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About Naoko
Baltimore City
I have been creating solo, duo, and ensemble performances in traditional and non-traditional venues since 1998. Body is my instrument and my medium. My approach is interdisciplinary in terms of the source, the process, and the form. The seed of creation germinates from various elements such as sound, light, a piece of text, a painting, a map, an object, a piece of clothing, and a scientific phenomenon. I build precisely structured short and full-length pieces from scratch as well as collaborate with musicians and visual artists in an intimate improvisational setting.
Rooted in the… more
Rooted in the… more
NAOKO MAESHIBA: A Total Artist Dancing on the edge of Theatre
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DELICATE ASSEMBLAGE - Remains of Shadow: Part II (2005-7), Amherst, MA - Environment designI give a lot of thought to the use of light, sound, music and stage design to create environment and mood. The totality of how all these elements merge and coalesce together is crucial for my work in order to realize many layers of visual/auditory/kinetic experience for the audience. I carefully construct the environment considering the elements such as color, shape, texture, direction, and relationship between them. -
TEN PERCENT ON STAGE, NINETY PERCENT IN AUDIENCES' MINDS - Twilight Station (2014), Baltimore, MD - Environment design"John Barry: My editor wondered whether your work was closer to dance than theatre. How do you respond to that? Naoko Maeshiba: Here’s my answer: Someone called it ‘Dancing on the Edge of Theater.’ I don’t think dance people consider it dance. Theatre people don’t consider it theatre. I’m exploring this non-categorized performance… It would be hard to write about it if you think theatre begins with a script. They might be looking for something that isn’t there — plot, characters, how the director executed his or her vision, but there’s no real plot line, the thing about my work is that the beginning keeps unfolding and gets explored and excavated and evolves. It may be hard to locate the climax or the story. There are stories, but there are multiple threads. My ongoing question is: where is performance happening? I ask my students, what would you prefer – if one hundred percent happens on stage, and people have to figure all that out. JB: What would you prefer? NM: I want ten percent happening on stage to ninety percent happening in the mind of the audience. I would want to move my finger and have the audience construct a whole story from that. That would be my dream. - BMore Art interview: The Aesthetics of an Epiphany -
TRADITIONAL INTO CONTEMPORARY - Improbable Encounter (2005), Lodz, KaliskaIn Japan, traditional theatre is still practiced as it was hundreds of years ago, maintaining its wealth of principles and philosophy. I wondered why this is the case and if the traditional and the contemporary could be a continuum, not separate entities. For the past twelve years, I have been studying Japanese Noh, 600-year old traditional Japanese performing art. Its principleswritten in Zeami's treatises continue to carry weight and value for today's performing arts. I bring Noh's principles into my contemporary work. Noh actors are like shamans, transmitting all kinds of spiritual power in the air through super precise movements and amorphous voice. This idea of 'performer as a vessel, a transmitter' resonates with me strongly. All principles of Noh are constructed to evoke maximum imagination with minimum execution. For instance, "Feel 10, show 7",means you express only 70% of the 100% you are feeling, leaving the rest for the audience' to figure out. "Sight outside of sight" refers to the performer’s ability to perceive 360 degree awareness in order to objectively see themselves in a larger context. -
APPROACHING THE INVISIBLEI'm increasingly interested in what's happening underneath the surface. I'm more interested in choreographing senses, not the movements. Movements are driven by the inner imperceptible vibrations, sensations, and emotions. Human beings understand more through the 'unspoken, invisible' than through the 'spoken, visible'. I'd like to extract the essence that lies in what is not seen, but sensed. -
Interview with Maryland Public Television (2004)Naoko Maeshiba talks about her work "Voyage" and her creative process.
