Participation from the 7th of April till the 2nd of May 2014
“I got the opportunity to make new friends and meet artists, as my activities connected to Japan and the Netherlands increased. Since I started living here, I was able to double my performances. I am also very happy with the large network I got here.”
Maya Ichikawa
Maya Ichikawa is a dancer/choreograph from Kyoto and came to the Netherlands to gain experience working with a diverse group of people. Before she came she had done choreography with pillows and wanted to incorporate this into a workshop in which people could participate. This lead to five fantastic workshops in which she stimulated dance through pillow fighting. As a pillow-fight is about just having fun, without verbal communication it her make the language gap smaller and proved to her that this project can be successful in other countries, beside Japan. To many people it was also considered nostalgic as it is something almost everybody has done at least once in their childhood. Ichikawa gave five community dance/pillow-fight workshops, from at the Okida yoga studio, the Terakoya, the Rietveld academy and the Overtoom 301 to a workshop at the Vondelpark during King’s day. Her unique workshop brought the participants a lot of joy and helped Ichikawa learn about the Dutch standpoint on gender and age differences.
Ichikawa is a dancer whom is part of the Kyoto Dance Exchange (KDE), which was established in 2008. Their company members’ ages range from being in their 20s to 70s, and most do not have any formal dance training or education, nor what is considered to be a typical dancer’s body. Ichikawa is their representative.
“Beautiful soul minded creature, she has become more than just someone I know”
Monica Stepak, dancer, choreographer, yoga teacher
Website: http://kdedance.web.fc2.com/