Originally from Kobe, Japan, NAOKO MAESHIBA performs, choreographs, directs, designs, and teaches, all from the body’s point of view. Growing up in rural Japan nurtured her sensitivity to and curiosity about the life cycles of living creatures and the atmosphere of places and people. This environment cultivated her perceptions and sensory awareness.

Her work is rooted in the minimalism of Japanese Noh theatre and post-modern Butoh dance as well as improvisation and surrealism, her work strives to awaken the unconscious and the invisible realm of human experience through the interplay of kinetic, auditory, and sculptural elements.

Maeshiba has been commissioned to create works by Quest International Visutal Theatre, DC Local Dance Commissioning Project, and Dance Place, DC. Maeshiba has received the Individual Artist Fellowship Grant from DC Commissions on Arts and Humanities, Board of Governor Baker award (2016), Ruby grant (2015), and “B” grant (2011) from Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance. She was given individual artist award five times from Maryland State Arts Council in the area of solo dance performance, solo theatre performance, and choreography, and Baltimore City Paper's Best of Baltimore in 'Best dance performance' and 'Best performance artist' categories.

Her works have been presented in both traditional and non-traditional venues in the North America, Europe, and Japan including John. F. Kennedy Center of Performing Arts (DC), Hirshhorn Museum at Smithsonian Institute (DC), Theatre of Yugen Noh space (SF), Tank (NY), Joyce Soho (NY), Ko Festival of Performance in Amherst (MA), Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Questfest (MD), Dialog of Four Cultures Festival (Lodz, Poland), International New Media Festival (Warsaw, Poland), International House of Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan), Theatre Jo (Tabor, Czech Republic), Dance Hakushu (Hakushu, Japan), Dance Place (DC), Warehouse Gallery (DC) and Woolly Mammoth Theatre (DC).

She is a certified Feldenkrais practitioner and the director of the interdisciplinary and experimental MFA in Theatre Arts program at Towson University.

"Paraffin" was probably one of the most complex pieces I've created in terms of both creative process and the final production. Layers in the dramatic structure and multiple sensory tracks made space for the audience to choose and follow the threads they created.

The piece consisted of eleven vignettes with the total time of 75 minutes.

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PARAFFIN (2009-2010) - full-length

Concept, choreography, direction, environment/object design, and performance

Growing up in Japan, I have followed all kinds of codes and formulas society has placed on us. Whether they are explicit or implicit, they have definitely formed my body and mind over the years without my being always conscious about their effect. I have also been becoming more and more aware of how compartmentalized our world is and how we make assumptions based on categories and labels. I wanted to examine how our response to this force manifests in everyday life. Several characters were selected who could be considered as the outsiders to the society. Dramaturgically, the piece is housed in the context of the parallel journeys of an insect collector who has disappeared in the dunes and has been forgotten by the society and a creature who was born in a civilized society and gotten abandoned.

In order to explore this theme, I wanted to play with the space both vertically (connection with the spiritual, extraordinary) and horizontally (immediate environment, everyday). Mara Neimanis, a local aerial performer, trained us to be able to work in the air. Performers also went through the physical training with me that allowed them to cultivate precise and subtle physicality.

My inspiration came from two places: books ("The Woman in the Dunes” by Kobo Abe and “Unfashionable Human Body” by Bernard Rudofsky) and material (paraffin paper). I remembered this paper from the book cover of a Japanese publishing company. The tactile feel of this paper, its color and translucent quality stuck on my sense memory. It created murky mysterious mood.

Paraffin paper was used both tangible object and as the physical and visual metaphor in creating characters and scenes and asa motif to weave multiple stories together. A non-verbal, non-linear narrative structure allowed the audience to create their own versions of the stories.

Material - Paraffin paper, ropes

Lighting design by Kel Millionaire, Rebecca Wolf
Costume design by Kathy Abbott
Mask design by Susan Stroupe

Received Best Dance Performance in Citypaper Best of Baltimore 2009.

Premiere - June 2009 @ Baltimore Theatre Project
Tour - March 2010 @Quest International Visual Theatre Festival, Washington DC, April 2010 Dance Place, Washington DC

These two pieces used the same material, a huge plastic sheet that stood like a wall. I was obsessed by its texture, history and association, and translucent nature to be able to alter the visual perception. The wall came down and disappeared from the stage with no trace in both pieces. Fukushima, nuclear, and trash had been on my mind since 3.11 happened in Japan four years ago.

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DREAM ISLAND (2015) - full-length

Concept, choreography, direction, environment/object design, and performance

In March 2011, I heard a disturbing news that the radioactive material started leaking into the ocean near Fukushima nuclear plant. I had a visceral response to this - all the cells in my body cried out as if my own body got violated. My fond memories about water and ocean started coming back. A great sense of urgency hit me. This urge became the driving force of "Dream Island".