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MY BODY MERGES WITH THE ENVIRONMENT, MY BODY IS THE ENVIRONMENT - When the wind crossed my body cried like an octopus (2010) Tabor, Czech RepublicBody is my medium of exploration. It's a lens to see the society, the world. It's a vessel to transmit my sensory experience of the incoming stimuli into dance. My exploration of the relationship between body and environment is on-going. I choose a site to place my body, drawing the life force inherent in the place. I would like to be able to dance the place. -
IMPROVISATION/COLLABORATION (2007) - 'High Zero Festival' @ Baltimore Theatre Project - Improvisational danceAs a dancer and a choreographer, I aspire to capture and connect with the immediate living moment as deeply and precisely as possible. For this reason, I am choosing IMPROVISATION as my fundamental approach to work. My body is a transmitter of all living beings. When I enter the most potent state of the body, I merge with the ongoing currents around me. I'm becoming the particles of this flow that is continuously moving and changing. In order to challenge my own boundary and limitations, I COLLABORATE with a wide range of musicians and visual artists. Collaboration with Cooper Moore (self-made instruments) and Catherine Pancake (dry ice), Kazuhisa Uchihashi (guitar, electronics).
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Performance artist Naoko Maeshiba turns inward.pdf"Performance artist Naoko Maeshiba turns inward" An Interview by Maura Callahan of Baltimore City Paper, May 24, 2016 -
Strange Beauty.pdf"Strange Beauty: A Conversation on Theatre with Naoko Maeshiba" An Interview by Peter Davis, What Weekly, May 19, 2016
Yearning for THE ETERNAL: Paraffin (2009-2010)
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PARAFFIN (2009-2010)
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Paraffin (2009-2010)@ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Questfest/ Dance Place (DC)The inspector prepares her equipment to examine the creature. We decided to use an overhead projector to draw and erase on the creature, obliterating her identity. This analog device added a touch of humor to this unsettling moment. -
Paraffin (2009-2010)@ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Questfest/ Dance Place (DC)Drawing from the insect collector character from 'The Woman in the Dunes", the motif of insect permeated through the whole piece. It appeared in the material of the costumes, the color and temperature of light, and the texture of the sound. -
Paraffin (2009-2010)@ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Questfest/ Dance Place (DC)The inspectors prepare to examine a found creature. They have red super straight spines which they use to measure the creature. -
Paraffin (2009-2010)@ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Questfest/ Dance Place (DC)..."left a powerful emotional imprint by exposing the consequences of forgetting or disregarding someone's humanity." – The Washington Post, -
Paraffin (2009-2010)@ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Questfest/ Dance Place (DC)"...the performance evokes the raw passions of fear and desire as the body is stretched to its physical and expressive limits…” – Baltimore Theatre Journal -
Paraffin (2009-2010)@ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Questfest/ Dance Place (DC)"...strikingly beautiful yet somewhat disturbing." - The Washington Post -
Paraffin (2009-2010) @ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Questfest/ Dance Place (DC)"A kinetic wonder" - Baltimore Theatre Journal -
Radar Redux interview with John BarryStrange Beauty: Naoko Maeshiba talks about Paraffin, Kibism, and Undefinable - an interview with Radar Redux
Illuinating the INVISIBLE: Dream Island (2015)/What we see Why we see (2012)
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Dream Island (2015) - Premiere @ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Tour @ Joe's Movement Emporium, DC - concept/direction/choreography/environment, object, and costume design/performancePart carnival, part laboratory, part archeological trip, “Dream Island” is inspired by a Japanese theme park built on a buried landfill called Yumenoshima. This piece digs, examines, and reveals ancient layers of debris by combining movement, text, music, and installation into humorous and dark absurdity. The audience is asked to bare witness as five characters attempt to search, reconstruct, and uncover memories and histories, both tangible and fleeting, personal and collective. "Dream Island" was 85-minute of length, consisting of three parts with thirteen vignettes.
