Choreography

Premired “I was There to be Here” in MN Dance community

Archiving, Choreography, Life logging, Performance

In April 2025, I was fortunate to be selected to present my work as part of the Candy Box Dance Festival at the Southern Theater.

I Was There to Be Here reflects on the passage of time since leaving our hometowns and the ongoing search for “home.” Drawing from all the places I’ve called “home,” from Tokyo to Minneapolis, I explore how memory shapes identity. It’s a moving dialogue between my past self and present self, weaving belonging into the body I inhabit today.

The piece was inspired by my experience returning home in 2023—the first time since COVID-19 began. The hometown I once lived in, and even the language I used to speak every day, suddenly felt foreign. That moment of estrangement made me think deeply about the passage of time. I revisited childhood photographs and the physical habits shaped by each place I’ve lived. These memories surfaced as textures in the movement—small gestures, fragments of soundscape, postural tendencies, and rhythms I had unconsciously carried with me. The process became an excavation of how the body archives time, revealing what I’ve held onto and what I’ve outgrown.

In the rehearsal process, my duet partner, Rachel Holmes, and I spent time discussing memories, our relationships with the past, and how those histories mirror who we are in the present. We talked about how time grows out of the past while continually shifting and moving forward. We brought various props into the studio to visualize imagined conversations between our present and past selves. The two benches became a door, a bridge, and a landmark of life. The piles of rocks and eight buckets with internal lights represented the emotional temperature and texture of different memories. We treated the studio as a site of remembering, and these practices allowed us to build a movement language that felt intimate, porous, and always in conversation with change.

Presenting I Was There to Be Here within Candy Box gave me space to explore the concept more fully and allowed the piece to keep evolving. This felt true to the theme of “home” as something fluid rather than fixed. I was surprised by how many people had different interpretations of our relationship—seeing Rachel and me as friends, sisters, or reflections of one another—and yet how many resonated with the larger journey of seeking. I realized the work was not only about my own story but also about the universal feeling of being shaped by the places and people we move through.

This project is part of my ongoing investigation into cultural hybridity and the body as a living archive. I Was There to Be Here continues to push me to ask deeper questions about how we carry history, displacement, and belonging within our bones, and how movement can reveal what words cannot.

End of October – Cabaret production reflection

Choreography, Life logging, Theater

The leaves have colored bright red and oranges and started falling off from the tree. It signifies the year has been 3/4 down and two months left of 2024. It seems like yesterday was just a hot summer day and now I feel a little cold wind that passes my face. Time flies so fast.

I wanted to write down my experience in working with theater production for the first time in my life! Strangely, my undergraduate program was very connected with Musical theater majors, but I never dreamt of being on the Broadway stage. I do love singing and dancing. Yet I have never had an idea of me standing on the theatre stage. Therefore, I never thought I would be involved in Theater production.

During the couple past of weeks of August and September, I had a wonderful opportunity to choreograph the musical production, Cabaret. I knew the production because I have danced to some of Bob Fosse’s repertoire and I performed in “Mein Herr” as an excerpt dance number. The story is centered around Kit Kat club singer, Sally Bowles and a young enthusiastic writer Clifford in Berlin during the 1930s. It depicts the arousal of political tensions and racial problems and showcases the complex sexual orientations and gender roles, questions what life is … to sum it up, Cabaret is not a happy story.

As a choreographer, I researched many documentation of previous Cabaret productions, watched the film that Bob Fosse directed, and went to Berlin to see Cabaret production to fully understand what this production is about. At first, I was terrified. I pondered what would required for students to perform as club dancers safely. How do I prioritize the comfortability of some sexual expression while creating safety in dancers’ bodies? Some dance numbers were very challenging, dealing with race, sex, and politics.

In my rehearsal, I always started checking in with the dancers’ bodies. We circled up and asked how they felt today, and where in their body they felt okay or not good to be seen and touched. They scanned from head to toe, gesturing “yes” or “no” to everyone in the circle so that we all know. I also asked dancers to consent every time if some choreographic choices have some sexual expressions. It helped them feel secure and allowed them to speak up about their choices and comfort.

Another pressure was time constraints. I had only six days of three hours of rehearsal to finish seven dance numbers! The very little amount of time to teach the choreography and ready to set them on stage was a drastic difference from how I choreograph dance works or films. Thankfully I had a great dance captain who could clean and polish after these intense 6 days of setting the choreography. Transitioning from the dance studio to the actual stage was also another beast. Not only working with the limitation of the size of the stage but also entering, and exiting with stairs or dancing on the different levels were challenging. I asked dancers to trust their artistic choices on the stage and fully immerse in their characters. The performance is the art of being therefore whatever they do I leave the choices up to the dancers.

Photo by Corrie Eggimann

Overall, it was fruitful to see my contribution to the production plus witnessing choreography and dancers’ performances enhance the shows. The cast of Cabret was full of talented actors and I really admired their dedication to the performance. The show ran for two weeks from October 3rd to October 13th. There is always something I can learn new things every semester I am teaching at MNSU. In the future, I hope to integrate my learning and teaching in different disciplines in the performing arts.