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About Naoko

Baltimore City
I have been creating solo, duo, and ensemble performances in traditional and non-traditional venues since 1998. Body is my instrument and my medium. My approach is interdisciplinary in terms of the source, the process, and the form. The seed of creation germinates from various elements such as sound, light, a piece of text, a painting, a map, an object, a piece of clothing, and a scientific phenomenon. I build precisely structured short and full-length pieces from scratch as well as collaborate… more
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Jump to a project:

Kawatokawa (skin and river)

Conception, Direction, Choreography, Scenography, Performance

A humorous autobiographical dance theatre drawing from Maeshiba’s research about “space, body, and language” in Tokyo and Czech Republic.
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    p1130165.jpg
  • Kawatokawa
    Kawatokawa
    Sleeping Beauty
  • Kawatokawa (2012)@ Baltimore Theatre Project, MD
    Kawatokawa (2012)@ Baltimore Theatre Project, MD
    "Especially striking is the emotive range of Maeshiba's choreography and peformance...the basic emtoions of fear, curiosity, and rejection float off the stage with carefully calibrated movements." - Baltimore Theatre Journal
  • Kawatokawa
    Kawatokawa
    Dress
  • Kawatokawa
    Kawatokawa
    Cockroach Blues
  • Kawatokawa
    Kawatokawa
    Constitution
  • Kawatokawa
    Kawatokawa
    Constitution
  • Kawatokawa
    Kawatokawa
    Dress
  • Kawatokawa
    Kawatokawa
    Constitution
    •

    • When the wind crossed, my body cried like an octopus

    Conception, Costume, Sound design, Performance

    As a part of the artist residency at CESTA (Cultural Exchange Station in Tabor, Czech Republic), I focused on examining the relationship between space, time, and body. Immediately after two site-specific experimentations, I brought my body inside the theatre space to see how the body transmits the experience from the two sites into the indoor controlled space.
    • CESTA - study #3
      CESTA - study #3
      Brought back the resonance from study #1 and #2 into the theatre space and saw the transformability of the body's sensation.
    • CESTA - study #3
      CESTA - study #3
      Brought back the resonance from study #1 and #2 into the theatre space and saw the transformability of the body's sensation.
    • CESTA study - #2
      CESTA study - #2
      Placed my body in the swift river current. Slow and gradual descent.
    • MY BODY MERGES WITH THE ENVIRONMENT, MY BODY IS THE ENVIRONMENT - When the wind crossed my body cried like an octopus (2010) Tabor, Czech Republic
      MY BODY MERGES WITH THE ENVIRONMENT, MY BODY IS THE ENVIRONMENT - When the wind crossed my body cried like an octopus (2010) Tabor, Czech Republic
      Body is my medium of exploration. It's a lens to see the society, the world. It's a vessel to transmit my sensory experience of the incoming stimuli into dance. My exploration of the relationship between body and environment is on-going. I choose a site to place my body, drawing the life force inherent in the place. I would like to be able to dance the place.
    • 0004
      0004
    • CESTA - study #1
      CESTA - study #1
      Placed my body under the bridge that separated old town from new town.
    • Day 13
      Day 13
    • CESTA - study #1
      CESTA - study #1
      Placed my body under the bridge that separated old town from new town.
    • 0015
      0015
    • Day 24
      Day 24
    •

    • Absence

    Conception, Direction, Choreography, Scenography, Performance

    The piece explores a sense of loss through the visual/physical motifs of presence and absence. On the opaque white palette, the fluctuating state of absence gradually gets revealed in the color of yellow, red, and sky blue. This is the second collaboration with the Polish electro-acoustic duo, Kinior and Makaruk.
    • PASSWORD - NaokoM
    • Absence
      Absence
      @ a reconstructed old elementary school, M25, Warsaw, Poland
    •

    • Communitas

    Conception, Direction, Choreography, Object design, Performance

    Inspired by Victor Turner's concept of 'Communitas', the piece taps into the uncertainty of our beings through the issues that vex today's world, such as unbalanced resources, youth violence, and aging.

