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.

Sun arose for the 28th cycle

Dance film, Life logging, Performance

This month, I entered the 28th cycle of the sun. The year of 27th, I had a drastic change in my life. I encountered a new environment, people, responsibilities, and opportunities. It’s almost like the universe shifted underneath where I was standing. In the unknown current of the ocean, I was trying to find the calm wave to put myself together.

Entering 2024, There were many fresh experiences. I was fortunate to find the support and exciting opportunities. Started to feel the tide and let it flow inside of me.

In January, I performed my solo, “The Discipline Body” at Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis. I was a part of the work-in-progress sharing called “Tiger Balm.” This was my first time sharing my work in the Minnesota dance community, which was super exciting! “The Discipline Body” examines how one’s culture shapes the body to regulate one’s behavior in public space. It is inspired by the Japanese educational system that teaches students to behave “appropriately.” This performance was an autobiographic reflection of unfolding the embodiment of the education system through my body. The great thing about the showing was the feedback session. I was able to hear from the audience their sensations and questions that arose from viewing.

This is the video recording from Tiger Balms (work-in-progress sharing) at Red Eye Theater, Minneapolis MN.

Another experience I valued was participating in the ACDA (American College Dance Alliance) in the North Central region. This year was held in St.Olf College. I taught Introduction to Dance Film, which introduces students to dance-making from different angles and viewpoints by using the camera. Instant composition was a fruitful experience to see students’ creativity and playfulness. Also, I brought my dance piece from the Fall Faculty Concert, “Can I See You on the Other Side.” Calling the lighting cue and watching my choreography from the lighting booth was a new experience for me. Overall, it was a great opportunity to introduce myself to the regional institutions, and seeing students learning, performing, and connecting with the dance community was a treat to me as a dance educator.

Concluding the academic year of 2023-2024, we had “Carmina Burana” to celebrate the new departure as the Performing Arts Department of Minnesota State University Mankato. “Carmina Burana” is composed by Carl Orff, inspired by Latin songs of the circle of life. We fused live dance, chorus, and orchestra. I participated in this huge production as a choreographer. Embodying the strong introduction of this opera was very exciting and scary at the same time. I normally don’t work with classical music, so generating the materials was based on the theme and story of the opera, which was a fun experience to collaborate with my talented students. Also, composing the movement ideas into the big casts was a good challenge for me. I had 19 casts in one section, and moving the stage with that amount of movers was spectacular. It was quite an experience to work with live musicians and singers as well as theater technicians to put on this production. I am looking forward to having more collaboration beyond the disciplines in the future.

Photo: Dan Norman

Without the huge wave hitting at me, I am centering myself during the summer. More fresh experiences to come in the future. To prepare for the new wave, I am practicing letting go of judgment, expectations, and assumptions, and starting the conversation with open-ended questions. How to allow myself to be always open and available to the world? This is a difficult task, but I would like to practice every day. I am welcoming the new circle of life.

Hoping everyone has a toasty and juicy July:)

That’s a wrap! The year of change, 2023

Dance film, Life logging, Performance

It’s already at the end the end of the year 2023. What a year of CHANGE! Since graduation, my life has hugely shifted. I felt like I almost lived two lives in a year, the first half as a graduate student and the other half as a dance faculty.

After I graduated from Ohio State University in May, I moved to Mankato, Minnesota, where I started as an assistant professor in Dance at the Department of Performing Arts. Learning new theater and dance department ecosystem, adjusting the new school schedule as a faculty, adopting the cold Minnesota weather… All happened in less than five months. It was a huge learning curve to be an instructor of college-level movement courses with various students, not only dance major students but also Theater students and dance minor students with different movement backgrounds. I aim to offer a class where students can feel safe to be curious, explore, and deeply listen to their bodies and internal desire to dance. Ultimately, I want my students to look forward to taking classes. I wanted to write it down here to remind myself of the future -Where I started and what dance educator I want to strive to become.

Photos from the Fall Dance Concert 2023

I also would like to mention some of the choreographic projects I participated in this year. I was honored to be chosen as a dance artist to perform outside of the school system. Yujie Chen and I performed “Motion of Seeing” at the Detroit Dance City Festival in September. This piece we created was the second iteration of “Body Negative” and it expanded the idea of mobility in seeing the performance. I also deepened my choreography to think about how BIPOC artists deal with cultural representation. We received the National Exchange Award. Even though I am still in search of my artistic voice, such rewarding to share and recognize dance works that My collaborator and I put the effort into.

