SHOKO KASHIMA & CHICO KATSUBE
Shoko Kashima is a dancer, improviser, photographer and teacher based in Kagoshima. She
received her Master of Arts in Dance Education from Ochanomizu University in Bunkyo-ku,
Tokyo and founded the dance company ZINZOLIN in 1996. In 2000 she created the
partnership “Duo unit” with Ryoko Sugimoto, while also being awarded a one year scholarship
from the Japanese Government Overseas Study Program for Artists to study dance in New
York. Their works were selected for performance by Joyce SOHO Presents, DUMBO Festival,
The Brooklyn Museum of Art and The Cool NY 2004 Dance Festival in NY. As a dancer, she
danced for Leni – Basso, Chico Katsube, collaborated with Michael Schumacher, Katie Dack,
Dance Theater Ludens, Ray Chung, Natanja den Boeft and other many artists. After returning
to Japan, Shoko began working with Chico Katsube as a member - and co-director - of Contact
Improvisation Group C.I.co.. In 2006, She founded the CIFJ (Contact Improvisation Festival
Japan) with Chico and continues to organize and create the international CI festival to
exchange culture, people, essence of CI in Tokyo and some regions in Japan. She has been
teaching CI at kindergartens, elementary schools, universities, public theaters and museums.
She is a seed member of Asian Improvisation Art Exchange (Seoul, Korea), creating networks
and researching improvisation among artists in Asia.
She is fabulously known as a photographer, and has a good feeling for taking dance pictures.
In 2012, she moved from Tokyo to Kagoshima with Chico Katsube, and started activities of
cultivate arts community in sparsely populated area. She organized “i-Dance Japan” which is
International Contact Improvisation Festival in Kagoshima from 2013.
Shoko and Chico presented for TEDxKagoshima, Pecha Kucha Kagoshima, and showed up on
TV programs, radio programs as an artists who are doing interesting activities in country side.
Chico Katsube is a dance improviser, a teacher and representatives of C.I.co. from Osaka, Japan. She received her B.Ed. and M.A. degrees in 1989 at the Dance Education Division of Ochanomizu University in Tokyo, where she studied Modern Dance and Choreography. From 1990-94, she studied and danced in New York City as a company member with many talented choreographers such as Joy Kellman and Ruby Shang. She has also developed her own style of choreography and performance.
After coming back to Japan, she began her foray into contact improvisation under the influence of Nancy Stark Smith who visited Japan and taught the workshops in 1997. In 2000, Chico founded “Contact Improvisation Group C.I.co.” as a forum for Contact Improvisation in Tokyo. Since then, she has been a leading figure in teaching, organizing and performing contact improvisation in Tokyo and throughout Japan. As the founder of C.I.co., she has danced and organized project with Ray Chung, Daniel Lepkov, Natanja den Boeft, Michael Schumacher, Katie Duck and Shoko Kashima among other talented improvisation artists.
She has also participated and taught workshops in many international festivals, such as Israel Contact Improvisation Festival, the Magpie Collective Workshop, Echo Echo Festival of Dance and Movement, i- dance Taipei, i-Dance Hong Kong and AIAE in South Korea.
In 2012, she moved her base and C.I.co. from Tokyo to Kagoshima with Shoko Kashima. They started the activity with the focus on exploring and integrating Asian culture into improvisation, as well as to establish the art community in the countryside of Kagoshima. They became the organize member of “I-Dance”which is the Asian Contact Improvisation network with HongKong, Taipei, Seoul since 2011, and is organizing i-Dance Japan from 2013.
INTENSIVO
“ZANSHIN” and “Space”
Separation links movements go on and on and on.
HOW TO CONTACT is know to be the key to link the movement and create the dance in CI world. Now,
from the opposite way, we try to put the focus on HOW TO SEPARATE with the essence of Japanese spirits,
aesthetic and culture “ ZANSHIN 残心” and “ Space 間”.