    In the landscape of destruction, people wander about searching for a connection: with people, places, and the past. Through images of death and birth in nature, the piece illuminates the human figures which long for love, hope, and beauty, asking the ultimate question: "where are we going?"

    May 2002 The Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, DC, Tour - June 2002 Hirshhorn Museum at Smithsonian Institution, May 2003 Baltimore Theatre Project
    • PASSWORD - NaokoM
    • Communitus
      Communitus
      Hirshhorn Museum
    • Communitas
      Communitas
      Baltimore Theatre Project
    • Communitas
      Communitas
      Baltimore Theatre Project
    • Communitas
      Communitas
      Hirshhorn Museum
    • Communitas
      Communitas
      @ Kennedy Center Millennium Stage
    •

    • The Voyage

    Conception, Direction, Scenography, Performance

    The piece consists of five stories about the voyage captured at the points of departures and arrivals. Intricate human relationships, our conflicted existence. The journey between life and death is vividly depicted through layers of images in the evocative visual poetry.
    • River 1
      River 1
    • Morning
      Morning
    • Morning
      Morning
    • River 1
      River 1
    • Voyage
      Voyage
    • River 2
      River 2
    • River 1
      River 1
    • Lover
      Lover
      (Detail) 2014
    • Liquid Rumble
      Liquid Rumble
    •

    • Scent of Sky

    June 2009, @ Source Theatre, Mash-up series, Source Festival

    Choreography, Performance


    A solo multi-media piece about science/technology and body in collaboration with a sound artist, Alberto Gaitan.
    • Scent of Sky #9
      Scent of Sky #9
    • PASSWORD - NaokoM
    • Scent of Sky (2009)@ Source Theatre, Washington, D.C.
      Scent of Sky (2009)@ Source Theatre, Washington, D.C.
      "Dancer/choreographer Naoko Maeshiba and electronic-media artist, Alberto Gaitan explore a realm of sound and kinetic gesture where words are inadequate." - DC Theatre Scene
    • Scent of Sky #7
      Scent of Sky #7
    • Scent of Sky (2009)@ Source Theatre, Washington, D.C.
      Scent of Sky (2009)@ Source Theatre, Washington, D.C.
      "Her body is so flexible, boneless, and fluid it's as if her limbs are caught in underwater currents…" - DC Theatre Scene
    • Scent of Sky (2009)@ Source Theatre, Washington, D.C.
      Scent of Sky (2009)@ Source Theatre, Washington, D.C.
      I have worked with the motif of shedding from 2005 to 2012. In this piece, 'shedding' took a whole different meaning. Instead of being born, I was disappearing into the white particles of the screen behind me. The further I moved forward, the more sucked in I was.
    • Scent of Sky #4
      Scent of Sky #4
    • Scent of Sky #3
      Scent of Sky #3
    • Scent of Sky #2
      Scent of Sky #2
    • Scent of Sky #1
      Scent of Sky #1
    •

    • Trace

    "Trace" examines the state of displacement through the trace within oneâ??s body and mind as well as in the society. Six individual segments treat various states of collision such as the the nature vs. the technology, the disposable culture vs. the longing for the spirituality, and tradition vs. freedom. Trace is multi-disciplinary in its nature, combining movements with live voice and cello by Audrey Chen, the video images by Chas Marsh, and the animation by Jackie Milad and Dan Breen. Costume by Jenifer Alonzo, Lighting design by Cathy Eliot.

    Conception, Direction, Scenography, Performance
    • Lapse
      Lapse
    • Transmutation
      Transmutation
    • Trace (2004) @ Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Washington, D.C.
      Trace (2004) @ Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Washington, D.C.
      The relationship between the projection and the live body is always a challenge. "Trace" was the first work that I incorporated projection. I was looking to see if the performer himself can shift this relationship with the projection. Initially a merely a background landscape turns into a force and substance that takes over his whole being./ Metro DC Dance Award nomination for outstanding new work and outstanding overall production.
    • Lapse
      Lapse
    • Tradition No?
      Tradition No?
    • Tradition No?
      Tradition No?
    • Rain
      Rain
    • Trace (2004) @ Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Washington, D.C.
      Trace (2004) @ Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Washington, D.C.
      "Maeshiba made a grand stab at the topic of displacement...through an accumulation of dance, video and live music that gave a sense of fragmentation." - The Washington Post
    • Lapse
      Lapse
    •

    • Remains of Shadow

    Loosely based on the doll exchange between America and Japan during WWI, this full-evening length piece follows the journey of Man and Woman whose lives get intertwined with a blue-eyed doll.