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Dream Island (2015) @ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Joe's Movement Emporium (DC)In the second part of the performance, we asked the audience to roll their programs and see the site through the holes created by their 'telescopes'. It gave them a choice to see a specific part of the stage as well as a fragmentary view of the bodies, shifting the role of the audience from the bystanders to the participants and the witnesses of the incident. "...their bodies become possessed with alien forces, pushing them into spastic contortions and floating states of paralysis. They perform movements there aren't words for. - Baltimore City Paper -
Dream Island (2015) @ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Joe's Movement Emporium (DC)"Be sure to not blink when Naoko Maeshiba is on the stage. Her Noh honed movements tie bold and brash with subtle and genuine and won’t let go. Her face is a living mask like that espoused by Jerzy Grotowski. She melds and shapes raw emotion into every eye flick, finger turn, and heel lift." - Theatre Bloom -
Dream Island (2015) @ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Joe's Movement Emporium (DC)The dialogue between the shadow and the light through different materials give me a rich pallet of language to work with. The translucent nature of this plastic made it possible to have a wide range of gradations and visibility. "This hypnotic and jarring performance, invites you to shatter your vision of what performance ought to be." - Theatre Bloom "Without consistently coherent dialogue or a clear action-driven plot, the sensory experience alone grounds the performance in a powerful but subtle narrative... Watching the performance unfold is like watching an action painter begin to construct an image before going over it or erasing over and over again, leaving remnants of what came before." -Baltimore City Paper, "From tropical dreamscape to trash dump to nuclear dystopia to plastic tsunami, the scene evolves as a surreal and at times absurdist painting of a real place that feels like a microcosm for the real world" - Baltimore City Paper -
Dream Island (2015) @ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Joe's Movement Emporium (DC)We used the cinematic techniques such as 'cut', 'cross-fade', 'framing', and 'focal shift' in order to make the scene break blurry. This device gave the audience freedom to create and edit their own versions of "Dream Island" as they went along. "...an obsessional park where dreams are shredded and collaged together in a papier-mãchè sculpture of light, movement, and sound." - Theatre Bloom -
A review by Maura Callahan of Baltimore City Paper"The immense sensory odyssey of 'Dream Island' at Baltimore Theatre Project" - a review by Baltimore City Paper -
What we see why we see (2012)@Dance Place, Washington, D.C. - direction/choreography/sound, costume, environment design/performance with Tzveta KassabovaMemories 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. "... two artists have a lot in common. Strong, original movers who fully inhabit the space they’re in, both are foreign-born—Kassabova hails from Bulgaria, while Maeshiba is from Japan— and bring a seriousness to their movement exploration that feels, to me at least, almost un-American in its rigor...Be ready for some ambiguity: while the environment has been intentionally set by the artists, each audience member’s take on the performance will likely be a bit of an individual journey." - Washington City Paper
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What we see why we see (2012)@Dance Place, Washington, D.C."Her performance today evoked many images for me from my memories, seeing only partly what's going on, the ocean, the dessert, old photos, seeing through a glass darkly, partly there, connections, missed connections, connections in the midst of loneliness."- Nancy Havlik -
What we see why we see (2012)@Dance Place, Washington, D.C."...moments that are revelatory, but fleeting and more occasional than most people would like to admit. I like immensely that you created those moments-where we could see you and you us-clearly in a staged performance where the stage was an environment that seemed to me to represent the shadowy nature of our awareness of the objects and people in our everyday lives." - Dan Eades , "... I suspect that the performance itself is sort of a glass. With the audience seeing the performance through the glass (or lens) of their immediate awareness (or lack thereof) and minds and histories and experiences and the performers presenting themselves through their performance amidst staging that serves as almost a camouflage of their movement and their selves. But that camouflage serves to highlight moments of connection. And to remind everyone of the value of those moments, the moments, perhaps, we live for. " - Dan Eades -
What we see why we see (2012)@Dance Place, Washington, D.C."Maeshiba's movements are so exact, so precise, it is difficult not to watch her closely. And her intelligence and restrained emotion radiates an awareness that seems charged with meaning." - Dan Eades
Intimating INFINITY: Face of Another (2010)/Scent of Sky (2009)