Photos from the performance, “Motion of Seeing” at the Detroit Dance City Festival

Another chance that I could explore my artistry was through dance filmmaking. I was fortunate to be part of the project, Dance for Diversity. Dance for Diversity was founded by Elizabeth Roskph and envisioned to amplify visibility and create a platform for BIPOC Artists to center their unique voices and their stories through their art while fostering a place of belonging and reclamation of their true identities. I had the privilege to collaborate with the videographer, Rachel Malhorn. I had an idea of visualizing in-betweenness that I experienced as a first-generation immigrant. I wanted to showcase the acknowledging upbringing and how we adopted, changed, and merged our living experiences in different cultures to live in the U.S. For 4 months, we had great communication back and forth to discuss creative direction. We filmed all the materials in Milwaukee WI in 2 days and assembled the film. The level of understanding and trust made us create a dance film, 藍 (Ai).

Photos from Dance for Diversity, at the Film Series Premiere

I want to conclude this post with appreciation and hope. The job and many choreographic projects that I participated in were extensions of what have learned and inserted in working with during my graduate time. This year gave me confidence and autonomy in what I want to do. I hope to expand and grow more in 2024.

Do you proceed the protocol?

Choreography Workshop, Performance

At the beginning of the semester, one of my 1st year MFA cohort, Mollie Wolf ask me and Jackie Courchene (same as 1st year MFA) to create a piece about no physical contact trio and reflecting our time under the coronavirus pandemic. She also had costumes, the yellow and white zipper jackets, pants, and matching yellow socks that we could use.

I loved her concept so I said YES! immediately. I have never collectively choreographed before, so it was a great learning experience. We all approached this piece with a different perspectives and backgrounds. For example, Mollie has already set a piece by using the same costume, but different idea. Therefore, we communicate openly until we all get to the point of agreement. We compromise and fix the direction when we needed to.

Our matching day! From right me, Professor Petry, Jackie Courchene, and Mollie Wolf

The speed of this creation was very quick. We started to meet on Fridays after the Choreography Workshop course. We brainstormed ideas of how we negotiate the space without body contact. Started with an improvisation game, one or two people trying to touch the third person and she avoid the touches. It created the narrative of seeking consent. Then move on to the basic phrase-making. We got inspiration from our new “normal”, sanitization, washing hands, put masks on, screening… During this process, we faced the question, what we want to portrait. Since we were reflecting the pandemic, we also made the scene called “transmission,” which at first was the virus were transmitting from body to body, but later on shifting to the transmission of fear of getting coronavirus. After the first showing, we also noticed that all phrases we created were mechanical and systematic therefore there was another question came up which how we want to add humanity to this piece.

The process was, indeed, a deep rabbit hall. Especially on how we want to conclude this piece was a hard task to tackle. We initially wanted to finish with three endings, Mollie as extremely against the protocol, Jackie as the follower of the protocol, and I as in-between of the extremes which was the most relatable character. Although in order to find the thread in between of all the materials we created, we rewrote the ending as a unison walk into the unknown future together. In order to finalize our narrative of this piece, we manually wrote all the materials into paper and visualize the order.

Also, this piece had huge support by the sound. Mollie designed it by mixing the song from Alva Noto and many sounds and voices from The Conet Project. Both are electric and industrial which created the mood of the piece. Especially, we pulled many counting voices in different languages from The Conet Project to show what we deal with in this piece was universal. Then we added Jackie’s partner, Jordan’s voice to be “the protocol,” which was an external source to order us what to do. The sound is the trigger for us to move on to the next scenes and controlled the emotion and movement.

Lastly, we struggled with the title. Professor Petry gave us an exercise to find the words chine to trace down or up to micro and macro ideas. We tried couple of times though finding the word to start the exercise was tricky since we had total of 8 scenes which all were different from each other and the thread to connect them all was Jordan’s voice, “the protocol.” Therefore, we ended up landing on using the protocol’s phrases to tell our story chronologically.

We concluded the project at the end of November. Looking back to the almost 3 months journey was a great ride. We had such a clear idea yet it took a long time to get to the actual product that we were satisfied with. We had to sit down and discuss a lot, wrote down all the ups and downs. It was worth fighting to reach the end. I hope you enjoy our piece, “Clear. Again. Proceed.” Please leave the comment below to let me hear your thoughts:)

What does it sound to you? -Japanese project-

Choreography Workshop

Over the quarantine, I have started teaching Japanese online. And it was so interesting that while I am teaching the language, I relearned how to speak my mother tongue and realized the significance of the language. This experience inspired me to corporate my mother tongue and dance.

