Nakamura Benefit Productions Online Project “Puzzled Documents
In March 2021, Dance Base Yokohama will release a video work produced by Nakamura Benefit Productions online project “Puzzled Documents” on YouTube’s DaBY channel.
Some of the videos are already in the process of being created, and once all of these are completed, we plan to show one film each day for eight days during the month of March.
Distribution schedule: March 21 (Sun.) – March 28 (Sun.)
Distribution URL: DaBY Channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/DanceBaseYokohama)
Full video list:Puzzled Documents ( https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1h6t3C9XrYKXcOM7EwkDx4yhYdoFfsCl )
Comments from Blessing Nakamura
In the spring of 2020, an epidemic of infectious diseases changed our previous norm. In order to prevent infection, self-restraint was required in many situations.
Having spent most of my material life in studios and theaters, this was the first time I had spent such a long period of time at home. Instead of responding to outside stimuli, I was able to listen closely to the quiet realm within me. It also taught me that the extraordinary world of art that I had experienced in the past was actually lurking in the midst of my daily life.
During the period of self-restraint, I spent “handmade time” with my daughter baking bread and making sweets, and this experience has given me a strong desire to make “handmade” dance works as well, and to face my own life-size works.
As I shared creative time with my daughter at home, the image of an online work with the theme of “art hidden in everyday life” began to grow.
During my stay-home period, I started online dance activities out of necessity. With the strong support of my daughter, online creative activities have opened up new possibilities for my expression. With the help of young people, I will be able to continue to take on new challenges in this with-corona era.
The outbreak of the new coronavirus has seared social problems such as inequality and discrimination. And now, each one of us may be facing our own personal problems that we have been potentially carrying around. And is not society as a whole bewildered by a situation with no clear future?
But only by grasping the cause of that perplexity can we take a new and clear step forward.
Puzzled Documents” was inspired by the seven days of the week.
Monday Sarara Osteer
Tuesday Kenta Shimizu
Wednesday Kenta Komori
Thursday Shoko Nakamura
Friday Yui Yonezawa
Saturday Yudai Fukuoka
Sunday Benefit Nakamura
I hope that each series of solos will become a spiral, a sign of exit from this perplexing time.
In this video work, both choreographers and dancers connected online from their homes to create.
It will be distributed on the DaBY channel.
◆List of videos currently available
File 001 Sunday Megumi Nakamura
File 004 Wednesday Kenta Kojiri / Kenta Kojiri
File 008 Last Sunday XXXX XXX
◆Profile
Sara Osteer
Sarah Hochster
Born to a French father and Japanese mother, she grew up in Tokyo.
At the age of 6, she started ballet.
Studied at Tokyo Ballet School and Cannes Rosella Hightower Ballet School.
She has been a member of the Junior Ballet of Cannes directed by Monique Rudière, Ballet Eisenach, Ballet National de la Rhin (France), Ballet Leipzig, Royal Ballet of Flanders as a Dumi soloist, and is currently a Dumi soloist with the National Ballet Berlin.
Repertoire
Juliet, Clara, Golden Fleece, Swan Lake, Coppelia, Giselle, Donkey, Forsythe, Balanchine, Sidi Larbi, Mayo, Schechter, Pite, Inger, and many others with European companies.
Kenta Shimizu
Kenta Shimizu
Started ballet at the age of 10. Studied under Walery Cofton, Shizuko Soda, Takahiro Harada, Shuhisa Natsuyama, and others.
Awarded Scholarship/Contemporary Prize at Prix de Lausanne 2000.
Studied at the Royal Ballet School in England from 2000 to 2001.
First prize at the Youth American Grand Prix in Sapporo, 2002, Won first prize at the Youth America Grand Prix in Sapporo, Japan, in 2002, and the silver prize at the main competition in New York. The same year, she joined Miami City Ballet, where she was promoted to soloist in 2004 and principal soloist in 2006.
In 2007, she starred in K Ballet Company’s “Don Quixote.” In September, she joined the company as junior principal and was promoted to principal in December.
From 2009 to present Guest principal with Los Angeles Ballet.
Kenta Kojiri
Kenta Kojiri
©︎Carl Thorborg
After winning the Professional Scholarship Prize at the Prix de Lausanne in 1999, he moved to Europe. He became the first Japanese male dancer to join the Netherlands Dance Theater I led by Ili Kylian, and in 2010 became a freelance dancer, performing in such creative works as “Study for Self/portrait” (2017, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art), Sylvie Guillem’s “6000 Miles Away” World Tour, Noism, and Royal Swedish Ballet. In recent years, she has been leading Opto (Opto) with Rei Watanabe, a lecturer at the New National Theatre Ballet Training Institute, choreographer/coach for operas and musicals, expression coach for Japanese national figure skating team, curator of DanceLab “Dancer, dancing with words”, DaBY dance evangelist, and more.