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Face of Another (2010) @ Dance Place, Washington, D.C. - concept/direction/choreography/environment, costume, sound design/performanceA 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. Time and space stretches horizontally and vertically in this piece. Various time and place visits her as she stands in void. "It's the kind of work that is so well-paced and so carefully crafted that the audience can comfortably get lost in it, completely entranced by the strange world she has created." – The Washington Post
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Face of Another (2010) @ Dance Place, Washington, D.C.Another element used in the piece was water. Towards the end of the performance, a girl approaches me and pours water onto my body from a small watering can. The sense of wet material on my skin evoked various emotions and sensations that formed my movements. -
Face of Another (2010) @ Dance Place, Washington, D.C.'‘Face of Another’shows how smart and thorough a choreographer Maeshiba is, as it has no linear narrative and yet somehow builds to a riveting climax." - The Washington Post -
Face of Another (2010) @ Dance Place, Washington, D.C."Through a collage of fluid gesture and intentionally unsteady hobbling, Maeshiba takes a journey to make sense of herself and her place in the world." - The Washington Post -
Face of Another (2010) @ Dance Place, Washington, D.C.I hang eight magic mirrors (reflective surface made with window film and plexiglass) in the air and placed white powder on the floor. I was curious to see how the powder tracks my footprints as I danced and how the reflections from the magic mirror can be cast in the audience side, blurring the line between the stage and the audience. -
PASSWORD - NaokoM
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Scent of Sky (2009)@ Source Theatre, Washington, D.C."Her body is so flexible, boneless, and fluid it's as if her limbs are caught in underwater currents…" - DC Theatre Scene -
Scent of Sky (2009)@ Source Theatre, Washington, D.C.Tiny LED lights placed inside of my coat are casting red shadow on the ground. The piece started with a complete darkness with these lights illuminating only a small part of my body. My character transformed physically and mentally through the use of the lights, computer-generated sound bites, falling ping pong balls, and time-based video image slowly unfolding onto my body. -
Scent of Sky (2009)@ Source Theatre, Washington, D.C."Dancer/choreographer Naoko Maeshiba and electronic-media artist, Alberto Gaitan explore a realm of sound and kinetic gesture where words are inadequate." - DC Theatre Scene -
Scent of Sky (2009)@ Source Theatre, Washington, D.C.I have worked with the motif of shedding from 2005 to 2012. In this piece, 'shedding' took a whole different meaning. Instead of being born, I was disappearing into the white particles of the screen behind me. The further I moved forward, the more sucked in I was.
Sense of BELONGING: Remains of Shadow (2005-2007)/Kawatokawa (2012)
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Remains of Shadow (2005-2007) Premiere: Ko Festival of Performance, Amherst, (MA), Tour: Questfest (MD), Capital Fringe Festval (DC), Theatre of Yugen (SF) - concept/direction/choreography/environment, costume, object, sound design/performanceThe piece consisted of two parts. First part being the journey of a blue-eyed doll that was sent from America to Japan in 1927 as a token of friendship, which was burned or destroyed during the WWII. The second part was about the experience of going through the buddhist rebirth cycle of 49 days. This footage features the excerpt from the first part.
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Remains of Shadow (2005-2007) @ Ko Festival of Performance at Amherst, MA“Remains of Shadow probed subtle regions of emotion and memory in the liminal spaces between cultures, countries, and histories…while technology enhanced the production, the virtuosity of performers Maeshiba and Aoyagi proved its centerpiece. Their bodies bear traces of rigorous physical training as well as everyday socialization across cultures.” - Theatre Journal -
Remains of Shadow (2005-2007)@ Questfest, MD"...performed with compelling emotion-plausibly and poignantly conveying confusion, anguish, and displacement.” – The Washington Post -
Remains of Shadow (2005-2007)@Capital Fringe Festival, DC“In one stunning sequence Maeshiba…delicately crossed toward an offstage light…a subtle tilt of Maeshiba’s head, and her straw hat fell to the ground, evoking the sudden transportation of thousands of souls into their next journey on 6 August 1945.” - Theatre Journal -
Kawatokawa (Skin/river 2012) @ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD) - concept/direction/choreography/object,costume, sound design/performanceThis full evening piece was a departure from my usual mode of performance in that I played a clownish character who established an intimate relationship with the audience. The piece consisted of 12 vignettes drawing from the memories and the landscapes of my childhood, recent accident in Fukushima, figuring out what my Japanese-ness. The quick shift from one vignette to another required a comedian/clown’s immediacy and Kabuki actor’s finesse.