The piece through a three-year process from the conception to the realization. Dramaturgy was built upon the place in Japan called Yumenoshima (Dream Island), which was a Japanese theme park built on a buried landfill. Movement, text, and sound were generated, constructed, and polished through the nine-month rehearsal process. Piece was 85 minutes long consisting of 14 vignettes.

The stage was set up as a thrust configuration with a square on the floor made by a danger zone tape. Audience members were invited to sit around it.
Material: large plastic sheets, dirt

Lighting Design: Rebecca Wolf
Sound Design: Khristian Weeks

Premiere - May 2015 @ Baltimore Theatre Project, Tour - June 2015 @ Joe's Movement Emporium, MD

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WHAT WE SEE WHY WE SEE (2012) - full-length

Co-conception, choreography, direction, environment, costume/object design, and performance with Tzveta Kassavoba

Memories and perceptions are strange things. We choose to see and memorize certain things, not others. A Bulgarian choreographer, Tzveta Kassabova, and I experimented with the visual perception. Plastic sheets and bags of different sizes were used as the source material to generate the context and the movements from. Actions happened behind, under, and around them, constraining the visual information audience received.

Material - plastic sheets, plastic bags

Lighting Design: Rebecca Wolf
Music by Pauchi Sasaki

January 2012 @ Dance Place, Washington, DC

Space, infinity, gravity, mortality, and the edge of my body - these were the words popping up in my mind as I worked with these two pieces. With my shoulder injuries then, I was facing the limitation of my body and trying to figure out how to move by yielding, not by forcing. Working with the space above and around me and manipulating light helped me tremendously in tackling with this challenge and entering into a new realm of experience.

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FACE OF ANOTHER (2010)

Concept, choreography, direction, environment/costume design, and performance

A sense of displacement and search for eternity in nothingness. Fluctuating on the boundary between reality and illusion, the familiar and the unknown, the past and the present, and life and death, the delicate balance tips and breaks into each other, revealing the origin of loneliness, desire, and fear in her body.

Material: Magic mirror made of plexiglass, white powder, water

April 2010 @ Dance Place, Washington, DC

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SCENT OF SKY (2009)

Choreography,environment design, and performance

Duo with a sound artist, Alberto Gaitan. Exploration of the infinity of the unknown in science/technology.

My character transformed physically and mentally through the use of mini LED lights attached inside of my coat, computer-generated sound bites, falling ping pong balls, and time-based video image slowly unfolding onto my body.

Sound/music by Alberto Gaiman

Material: white ping pong balls, LED lights

June 2009, @ Source Theatre, Washington, DC (Source Theatre Festival Mash-up series)

These two pieces explored my relationship with Japan and America. My place in this country, what it means to be here, history, personal memories.

This was the first time I consciously and overtly examined my Japanese heritage. I wanted to explore my relationship with Japan and America and how the relationship between two countries has influenced me in my life. History, personal memories, and unresolved conflicts became the driving force of these pieces.

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REMAINS OF SHADOW (2005-2007) - full-length

Conception, direction, choreography, environment/costume/object design, performance

The piece consisted of two parts. First part being the journey of a blue-eyed doll that was sent from America to Japan during WWI as a token of friendship. The second part was about the experience of going through various stages 49 days after death.

Material - translucent cloth, plastic

Lighting design by Sabrina Hamilton (Ko Festival)
Projection design by Chas Marsh

Premiere - Spring 2005 @ Ko Festival of Performance, Amherst, MA, Tour - 2006 Questfest, 2006 Capital Fringe Festval, 2007 Theatre of Yugen

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KAWATOKAWA (Skin/River 2012) - full-length

Concept, direction, choreography, environment/object/costume design, and performance

An autobio extravaganza, drawing from my research about “space, body, and language” in Tokyo and Czech Republic.

This full evening piece was a departure from my usual mode of performance. The piece consisted of 12 vignettes based on the memories and the landscapes of my childhood and what could have happened to me if I had lived in Japan. I'm trying to figure out what my Japanese-ness and where I belong. The quick shift from one vignette to another required a comedian/clown’s immediacy and Kabuki actor’s finesse.

Dramaturgy by Juanita Rockwell
Lighting design by Kel Millionaire

May 2012 @ Baltimore Theatre Project

The word ‘liminal’ feels light, mysterious, and indispensable. It evokes the beginning of a process and also something on the edge anticipating a big shift. These two pieces attempt to capture this potent moment.

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TRACE (2004) - full-length

Concept, choreography, direction, environment design, sound design, and performance

This Kennedy Center commissioned piece allowed me to work with a videographer, Chas Marsh, Audrey Chen as a musician, and Jacki Milad's drawing as animation. With these added visual/auditory elements, I experimented expanding the mise-en-sene into the 3D realm.

