Choreographer Takehiro Ueyama Transforms Natural Disaster into Uplifting Dance
By Emily Cummins, ArtsQuest Public Relations Coordinator
On March 10, 2011, acclaimed dancer and choreographer Takehiro “Take” Ueyama was celebrating his birthday in New York with friends. Hours ahead and more than 6,000 miles away, a magnitude-9 earthquake shook the northeastern coast of Japan, unleashing a tsunami that claimed nearly 16,000 lives. Ueyama’s family, living in Tokyo at the time, was unharmed and safe, but it was days before he heard from them.
“My birthday, it always feels strange now,” Ueyama says. “So many people, people from Japan, tried to do something for the victims… go and help, volunteer. Myself, I couldn’t do anything but donate money.”
That was until he began working on “Somewhere Familiar Memories,” a show Ueyama describes as a tribute to the Japan of his childhood.
Born and raised in Tokyo, Ueyama moved to the United States in 1991 to study dance at the Juilliard School in New York City. Upon graduation, he was invited to join the Paul Taylor Dance Company, touring the world with them for eight years. In 2003, Ueyama debuted his first choreographic work, “Tsubasa,” performed with fellow Taylor dancers at the SUNY New Paltz’s McKenna Theatre and four years later, he founded TAKE Dance.
Since its inception, TAKE Dance has been praised for its exciting athletic movement and unusual sensitivity to create distinctive work that is uniquely “TAKE.” The company’s mission is to create and stage works that deepen society’s sensitivity and understanding of the human condition. In recent years, the company has performed at Central Park Summer Stage, Baruch Performing Arts Center, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, Joyce Theater, Symphony Space, Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, Sardinia, Italy’s Festival Internazionale Nuova Danza, Washington D.C.’s National Cherry Blossom Festival and more.
Now, Ueyama and the TAKE Dance Company are returning to the ArtsQuest Center’s Musikfest Café presented by Yuengling for the second year with the highly personal and emotional “Somewhere Familiar Melodies,” a contemporary dance production that incorporates the J-Pop and traditional Japanese folk music of Ueyama’s childhood to create a “healing dance” for his people.
“I thought this would be a good opportunity to create something that people can watch and maybe forget for just one hour, feel good, laugh and have fun. Something where people don’t have to face reality for just one hour… It’s also healing for me too, to appreciate where I came from,” he says.
Describing Ueyama and his company as an audience favorite, DANCENOW NYC Executive Artistic Producer & Director Robin Staff, who curates this annual show, says she is thrilled to have TAKE Dance back for the 6th-annual Holiday Show.
“This year’s presentation brings a very special work to the center. ‘Somewhere Familiar Melodies’ was a DANCENOW commission for Joe’s Pub at The Public that was incredibly well received in the city and I am excited to present it again here for the audiences in Lehigh Valley. It is both poignant and highly energetic, and its celebratory message makes for a perfect and sure to be inspirational holiday show.
“As a producer, it is so rewarding to offer a new experience for my audiences, and that is what I am trying to do with DANCENOW SteelStacks — offer up something that they would not have otherwise had the opportunity to enjoy,” she says.