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Kawatokawa (2012)@ Baltimore Theatre Project, MDThe stage environment was created with three chairs, one table, and various objects that have appeared in my previous productions. In a sense, it was like going through an inventory of Naoko both in personal life and artistic creation. "The audience is clearly touched as the piece rises toward its final paroxysm, even if the precise cause of that chiseled touch remains veiled."- Baltimore Theatre Journal -
Kawatokawa (2012)@ Baltimore Theatre Project, MD"Especially striking is the emotive range of Maeshiba's choreography and peformance...the basic emtoions of fear, curiosity, and rejection float off the stage with carefully calibrated movements." - Baltimore Theatre Journal -
Kawatokawa (2012)@ Baltimore Theatre Project, MDCockroaches are prevalent in Japanese summer. I made a cockroach dance honoring the longevity of this grotesque creature. "Moving from one prop or boldly colored piece of clothing to another, Maeshiba skillfully expresses the passions proper to each stage of transition…Humor and pathos alternate as the life of the often-baffled protagonist unfolds." - Baltimore Theatre Journal -
Kawatokawa (2012)@ Baltimore Theatre Project, MDMy face is obliterated by a a face written by Japanese characters. What is written on the other side is the Article 9 of Japanese constitution called 'peace constitution' which outlaws war as a means to settle international disputes involving the state. It went into effect during the American post-war occupation of Japan. There has been a debate whether to alter its constitution by removing Article 9,
Entering the LIMINAL: Trace (2004)/Twilight Station (2014)
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TRACE (2004) - 'Maeshiba made striking pictures..' - The Washington Post - Premiere @ Kennedy Center Millennium Stage (DC), Tour @ Dance Place (DC)- concept/direction/choreography/environment and sound design/performance"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.
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Trace (2004) @ Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Washington, D.C.Life in costume is intriguing to me. I often feel that it is literally my second skin. When I get to know its nature and behavior, it starts forming into all kinds of shapes to voice its own life./Metro DC Dance Award nomination for outstanding individual performance. -
Trace (2004) @ Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Washington, D.C.Business people are the characters that had often appeared in my earlier works. We used newspaper as a hand object here. They perform a short 'newspaper' dance before shredding it into pieces as they shredded themselves into fragments. -
Trace (2004) @ Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Washington, D.C."Maeshiba made a grand stab at the topic of displacement...through an accumulation of dance, video and live music that gave a sense of fragmentation." - The Washington Post -
Trace (2004) @ Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Washington, D.C.The relationship between the projection and the live body is always a challenge. "Trace" was the first work that I incorporated projection. I was looking to see if the performer himself can shift this relationship with the projection. Initially a merely a background landscape turns into a force and substance that takes over his whole being./ Metro DC Dance Award nomination for outstanding new work and outstanding overall production. -
Twilight Station (2014) - developed for Quest international visual theatre festival - @ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD) - concept/direction/choreography/environment, object, and costume designTwilight 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 lost selves, they encounter with each other repeatedly in different dimensions where their past lives, dreams, and illusions get revealed and intertwined. I was drawn to the works of a Japanese film director, Seijun Suzuki, whose work is known for the frequent use of implied moments. Actors make eye contacts. There’s an implication that something is going to happen, but nothing does, which creates the tension/release and unexpected timings. Twilight is an ephemeral, in-between time for these minuscule moments to happen and cause quiet ripples which explode into significant moments years later.