"Trace" examines the state of displacement through the trace within one's body and mind as well as in the society. Six individual segments treat various states of collision such as the the nature vs. the technology, the disposable culture vs. the longing for the spirituality, and tradition vs. freedom. Trace is multi-disciplinary in its nature, combining movements with live voice and cello by Audrey Chen, the video images by Chas Marsh, and the animation by Jackie Milad and Dan Breen. Costume by Jenifer Alonzo, Lighting design by Cathy Eliot.

Material - white scrim, cheese cloth masks, newspaper

Lighting design by Cathy Eliott
Costume design by Jenifer Alonzo
Video design by Chas Marsh
Animation Design by Jackie Milad, Dan Breen

Commissioned by Kennedy Center Local Dance Commissioning Project
Received 'Excellence in Sound Design' by Metro DC Dance Award, nominated for 'Outstanding Overall Production', 'Outstanding New Work', and 'Outstanding Individual Performance'.

May 2004 @ Kennedy Center Millennium Stage

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TWILIGHT STATION (2014) - full-length

Concept, direction, choreography, environment/costume/object design

Twilight station was commissioned by Quest International visual theatre. I worked with three performers. One of them was deaf, another bilingual (sign and English), and the other was an English speaker. We used the first month to train physically and vocally together and explored the shared language among the four of us. Through personal exploration, performers gradually formed three different stories. Twilight Station follows the journey of three people who meet in an obscure station, a juncture of arrivals and departures. Traveling through the multi-layered time and space in their pursuit of missing self, they encounter with each other repeatedly in different dimensions where their past lives, dreams, and illusions get revealed and intertwined. The piece was structured in three parts: Part I - still life/present, Part II - portrait/dream, and Part III - landscape/collective unconscious.

Material - screen door sheet, metal curtain rods, cheese cloth, red sand

Lighting design by Sarah Thunderman
Music by Andy Hayleck

March 2014 @ Baltimore Theatre Project (Quest International Visual Theatre Festival)

My earlier works placed weight on the idea of going through passages - traveling through time and space to appear on the other side having been transformed. Also, these two pieces were performed by the members of Naoko Maeshiba Performance Collective.

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COMMUNITAS (2002) - full-length

Concept, direction, choreography, environment/object design, and performance

Inspired by Victor Turner's concept of 'Communitas', the piece taps into the uncertainty of our beings through the issues that vex today's world, such as unbalanced resources, youth violence, and aging.

In the landscape of destruction, people wander about searching for a connection: with people, places, and the past. Through images of death and birth in nature, the piece illuminates the human figures which long for love, hope, and beauty, asking the ultimate question: "where are we going?"

Funded by the D.C. Commissions on Arts and Humanities.

Lighting design by Scott Rothenseld
Sound Design by Lukas Zarwell
Song Composition by Sarah Sathya

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THE VOYAGE (2004) - full-length

Concept, direction, choreography, environment/object design, and performance

The piece consists of five stories about the voyage captured at the points of departures and arrivals. Intricate human relationships, our conflicted existence. The journey between life and death is vividly depicted through layers of images in the evocative visual poetry.

Costume design by Meredith Wallace
Lighting Design by Mark Fink
Music Composition by Jason Sloan
Sound Design by Gabriel Walker

June 2004 @ Baltimore Theatre Project

SUBJECT/OBJECT (2016) - full-length
 
Concept, choreography, direction, environment/object co-design, and performance
 
 “Subject/Object” is a solo performance project that investigates the nature of ‘self’ through deconstruction and redefinition. Through three elements, Breathing, Digestive system, and Skin, I explored what lurked beneath this entity called 'self'. During the process, each element found its own form of theatrical expression. 'Breathing' led to the descent through a womb into birth. 'Digestive system' was married to a comedy about laughter in Japan. 'Skin' was explored through the cellular vibration outside and inside of the skin. 
 
The first part (Breath) took place in the regular audience section, which was turned into a vast field covered with plastic, forming a gigantic womb-like environment.
The second part (Tube) used the stage as a shared space with the audience, creating a warm and cozy space where personal stories were shared.
The last past (Skin) happened in the dome-shaped part at the very back of the stage space. 
 
Material – Plastic, water, salt
 
Lighting design by David Crandall
Sound/Music by Khristian Weeks
Environment desing by Khristian Weeks and Naoko Maeshiba
Object design and costume by Naoko Maeshiba
 
Received Best Performance Artist Award in Citypaper Best of Baltimore 2016.
 
Premiere - June 2016 @ Baltimore Theatre Project

Having a partner-in-crime is a thrilling, assuring, and nerving experience. I step into an unfamiliar territory where I might lose my ground any time. It's scary and joyful to see how my body responds to the new stimuli.

