Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Aika Takeshima. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Aika, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is one of our most well known repertoires, titled “You Don’t Have To Love Me Just Accept Me”, that talks about DIFFERENCE&ACCEPTANCE, which has been presented about 20 times in a year throughout NYC and New Jersey.

The reason why this is the most meaningful project is because difficulties/struggles that people have when working with others who are different from them has always been my biggest topic and passion to solve, which brought me to get a certification of a DEI(*) practitioner. (*DEI: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion)

Although we all know that we should not treat others in a bad way, and others should not treat us in a bad way, it’s not that easy to prevent us completely from having any prejudice, judging others by its cover, and doing any offensive behavior. Even if we work hard on not doing so, it can also appear as a microaggression. That is all because it’s an immediate and natural reaction as human beings when we face people who are NOT LIKE US.

This thought and urge to take an action became so strong when the crucial events of Black Lives Matter happened and Asian Hate Crime happened after.

Therefore we (my partner Sara Pizzi & I) created this work under commission of 7MPR for the event of “Stop Asian Hate and Any Hate” organized by Jiali Wang, performed at Art on Site NYC on August 29th 2021. For the movements, we focused on using many of our differences, such as height(154cm & 175cm), personality(tendency to put stress in/out), movement quality(detailed & wild), culture(Italy & Japan), age(12 years difference), and so on. For the story, we expressed that we can annoy each other by our own character, but we can also collaborate well because there are differences in us and help each other when one is hurt.

Through this work, we wanted to say we acknowledge that we cannot agree with everything or everyone. But we have to respect each other’s existence or boundaries. We cannot hurt people. Hurting someone is meaningless. Accepting everyone’s existence is called “coexisting”. The message In this work is:

“WE ARE TOTALLY DIFFERENT, AND THIS IS OUR POWER AND BEST QUALITY, ACCEPTANCE FOR DIVERSITY AND EXPLORING THE UNKNOWN IS WHAT MAKES PROGRESS AND BEAUTY”.

After the premier, we have been asked to present this work more throughout NYC and New Jersey and nothing is happier for me than being able to contribute to society with the work we created.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a dance artist/choreographer and DEI practitioner based in New York City originally from Osaka Japan. I’m a co-founder and a DEI officer of a dance company “sarAika movement collective” and I also founded “LIVABALL” to spread DEI methods in Japan & in NYC dance industry.

Both as a dance artist and DEI practitioner, what I want to do ultimately in my life is to make the society where everyone can be authentic to themself bringing comfort in togetherness and to grow the strength and bond our community. For this mission, I create dance works with a variety of collaborators highlighting what each of us has and deliver DEI methods where the DEI methods are not commonly performed, such as the dance industry or the society of Japan.

sarAika is a movement collective based in New York since 2021, created with Sara Pizzi. Our art is a form of activism, documenting key issues and topics, highlighting how they may change, and creating space for reflection. We make art about and for humans, creating a bridge of connection between artists and non artists. The goal is to generate awareness and reflection on actual social issues. sarAika wants to break the concept of standard performance creating collaborative, conceptual, interactive art experiences, basing their choreography on contemporary dance, partnering, floor-work, improvisation skills, story telling, conceptual art and street style influences. sarAika has performed for over 40 events live and online throughout NYC and broadly since 2021 for: Green Space, 7MPR, Dixon Place, The Craft, IKADA, JCAL, BAAD!, Movement Research, Dance Parade, SJAC, Creative Performances, The Tank, The Vino Theater, HERE, Queensboro Dance Festival, Turnout NYC, The Museum of the City of New York and more.

As a DEI practitioner, I started holding webinars for more awareness of diverse gender/sexuality/culture for Japanese people living in Japan. And my current plan is to create and spread “DEI FOR DANCE”, to a dance industry in NYC. Living in NYC, one of the most diverse cities in the world, has given me countless opportunities that I could get accepted, welcomed, and encouraged to do my best performance. In addition to that, fortunately or unfortunately, I have seen the negative side of diversity, which is the continuous severe discriminations or microaggressions. Those facts brought me to realize that we all should know the proper knowledge about diversity and efficient methods on how to build a healthy environment around each of us when working with others.

Being both an artist and DEI practitioner might not sound make sense in terms of “creative art & practical method”, but it actually does. Because we know that when everyone can feel respected, trusted, safe to be authentic themselves, belong together and their voice is heard, they can be the most creative and perform their best. And this is sarAika’s best performance. The balance of your artistry and diverse professionals – it is challenging, but not impossible and it will be an innovative creation if you find the proper strategy and keep taking action.

To know more about what I do, please visit our website https://saraikacreation.com. We also offer our classes and commission work for other companies!

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Yes. I have many of those since I started my dancer’s/artist’s journey late, but what I wish I knew most are art & dance history. There is almost no access to education about art history, especially dance history in Japan. I used to think that in order to succeed, I had to follow others’ styles even if I don’t like copying others. Especially because Japan is a country where people prefer to be the same compared to United States -some wear the same clothes with friends-. I was thinking something was wrong, but I didn’t know the answer.

But knowing the process that past artists/choreographers have stepped in their artists’ journey taught me the answer and courage and tips to pursue being different as an artist. I could know that great artists think a lot and deeply analyze the situation of past, current and future around/inside of them. And they build something original that no one did in the past and also “meaningful” to someone/thing. This was a really big change for me because thinking and analyzing has been always what I love to do that I didn’t realize that this personality helps me as an artist until I learned the art/dance history.

Doing the same/similar thing as others do is very uncomfortable for me. Doing something new just for myself is not enough. Doing cool movements without thought is also not enough. But thanks to all the greatest artists in the past and this period, now I know what I should do. But…I wish I knew it from the beginning of my journey.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I would say that is my feeling of “being happy about being different from others”. I am very happy to be told “You are different.” The comment that made me the happiest ever was “I can’t figure out your dance style.” We tend to feel uncomfortable/anxious when we can’t identify ourselves or when others don’t understand us. But regarding my art/dance styles, “THANK YOU! THAT’S WHAT I WANTED!” is my feeling. Because to be original that no one is/does is one of the most important elements as a dance artist.

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
BeccaVision (cover photo, photos of beige background & headshot) Liz Schneider Cohen (photos of skirts) Hannah Rozelle (photo of tiled wall)