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Twilight Station (2014) @ Baltimore Theatre Project, MD"NM: I think anything that’s not based on the clear-cut narrative would ask more from its audiences. I think the challenging part is that it asks for a very serious encounter between the performers and the audience. The performer is communicating with the audience in a specific way through a language that doesn’t have a name. The audience has to allow that to reach the inside of them. It is a self-reflective journey. A joyful one, I hope." - An interview with Maryland State Arts Council Elevator chat -
Twilight Station (2014) @ Baltimore Theatre Project, MD"The practically bare stage and little to no props gives away to an organic feel that emphasize the actions of each performer and you are really able to focus on the actors instead of the stage or props...The choreography was enthralling as it lacked traditional movements or dance techniques, but it made each scene more interesting as you recognize how unconventional the play really is. Each character seemed to exhibit an internal conflict or self-discovery that seemed like it could only be seen in their dance movements." - MD Theatre Guide -
Twilight Station (2014) @ Baltimore Theatre Project, MD"Director, choreographer and scenographer Naoko Maeshiba created a piece induced with a whirlwind of emotions and characters that are both thought provoking and rare. With only three performers on stage you are able to fully get involved in each character’s personal story. Their stories are made even more powerful by the fact that they completely perform in silence. …anyone who’s open to an innovative and original performance will definitely appreciate ‘Twilight Station.’" - MD Theatre Guide -
Naoko Maeshiba talks about the creation process of 'Twilight Station' - The Aesthetics of an Epiphany - an interview with Bmore ArtThe Aesthetics of an Epiphany - an interview with Bmore Art
Moving through the PASSAGES: The Voyage (2004)/Communitas (2002)
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Communitas (2002-2003) - Premiere @ Kennedy Center Millennium Stage (DC), Tour @ Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (DC), Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Towson University (MD) - concept/direction/choreography/environment design/performanceInspired 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. 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?" This piece was performed at three different locations: Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Hirshhorn Museum of the Smithsonian Institute, & Baltimore Theatre Project. This video features the footage from the premiere performance at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage in 2002.
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Communitas (2002-2003)@ Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.Three women dance the joy of spring. Sensual, ephemeral, and fleeting. -
Communitas (2002-2003)@ Baltimore Theatre Project, MDA juvenile delinquent tries to escape from the hands of the controlling force. He is resourceful and uses all means to trick the law enforcement. -
Communitas (2002-2003)@ Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C."I think my methodology is….[laughs] no methodology.I want to keep breaking the rules." - DCTheatre Scene interview: Dancing on the edge of theatre -
Communitas (2002-2003)@ Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Washington, D.C.The idea of reincarnation fascinates me. We are born, and reborn, again and again. This young woman’s journey and mine progressed separately, maintaining the tight connection until we finally meet to discover that we are one. -
The Voyage (2004) @ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD) - concept/direction/choreography/sound design/performance"With few words, no dialogue or plot and lots of highly evocative movement, Naoko Maeshiba Performance Collective's ‘The Voyage’ is more dance than theatre. But this Theatre Project presentation is also the type of work that deliberately defies categorization." - Baltimore Sun
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The Voyage (2004) @ Baltimore Theatre Project, MDThe man who faces the crucial juncture of his life goes through a sentence by the time keeper and three crow women. -
The Voyage (2004)@ Baltimore Theatre Project, MD"The Voyage is best experienced by letting it wash over you, instead of attempting to attach a meaning. The final image is that of photos falling like leaves onto the stage. Gentler than some of the angst that precedes it, this image evokes memories, suggesting perhaps that life's journey is not in vain, but captured and preserved for future travelers." - Baltimore Sun -
The Voyage (2004)@ Baltimore Theatre Project, MD"Naoko give experiences. Fleeting, meaningful, and like a powerful dream, they stay and paint the days to come in marvelous colors." - Mara Neimanis -
The Voyage (2004)@ Baltimore Theatre Project, MDLater, in a section called "Liquid Rumble," Dan Awkward, a performer dressed as what appears to be either a train conductor or a military officer, removes a large glass bowl from a valise and places it on the flat top of the cap on his head. Slowly, a trail of sand begins falling from the ceiling and filling the bowl. This could be intended to represent the sands of time, but I suspect that's too glib an interpretation for this wide-ranging, multicultural performance piece. - The Baltimore Sun
Returning to the FULL CIRCLE: Subject/Object (2016)
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Subject/Object (2016)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.
