Hana Sakai
& Yasutake Shimaji

While most of the world’s best dancers train abroad, Hana Sakai trained in Japan, where she has built her career to become a classical ballet icon for the Japanese. Initially a member of the Asami Ballet Company, she performed the lead role in The Nutcracker at the age of 18. In 1997, when the Japanese state opened the New National Theater, they also created a ballet company, and Hana Sakai became its principal dancer. She performed leading roles in both the classical and neo-classical repertoires, including Manon, choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan. Abroad, she was invited to perform at the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater and at the Bolshoi for the Benois de la danse festival. Hana Sakai is a rare dancer who, even twenty years after leaving ballet, continues to be sought after by many choreographers and directors. In 2021, Toshiki Okada created for her Le Cygne, an excerpt from Camille Saint-Saëns’s Carnaval des animaux, to be followed in 2024-2025 by Giselle.

After initially training and performing in hip hop dance, Yasutake Shimaji turned to contemporary dance when he was in university and left Japan a few years later to join the Forsythe Company, where he danced for nine years. In 2015, he returned to Japan, where he was selected as a Shiseido Camelia Club artist and presented performances and installations. He also created shows with Noh theater actor Reijiro Tsumura and rapper Roy Tamaki. In 2017, choreographer Darren Johnston invited him to take part in his creation Zero Point, presented at the Barbican in London. The same year, Shimaji created Short Shadows in Tokyo with former Forsythe Company member Alessio Silvestrin. In 2018, he completed a residency at Théâtre de Chaillot with Kenta Kojiri and Tomo Tsujimoto. In 2020, he presented Arika at the Maison de la culture du Japon in Paris. In 2023, he created and performed Love Project with Maria Zimpel at the Kampnagel, Hamburg. A dancer renowned for his charisma and elegance, he embodies strength and fluidity on stage.

“Dance is a dialogue, but what makes it special is the ability to speak while listening. How can we transform ourselves through contact with others, while retaining our own space, our own direction and our own imagination? We’ll start with exercises to raise awareness of the body in action. Then we’ll work on integrating torsion into movement, developing a form of introspection of the body, notably by consciously moving small parts of the body. Finally, we’ll take a closer look at Rudolf Laban’s Movement Studies, assigning words to each of the points. The workshop will be a laboratory for dialogue and curiosity with all participants.”