So I have a concept in my mind that “what if the dancers heard their own story in a foreign language, what movement comes out?.” It was on Friday, after the Choreography Workshop, walking the aisle with John Cartwright, Ishmael Konney, and Quianna Simpson. I asked them if they were interested in working with my concept. Fortunately, they said YES! So we started meeting on Thursday afternoon to rehearse.

At first, I asked all of them to write a paragraph of their self-introduction. I translated the texts into Japanese and recorded them. Dancers danced with their own biography, which they could guess what I was talking about, yet it was hard for them to fully understand. Quianna shared that she recognized some words such as”African dance” but she was influenced mostly by the rhythm of speaking. Also, John mentioned that it was dancing in between familiar from and unfamiliar. Next step, I asked them to dance with other’s bio which they have no clue what I was talking about. Ishmael shared that he was inspired by the speed of my speaking and almost echoing with his body. Dancers were definitely hard to react to speaking voice with unknown topics since no connection nor inspiration to their movement. What they react was the sound, rhythm, tone, speed I made. It was a great discovery to me since I was seeking an authentic reaction from dancers to the foreign language.

So we ended up using their biography with my speaking to generate the basic phrase. In the first version of this project, I was a narrator and started speaking Quianna’s story, then John’s and Ishmael’s at the end. The person who was spoken one’s bio leads the movement and others echoing. It was a clear structure of displaying how dancers embody the sound of Japanese.

Although, we received feedback about I and dancers’ relationship as well as an objective of this project. We discussed one more time to clarified the intention of this project and landed on offering a foreign experience to the audience but also showing the visceral level of communication. Also, we decided to not separating me from their narrative. I added on my story to move together as well as bringing back idea, authentic reaction; dancers react to what I spoke without knowing the content. We revised the movements, and space usage as well.

Over this process, we re-defined the fundamental of communication by using verbal and non-verbal tools able to understand, interact, respond to each other. Once Quianna shared that we seemed like creating harmony by bodies, which was a beautiful way to describe our creative journey and indeed it was a deep and interesting process. I would like to continue experimenting to combine my mother tongue in my work.

Sitting at the riverside -12 hours into 2 minutes-

Choreography Workshop

Time is an interesting element of life. Everyone has 24 hours a day, but depends on your situation, you feel and experience it at a totally different time speed.

I thought a lot about time during the quarantine. Society seemed to stop or slow down when the pandemic hit. Each day felt dragged out and tried to fill the emptiness at first. However each day my schedule was fluid. I could do whatever I wanted to with no time limitations. With this freedom, I was able to try new things and explore many possibilities.

Now I am in a graduate program, and my daily schedule looks completely different. From morning until night, my schedule revolves around my classes, appointments, meetings, get resources at the library, and teaching Japanese in the breaks between everything. Now more than ever, I realize the importance of time management and the effect it has on one’s future.

Speaking of time, I recently committed to stay and film myself for 12 hours at the riverside. It was for one of the assigned prompt “durational work” for the Choreography Workshop course. I would like everyone to check my video before reading my story at the riverside. –> https://vimeo.com/463212300
The process was almost like therapy to me. My initial idea for this piece was that I commit to being somewhere for 12 hours from sunrise to sunset and I move the exact same way and shoot myself every 30 minutes. The piece is not about me, about the time passing around me. I am part of the narrative.

I woke up at 6:30 am and biked to the riverside. I found the perfect place on my way to Laura’s rehearsal at the Chadwick Arboretum (I will write about her project later. It has been an amazing journey!) Set up the tripod, check the time constantly, and the angle of the camera. Started film when the clock hits 7:30 am. Every 30 minutes, I get up, move, and film. It was very simple. The same simpleness that I had during the quarantine.

In the morning, the sun had not yet and it was cold. The only I could hear was the wave of the water. Everything around me felt as if it were still asleep. I felt all my senses were awakened. I could hear the birds swimming, feel the brisk morning air coming off the river, see the sky brighten up from blue to purple to orange. All the changes I witnessed were beautiful. The higher the sun was up, the more people and birds visited the river, cars, and airplanes passed by, and the bugs flew around. I could tell the town woke up from sleep.