Shoko Nakamura
Shoko Nakamura
Born in 1980, she began studying ballet at the age of six. 1996, she won a scholarship at the Prix de Lausanne International Ballet Competition. 1998, she studied at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart, Germany. 2000, she joined the Vienna State Opera Ballet. 2001, she won first prize at the International Ballet Competition in Luxembourg, Germany. In 2002, she was promoted to soloist; in 2006, she joined the Berlin State Opera Ballet, where she was promoted to soloist in 2006 and principal in 2007; in 2013, she moved to the Hungarian State Opera Ballet as principal; since 2015, she has been a guest principal with K Ballet Company. She received the 66th Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize (Dance Division) in 2004, the 47th Dance Critics Society Prize, the 39th Tachibana Akiko Award for Excellence in 2006, and the 34th Hattori Chieko Award in 2008.
Yui Yonezawa
Yui Yonezawa
Born in Aichi Prefecture, she joined the New National Ballet Company as a soloist in 2010, made her debut in the leading role in Bintrey’s “Prince of Pagoda” in 2011, and was promoted to principal in 2001. She won the Gold Prize in the Junior Division at the International Ballet Competition in Varna in 2004 and the Bronze Prize in the Senior Division at the Jackson International Ballet Competition in 2006. She received the Nakagawa Ekinosuke Prize in 2002, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists in 2005, the Dance Critics Society’s New Dance Critics Award in 2006, the Aichi Prefecture Art Encouragement Prize for Culture in 2007, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize in 2008, and the Akiko Tachibana Prize for Excellence.
She has appeared as Julietta in “Beethoven Sonata” in 2005 and 2007, and as a daughter in “The Firebird” in 2007, among other Nakamura’s works.
Yudai Fukuoka
Yudai Fukuoka
Started ballet at K★ Ballet Studio.’ After joining the Zurich Junior Ballet in 2003 as an overseas trainee with the Agency for Cultural Affairs, she joined the Zurich Ballet and remained with the company until ’07.’ She joined the New National Theatre Ballet in 2009, was promoted to Principal in 2012, and has since starred in almost all of its productions.
She has also appeared as a guest principal at the Birmingham Royal Ballet, Primorsky stage of the Mariinsky Theater, and as a guest principal at the Turkish Ballet. She has also appeared as a guest principal at the Birmingham Royal Ballet, Primorsky stage of the Mariinsky Theater, and in gala performances in Mersin, Turkey and Dortmund, Germany. She won the Grand Prix in the Senior Division of the Kobe National Western Dance Competition, the 3rd Prize in the Senior Division of the Varna International Ballet Competition, the Nakagawa Einosuke Prize in 2011, the Dance Critics Society Prize in 2001, and the Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2006. She is also a member of the Japan Society of Dance Critics.
Benefit Nakamura
Megumi Nakamura
After winning the Professional Prize at the Prix de Lausanne, she moved to Europe. After working with the Ballet de Monte Carlo and other companies, she joined the Netherlands Dance Theater led by Ily Kylian, where she was involved in the creation of works by the world’s leading choreographers. Since 2007, he has been active as a choreographer in Japan, where he has been expanding his activities by creating works for Noism, K Ballet, the New National Ballet Company, and others. He has received the New Dance Critics Society Award, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Takaya Eguchi Award, the Chieko Hattori Award, the Medal with Purple Ribbon, and others.
Dirk Haubrich
Dirk Haubrich
Born in Saarbrücken, Germany. After studying in London and graduating from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Holland, he studied under Joel Ryan. Since 1998, she has composed music for many dance works using computer technology and new musical expression based on electronic music, and is currently based in Berlin, Germany. He has composed music for 15 NDT works, including “27’52,” “sleepless,” “When time takes time,” and “Far too close” for choreographer Ily Kylián.
He has collaborated with Benei Nakamura on his solo work “Blackbird”, “Waltz” choreographed by Nakamura for Noism in 2007, “The Garden of Time” by Nakamura and Suto in 2010, “Shakespeare THE SONNETS” at the New National Theatre in 2011 and 2013, “Little House” in 2013, and others.
Haubrich’s artistic style seeks to bridge the gap between the inaudible and the imaginable.
Choreography: Nakamura Benefit
Music: Dirk Haubrich
Director/Editor: Nakamura Mei
Organizer: Nakamura Benefit Productions
Publicity cooperation; Dance Base Yokohama
