Today we’d like to introduce you to Aika Takeshima.
Hi Aika, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m a contemporary dance artist/choreographer and a DEI practitioner, but actually, I started dancing late especially contemporary dance. I started dancing when I was 12 years old by imitating a Japanese girls’ group’s dance (like K-pop groups these days). I recorded whenever they appeared on TV and kept learning from their choreography. I started taking Hip Hop dance classes at the age of 13, but my parents’ divorce made it difficult financially, so I had to quit dance. After that, I focused on studying & actually I joined the Judo practice club in high school because they didn’t have a dance club. But when I entered a university, they had a street dance club!! Of course, I decided to join the dance club. I chose Locking dance there. Still, I hadn’t started contemporary dance yet.
Sadly again, the financial situation in my family got worse, so I had to quit the university too, which means I quit the dance club too…But my passion this time didn’t let me stop dancing. I started practicing dancing by myself in the garage of a supermarket using their automatic door as a mirror after I finished working at midnight in a gambling machine place.
Still my focus in dance was all about street dance, so I had participated in many dance battles or showcases gaining some awards, but I was feeling “I WANT MORE”. I wanted to move people’s hearts, like a dance in musicals or DisneyLand.
At the age of 22, I found a dance school that has a professional dancer’s program and I applied for it to be a professional dancer in DisneyLand or Universal Studio Japan. I started ballet, but still, I had never even heard about contemporary dance, but the school hired a new teacher, Emi Yokoyama, and she was studying in NY before and teaching “Lyrical Jazz”. She opened my world. She shared with me that there were more styles besides ballet and classic jazz. Fortunately, or unfortunately, she had to quit the dance school, and I followed where she started to teach next. And the next studio, called Dance Studio Point, offers many modern and contemporary classes! Since I had no idea about modern or contemporary dance, I was completely blown away. I started to research contemporary dance, and I found that NY has a lot of contemporary classes. So, I took 2 years to save money for studying dance in NY.
In 2014, finally I came to the United States and started to learn contemporary dance. Not only by doing many contemporary movement classes, I also have had opportunities to learn and perform dance theater, which shaped my style unique and strong. During the COVID pandemic, I could have a lot of time to think about my artistry and how many subjects could amplify my voice and create works from these thoughts. That was a big turning point for me to be able to work as a choreographer more professionally. Now post-pandemic, I am very fortunate to keep creating and performing.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The financial situation has always been a struggle in my life. As I mentioned a few of them before, I had to quit dancing many times because of it. Money affects us a lot, our relationships, education, opportunities, mood… My family became poor and it led to my parents having too many arguments, fights, screaming not only in our house but also outside, cafes, or restaurants. It was very tough for me to watch these very often. They ended up divorce because of his way of managing family money. So, my mother had to raise me alone with debt. Of course, it’s very tough to be a single mother. She was stressed, I got stressed sensing her stress, we were both stressed, and we used to have severe arguments or even fights at least once a week.
It was very tough…
But I don’t want to give up on myself because of my circumstances. It’s all about my perspective if I think my life is good or bad. I always want to have a positive perspective. I take all of these tough experiences in a positive way. I had a lot more experiences that not so many other people have. I learned how to rise from the dust, how to be resilient, how to be patient, to create my opportunity, and to never give up. Giving up was not a choice, giving up would mean losing everything and this has never been an option for me. I had to restart, still holding my dreams to turn it into reality, no matter how hard it was.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I think I’m known for and am proud of my unique dance style and strong expression through movements. People say “I can’t figure out your style.” This is all because I have pursued various performance arts methods— street dance styles such as Locking/Popping/Hip-Hop/House, Ballet, Jazz, Floor-work, Improvisation, Acting, Singing, etc—. And I use all of these disciplines to make works that tell people specific stories with specific purposes, not to just show off techniques.
I WANT TO USE MY TECHNIQUE TO EXPRESS MY STORY,
I’M NOT USING MY STORY TO EXPRESS MY TECHNIQUE.
This core value also reflects on our dance company sarAika movement collective. We create art as social action by breaking the concept of standard performance.
To know more about what I and our company do/does, please visit our website https://saraikacreation.com. We also offer our classes and commission work for other companies!
Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I think I’m too much of a risk taker, so I don’t feel I’m taking a risk. (lol) According to a dictionary, risk-taking means taking actions which might have unpleasant or undesirable results. But for me, diving into a situation that brings me uncomfortableness means I am growing. Getting out of my comfort zone is a way to grow. I might feel uncomfortable using my time and money, but if I keep being in a situation where I can do anything easily without any cost, I won’t grow anymore. For me, taking a risk means challenging myself.
I have kept taking risk, and my examples are may, but if I have to choose one, I would share the one that saw myself into a dance theater program. In this program, the teacher (Anabella Lenzú) teaches “Motion creates emotion, emotion creates motion.”. And she pulls up students’ emotions connecting movements. As a Japanese person, whose culture is not showing emotion, it was too difficult. I struggled a lot. I felt so embarrassed. But I tried to keep telling myself “Aika! If you overcome this, you are going to improve so much! This is the challenge to overcome in order to level up” At the end, the teacher gave me good compliments and I felt I grew a lot. Now, thanks to this program and her, the expression through movements has become one of my strongest parts as I mentioned before.
If I didn’t take the risk of being uncomfortable using my money and time at that time like some students did, I would not be who I am now for sure.
Pricing:
- sarAika contemporary workshop $20
Contact Info:
- Website: https://aikatakeshima.com & https://saraikacreation.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aikatakeshima/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aika.takeshima
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5In50yO4hEruZjC0jsh6Jw
Image Credits
Alexander Sargent
Effy Grey
BeccaVision