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DUO CONSPIRACIES
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Stripped Bare (2011) - with Yoko K. (singer/electronic musician) - performance in the exhibit 'Modernity stripped bare: Undressing the Nude in Contemporary Japanese Photography' @ Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, choreography/performance"JB: What do you look for when you pick music for your pieces? NM: I’m looking for music that doesn’t explain or define. I’m looking for music that does something more than conserve your feelings. It creates tensions between body and the mind, and with the audience. I try to use it to break catharsis." (DC Theatre Scene interview: Dancing on the edge of theatre)
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Stripped Bare (2011) @ in conjunction of the exhibit/conference, 'Modernity stripped bare: Undressing the Nude in Contemporary Japanese Photography @ Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College ParkI had never been in a place with this many intense nude photographs by contemporary Japanese artists. The voice in each photograph was so strong that I was sometimes at a loss as to what I can do inside of these powerful voices. Yoko and I worked in the gallery, day after day trying out different materials to find a way to exist in this impregnated space. -
Aperture (2010) - with Andy Hayleck (musician) - Eavesdropping Series @ Tank, New York - choreography/costume and lighting design/performance"Aperture" was with a musician, Andy Hayleck. We started with what is in the performance space at Tank, NYC. 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.
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Aperture (2010) - Eavesdropping Series @ Tank, New YorkThe piano in the space became a central motif of the piece. It transformed into a wall, an object as well as an instrument Andy played during the show by bowing the strings inside of the piano. -
Improbable Encounter (2006) - with Darius Makaruk (musician) - The 5th Dialogue of Four Cultures Festival @ Klub Kaliska, Lodz, Poland - full length - choreography/performance"Naoko's dancing body is a close combination of calligraphy, lyrics, and depth...Her body creates an invisible border of the inside and outside, a dancing edge, which becomes an opening, drawing apart the feeling of joy, suffering, happiness, warmth, and despair. It binds together the present, the past, and the future. Her body is a means of possessing the world." - Janusz Raczkiewicz
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Improbable Encounter (2006)- The 5th Dialogue of Four Cultures Festival @ Klub Kaliska, Lodz, PolandImprobable Encounter was a structured improvisation of about an hour’s length. This was the first time I did a full evening length’s solo dance piece.The club was packed with curious audience. I came back from Poland and started doing more solo and short pieces. -
Absence (2007) - with Dariuz Makaruk (musician) - International New Media Festival: Moving Closer @ M25, Warsaw, Poland - full-length - choreography/environment and costume design/performance"Absence" was performed in a remodeled old elementary school building in Warsaw. Darius and I worked over distance initially, then integrated what we brought on the site. Tatsuya Aoyagi ,performer, and a legendary musician, Wlodzimierz Kiniorski joined us later.
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Absence (2007) - International New Media Festival: Moving Closer @ M25, Warsaw, Poland"...Later on I did a piece called "Absence". Now, this was like a play. There was dramaturgy. But the narratives are rather abstract. So I write a scenario, with characters. So it progresses. It’s just that the performers are not speaking. They’re dancing or moving. And this might be the influence of the Japanese director, Ota Shogo. He came out in the era where Japan was going through this era of modernization." (DC Theatre Scene interview: Dancing on the edge of theatre) -
The Peel (2005) - with Audrey Chen (voice/cellist), 14 Karat Cabaret @ 14 Karat, BaltimoreThis 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.
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The Peel (2005) - 14 Karat Cabaret @ 14 Karat, BaltimoreTowards the end of the performance, two performers go through the ritual of peeling the mask off of each other, surrounded by the audience.