Sitting at the riverside for this long period, I was expected to be exhausting. However, surprisingly, I was not. This 30 minutes check-in was helping me to keep my time tracking and it was a consistent indicator of my time at the river. Some of the 30 minutes slots, I was very productive and able to finished some of my assignments from dance film class, research class, and composition class even though I did not have access to the internet, and some of them I just observed birds. There were ducks, geese, great egrets living at the river. As time passed, they swam super close to me and looked at me like “what is this human doing for so long at our territory?” Especially ducks were friendly and their curiosity and my curiosity seemed matched. Super fun imitating their neck movement and made eye contact.

I finished at 7:30 pm. Overall, I shot 25 clips of me moving for 12 hours. The sun is completely out and just the sound of the crickets echoing at the river. The night wind blew to my face and I was satisfied with the accomplishment of being at the riverside for 12 hours.

I went back home and started editing and I noticed that my labor at the riverside and the final product does not have equal quality. It looked choppy when I put together all the clips. I was disappointed. It was my fault not to study enough of filming to capture the progress of time, but I did not want to shoot in timelapse which I thought ruined my movement. I learned that it is great to do all the options first then choose what is the most appropriate to use in the piece. I could not quite express how much I put my effort to be at the riverside for 12 hours in the film, yet sum up my 12 hours into 2 minutes was meaningful and worthwhile to record as my creative process.

Goodbye September, Hello October

Choreography Workshop, Research Project

The tree leaves are changing to vivid red, orange, yellow, and getting colder in Columbus. It’s been already 6 weeks since I have started my graduate program! I cannot believe how fast the time past. Compared to the quarantine time, I appreciated that I could spend time at a new place and be exposed to new perspectives every day. I learn so much these past weeks.

Looking back these 6 weeks, this feeling of Homesickness keeps washing over me every so often. Compared to the experiences between leaving parents to come to the U.S. and leaving Oklahoma to start school in Ohio, I felt more difficult adjusting in the latter. It might be affected by this current weirdness under the pandemic, though homesickness is not determined by the physical distance. It surprised me. I have been more sensitive to the detail surrounding me such as weather, the sound of the wind, beer cans on the street, people’s laugh outside of my apartment. And re-examining what I miss, like, dislike, and where I feel the most comfortable.

This adjusting to a new place made me think “where is my home?” In my definition of home is a safe, comfortable, vulnerable place. However, is its physical location like the house where I grew up? the intimacy that I have with my husband? the passion or something I love to do in my life?…. There are so many questions I have and this is what I will investigate in my research.

2weeks ago, I completed my first project of the Choreography Workshop Course (Woo-hooooo!!) Next, we will take a look behind the scene of this project, so if you have not seen it, please checked it out at the link below. https://vimeo.com/460652109

I titled this piece, “Living inside the grid” which was inspired by the zoom screen. Since I am taking many classes on zoom, I noticed that in this grid system, it is hard to concentrate and connect with my classmates. I wanted to shape this unnatural rectangle-shaped world. Me trying to be creative, I started looking around rectangle shapes other than my laptop screen. I had many photo frames in different sizes (initially, I bought a bunch of them for my living room decoration) and a wired coffee table that has a square hole in the middle.

At first, I started to play around with photo frames. I set up all my frames standing up on the floor with different distances from the camera to create the depth and space to move around. Ended up knocking down the frames while I was dancing so, I changed the plan to hang them from the ceiling which I have more freedom in between the frames. In a zoom class, there is a weird private territory due to the lack of physical constraint. The only place you have to be presentable is inside of the frame. This idea is connected to my movement and the costume choice. As for the movement, I generate the materials from improvisation. Portraying the flatness, linear, stifling space with and within the frames. And I married some recurring motifs, trying to go away from the frame to breathe in the air, making a frame with my hand. Then, I added on the coffee table to make another layer of this piece. I taped the black blank paper on the hole and tried to rip it and break through it. (which it required so much power haha) It took me to do some practices before I shoot since the paper was super strong! Indeed, I had to stab a pencil to make a hole to put my finger through.

The process of making this piece was crafty and fun exploring the possibility of the daily object in my apartment into the creation. One time, I heard that the limitation stimulates creativity and it was true. I experienced through my first project. The new month is coming. I will keep investigating, exploring, challenging, and creating. The next goal is to make durational work.