to increase its presence as a significant dance platform in Asia.