BODY AND ENVIRONMENT SITE STUDY
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When the wind crossed my body cried like an octopus (2010) @ CESTA, Tabor, Czech Republic"NM: Tabor. This was three hours from Prague. I was given the time and space to really face myself by myself, and the place was so supportive. I took walks every morning. I just wanted to be around the city. I did two dance studies there. One study was in the river. It was a strong current. I was descending. I was sitting on a chair. There was a pool underneath. I was coming down to a ledge above the pool. I knew the pool was really shallow. There was no danger. I was really stuck on this ledge. I had a hard time going down there. I didn’t want to show fear. I was kind of dancing, thinking, ‘I have to go I have to go,’ and it was really cold, and then, finally, I decided, I’m going to go, one two three. And then, one two three, and I dived in. I was floating. Then I was sinking. I had to swim. And I was cold, so I had to get out of the water. That experience was so strong." - DC Theatre Scene -
When the wind crossed my body cried like an octopus (2010) - Under the bridge that severs old town and new town and in the river @ CESTA, Tabor, Czech RepublicThis 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.
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Gyroscope Project (2004) @ Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.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. When I arrived at the destination, the whole surface of my back merged with the rising and falling water of the fountain. -
Gyroscope Project (2004)- Exterior of the museum @ Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.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 interacted with the exhibits inside and outside of the museum.
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Solo Dance (2008) @ Dance Hakushu Festival, Hakushu, JapanAfter each dance was performed, a talk session was held with the modern philosophers and the dance critics. My respondent was Kuniichi Uno, whose specialty was Bodymedia theory. “Uno: ...Today, I was wondering how a dancer and the audience live the time that continues to flow without any break. I was watching your dance through this lens perhaps because it might be connected to I’ve been thinking lately. But I think it is largely because the way you danced today. It evoked symbolism. I was thinking, if you melt into that hole, what would happen to her? Death? I was shocked. I understand what you meant by ‘wearing the dirt’. It felt to me that you were going through the process of ‘wearing time’, weaving the time of this place continuously. It looked like it was going to end, but it didn’t end, which is in line with what you said that the piece is not about meaning. Maeshiba: When I direct an existing scripted play, I need to be meticulously searching for a reason. When I dance, I don’t want to have a reason constructed by my mind. For this performance, I was trying to do something that has no meaning but expands audience imagination.” – ‘Let’s talk about dance’ – a post performance talk in Dance Hakushu 2008 -
Solo Dance (2008)- A selected site in the village of Hakushu @ Dance Hakushu Festival, Solo Dance series, Hakushu, JapanI returned to this place where my journey as a dancer started in 1993. I wanted to see how my body and mind remembered this place. In this series called 'Solo Dance', each of the invited dancers selected a specific site for her dance. I was drawn to the landscape of this site which made a contrast with the dry flat field which had nothing growing at the time. This 70-minute piece was performed as a part of Dance Hakushu Festival, an international performing art festival with 20 years of history.
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A Rose in the Wild (2007) @ Exterior of Martin Luther King Library in Washington, D.C."…Maeshiba excelled at adapting to her environment." – The Washington Post -
A Rose in the Wild (2007)- Exterior of Martin Luther King Library @ The 13th annual International Improvisation Festival, Washington, D.C."Soloist Naoko Maeshiba dealt masterfully with some challenging interlopers.Also performing outside the library, Maeshiba capitalized on the proximity of her audience with minute wiggles of a single finger or toe. These movements would have been almost undetectable in a traditional theater setting." – The Washington Post
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The Hole (2002) @ Center for the Arts building, Towson University, MDI fell in love with a student's art installation called "Biodegradable" that was built in the juncture of the staircases extending from the fourth floor 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. -
The Hole (2002) - Interior of the Center for the Arts building @ Towson University, MDIn this study, I'm exploring the interior of the center for the arts building at Towson University. with Gabriel Walker, the musician, and the installation called 'Biodegradable' on the site.
