Kenta Kojiri

Born in Japan in 1981, Kenta Kojiri started classical ballet at the age of three. He made his debut at Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo and later became the first Japanese man to join the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT1). Kojiri has interpreted the works of Jiri Kylián, William Forsythe, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, Crystal Pite, Wayne McGregor, and Alexander Ekman. In 2010, he became a freelance dancer and choreographer and took part in the world tour of Sylvie Guillem’s 6000 Miles Away (Sadler’s Wells Theatre). In 2017, Kojiri launched the project SandD (Surface and Destroy) to produce collaborative works and conduct research with artists, researchers, and technicians. The project notably yielded Study for Self/portrait (2017, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art), The Threshold (2021, Goethe-Institut Tokyo) and COROLI (2022, Kanagawa Arts Theater). As of 2022, Kojiro has residencies at Dance Base Yokohama and Toyohashi Arts Theater PLAT.

The workshop will be based on everyday scenes and the memories that are recalled from them. Through communication with the body and language, including movement research and discussion, this is an attempt to record our memories with the body, which never crossed paths with each other. In the movement research, we will share Kenta Kojiri’s knowledge of the physicality based on Japanese culture and from the logic of classical ballet. In the discussion, the participants will share the everyday scenes they bring with them and the memories they recall from them. Then, we will extract characteristic sounds from everyday environmental sounds and link them to the inevitability of movement.