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IMPROBABLE ENCOUNTER (2006) @ Klub Kaliska, Lodz, Poland

Darius Makaruk (musician) and I first started with a long-distance communication, discussing the structure of the piece, its central theme, and the feel and progression of the performance. We worked separately until we finally got together at the site of performance in Poland. Improbable Encounter was a structured improvisation of about an hour’s length. This was the first time I did a full evening length’s dance piece in which I was the only dancer. Darius brought in another musician, Wlodzimierz Kiniorski, a legendary figure in Lodz, Poland. Klub Kaliska, a music venue in Lodz, was packed with curious audience. I started to work more in solo and duo pieces after returning from this experience.

ABSENCE (2007) @ M25, Warsaw, Poland

Darius Makaruk and I took a similar format of collaboration as the previous piece. This time, I brought another dancer to work in the piece. With two dancers, I was able to bring 'relationships' into the context. "Absence" was constructed more like a play with abstracted narrative.

STRIPPED BARE (2010) @ Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park

This piece happened in conjunction of the group exhibit and conference, "Modernity stripped bare: Undressing the Nude in Contemporary Japanese Photography".With a Japanese electronic musician, Yoko K. drawing inspiration from a Japanese photographer Riichi Yamaguchi's work. As a part of the process I interviewed Riichi to find out his approach to photographing nude bodies. This interview appeared in the exhibition catalog. Yoko and I worked in the gallery day after day, contemplating what we, two Japanese women, could bring out of these intense nude photographs. The title of the piece changed from "Shining Fish: Modernity Stripped Bare" to "Stripped Bare" to reflect the simple and raw nature of the photography.

APERTURE (2012) - @ Tank, New York

I had always loved the tactile sensation in Andy Hayleck's music and proposed to work with him. We started with what was in the performance space - a piano. Over a period of three months, we concocted a physical poetry with colliding elements of silence and sound, body and space, and the visible and the invisible. This piece became the foundation of the piece we later created called "Plasmic Patterns".

THE PEEL (2004) @ 14 Karat Cabaret, Baltimore

This is an earlier, memorable work with Audrey Chen (cello, voice). We decided to literally 'peel off' a skin made of glue put on the body during the performance. We tried to see how this experience affected my dance and her voice.

Places outside of the theatre space are unregulated. I could disappear or appear in the landscape anytime. How can I exist in a place without dominating it or isolating myself from it? Can my body be a part of the landscape? Can it become an environment within the environment? How can I form a relationship with the place? I plan to continue and deeper this study in the near future.

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WHEN THE WIND CROSSED MY BODY CRIED LIKE AN OCTOPUS (2010)

Site #1 - Bridge that separates old town from new town
Site #2 - Under the small bridge over a river in the center of the city
Site #3 - Theatre Jo at CESTA (Cultural Exchange Station in Tabor), Tabor, Czech Republic

This is a three-part performance project, examining how the sensation of movements in the body can be transmitted from one location to another. First two were done in specific sites near CESTA (Cultural Exchange Station) in Tabor where I was conducting an artist residency. First site was under the bridge which severs the old town and the new town. The second site was in the river in the center of the old town. The last part was presented in the theatre inside CESTA, drawing the traces left in my body through the previous two studies. I continued to carry the magic mirrors from "Face of Another (2010)" and "Modernity Stripped Bare (2011)". My deep curiosity about 'self' was starting to emerge through this project.

GYROSCOPE PROJECT (2003)

Site - Exterior of Hirschhorn Museum of Smithsonian Institute, DC

A site-specific performance in conjunction with the museum’s exhibit, “Gyroscope." This solo section was incorporated in an ensemble piece with ten performers and one live musician who worked with the exhibits inside and outside of the museum. The wind, surrounding audience, the sound of the fountain, and splashing water, all gave me great stimuli to work with. I clearly remember the moment I laid my whole body on the ledge of the fountain which was about six inches wide.

SOLO DANCE (2008)

Site - A selected landscape in Hakushu, Japan

I returned to this place where I started my artistic journey in 1993. I wanted to see how my body and mind remembered this place. Each of the invited dancers selected a specific site for her work. I chose this site because I was drawn to the beautiful backdrop of nature which contrasted with the dry field in front that had nothing growing at the time. The performance lasted 70 minutes. This piece was performed as a part of Dance Hakushu Festival, a multidisciplinary performance festival that has brought all kinds of artists from far away and close since 1988.

A ROSE IN THE WILD (2007)

Site - Exterior of Martin Luther King Library

This performance happened twice on the same day - 1pm and 5pm. The passing time

THE HOLE (2002)

Site - Interior of the building of Center for the Arts @ Towson University

I fell in love with a student's art exhibit called "Biodegradable" that was installed n the jI fell in love with a student's art installation called "Biodegradable" that was built in the juncture of the staircases extending to the basement. I wondered what the journey would be like to descend into this long tunnel made of plastic bags and trash. Gabriel Walked accompanied me on this journey with his Shakuhachi.