I met Ayako “Aya” Takahashi in graduate school, when we were both enrolled in Lesley University’s Dance/Movement Therapy Masters program. She immediately struck me as a remarkably kind, thoughtful, and graceful person -- and beyond that, a strikingly beautiful mover. We’ve touched base from time to time since graduating (which is always a treat). While we were both living in New York City, I had the honor and pleasure of viewing and reviewing her choreographic work, which was just as thoughtful and artful as I’d expect from her.
I spoke with her recently, and she had some true gems of wisdom to share -- on life during COVID, creating a dance company, being humble in the face of what you still have to learn (or may never be able to know) and much more. I wanted to share those gems with you all in the next installment of my Artist Chat series. I hope you enjoy learning from “Aya” and getting to know her in some small way!
Ayako "Aya" Takahashi
Building a dance company and exploring the meaning of “home”
Ayako officially started her company Ayalis in Motion in 2018 in New York City -- but she had been creating work far before that, she noted. She decided to form a company largely for practical reasons -- to sponsor her dancers for visas, apply for grants, and to bring greater visibility to the work, she explained. Ayako also found out that company auditions allowed her to meet many new dance artists and build a larger community around her company. Having a company didn’t change the atmosphere or methods she uses in rehearsals, however; she’s still the same artist working with the same committed artists.
The mission of the company is to “empower individuals and strengthen diverse communities through the art of movement.” I asked her how this mission took shape, and she shared that it was rooted in her personal experience. "I was the one empowered by this art form...it has always been with me,” she affirmed. I asked her if any of her works in particular illustrate this mission. She believes that all of them do, in their own ways -- yet Your Home, the company’s newest work, especially demonstrates that empowerment of individuals and strengthening of diverse communities through movement in particular.
Your Home (2020)
It’s a work based in deep, intimate research, with a process that isn’t quite finished yet. Ayako began this process when she was living, working, and dancing in Israel. She was doing mental health first aid for Doctors Without Borders -- not Dance/Movement Therapy, per-se, but she would read body language as a tool for overcoming the language barrier at hand, she noted. She saw a lot of chaos in the body language of those she was working with. That body language, in forty refugees she interviewed, was the data she used for the piece. She looked for “somatic reactions connected to the feelings of safety and home,” she explained.
"I was the one empowered by this art form...it has always been with me,” she affirmed.
That data helped her to build a work conveying a search for “[the feeling of safety] through movement” and which could “create connection.” Thus far, it’s available for all to view on YouTube in a ten-minute video. She plans to expand the work and present it at a festival in Iceland -- which is requiring a lot of “not so fun” paperwork, she says with a little laugh.
Through it all, she’s conscious of her dancers’ well-being. Delving into these challenging topics through creative process can be triggering, she recognizes -- and she also wants her dancers to be fully open and honest. She believes that such a process, while it’s not therapy, can be therapeutic. Art has a different impulse and process than therapy, and -- in fact -- the logic of therapy would constrain artmaking, she agreed.
On the front lines
Ayako isn’t making much dance work these days, because she’s spending her days providing mental health support to COVID-19 patients and their loved ones at a hospital in Japan. She has creative ideas from time to time, which she might be able to make into work when this is all over -- but right now she has “no time, like no time” to spend on dancemaking, she says, with a hint of sadness in her voice.
My heart sunk as she described getting three hours of sleep a night because she spends so much time working -- and then I felt immense gratitude for her, and other healthcare providers and front-line workers like her, for that sacrifice. Ayako explained that other times when she’s faced significant challenges in life, she’s been able to channel that struggle creatively -- but now there’s just no time to do that.
In the Park (2014)
She does see silver threads in the cloud linings, however. For one, she’s been able to appreciate life’s little wonders more. “Every day you see people cry and people die, but now I’m seeing the small lights...when the shadow gets darker, you see the tiny lights," she said. "I’m starting to feel more grateful for the little things -- [like when] someone smiles,” she continued with a little smile of her own. Another small light through this challenging time is being able to stay connected, creatively and otherwise, with dancers she’s worked with in NYC and beyond, she shared.
Knowing what you don’t know
Ayako has interfaced with many cultures and creative communities, from Japan to Israel to various cities in the US. I asked her if that diverse cultural immersion has impacted her creative perspectives or how she approaches artmaking. She lit up and said “I love this question, but at the same time it’s a very tricky one.”
”The more I work with diverse communities, the more I realize that I can speak for myself and see things through my eyes….I could never say ‘oh, I know this culture…’,” she shared. For example, she’s sometimes asked to share aspects of the Japanese perspective and experience, which she does appreciate -- but she always says that her perspective is only her perspective alone. “I have two eyes, one brain, and one heart,” she said with a little smile and laugh in her voice.
”The more I work with diverse communities, the more I realize that I can speak for myself and see things through my eyes."
“I want to understand [people], but I understand you can never understand fully,” she said in sum. In her work as a therapist as well as in her artmaking, that viewpoint is always in the background for her. She agreed with the sentiment along the same lines that the more you learn, the more you realize there is to learn. There is saying you know, and then there is listening, witnessing, and offering a platform to others, she also agreed.
My sense is that Ayako’s thoughtfulness, kindness, and creative perceptiveness is closely intertwined with this openness to learning, listening and serving -- with which she’s provided vital mental health services to many people and created thought-provoking, aesthetically striking works of dance art. As a friend and colleague, I’m excited to see where her journey takes her next and what she offers as fruits of that journey. I’m grateful for the pearls of wisdom she took the time to share with us.
Pythagorean Peas (2018)