    Conception, Direction, Choreography, Scenography, Sound design, Performance

    Spring 2005 @ Ko Festival of Performance, Amherst, MA, Tour - 2006 Questfest, 2006 Capital Fringe Festval, 2007 Theatre of Yugen
    • PASSWORD - NaokoM
    • Part I: Blue-eyed Doll
      Part I: Blue-eyed Doll
    • Part II: 49 Days
      Part II: 49 Days
    • Dan
      Dan
    • Conventions detail
      Conventions detail
      The gloomy light added an atmosphere of weariness to the shoes as they serpentined along the floor.
    • Part I: Blue-eyed doll
      Part I: Blue-eyed doll
    • Lung Teeshirts
      Lung Teeshirts
      Paint and prints on tee shirts. Gotta be stylin' at chemotherapy. Therapy sessions are held in a room with ten or so reclining chairs. It gets lively as we (mostly older women) all watch game shows on a large television overhead.
    • O Say Can You Feel
      O Say Can You Feel
      Post performance discussion with students at Reginald F. Lewis Museum.
    • Space Composite #2
      Space Composite #2
      Ink on Layered Durlar on Paper Summer/Fall 2010
    • Part II : 49 Days
      Part II : 49 Days
    •

    • Face of Another

    Conception, Direction, Choreography, Scenography, Sound design, Costume

    A sense of displacement and search for eternity in nothingness. Fluctuating on the boundary between reality and illusion, the familiar and the unknown, the past and the present, and life and death, the delicate balance tips and breaks into each other, revealing the origin of loneliness, desire, and fear in her body.
    • PASSWORD - NaokoM
    • face-of-another-6.jpeg
      face-of-another-6.jpeg
    • face-of-another-4-2.jpeg
      face-of-another-4-2.jpeg
    • face-of-another7.jpeg
      face-of-another7.jpeg
    • face-of-another-1.jpeg
      face-of-another-1.jpeg
    • face-of-another-5.jpeg
      face-of-another-5.jpeg
    • face-of-another-3.jpeg
      face-of-another-3.jpeg
    •

    • Paraffin

    Conception, Direction, Choreography, Scenography, Sound design

    A dance theatre that investigates the subliminal forces of formulas that affect our body and mind. Illuminating our fear and yearning for the hidden and the obscured, the piece interweaves multiple relationships of love, temptation, and struggle to reveal and discover identity. In the sensual and fiery landscape, body reveals an unspeakables and invisibles shedding light on the deep and dark places of our souls. Paraffin, an allegory about our precarious state of being, takes you through an exquisite and hypnotic landscape charged with intense physicality.

    June 2009, 2010 @ Baltimore Theatre Project, Tour - Spring 2010 @Questfest, Washington DC, Winter 2010 Dance Place, Washington DC
    • PASSWORD - NaokoM
    • Alley Boys
      Alley Boys
    • Inspection
      Inspection
    • Paraffin (2009-2010)@ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Questfest/ Dance Place (DC)
      Paraffin (2009-2010)@ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Questfest/ Dance Place (DC)
      The inspector prepares her equipment to examine the creature. We decided to use an overhead projector to draw and erase on the creature, obliterating her identity. This analog device added a touch of humor to this unsettling moment.
    • Paraffin (2009-2010)@ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Questfest/ Dance Place (DC)
      Paraffin (2009-2010)@ Baltimore Theatre Project (MD), Questfest/ Dance Place (DC)
      Family members with a deceased father tries to reconcile their unspoken feelings by redoing a ritual they are used to.
    • Rain
      Rain
    • Dunes
      Dunes
    • Spring
      Spring
    • William 'Count' Basie
      William 'Count' Basie
      40in x 30in Mixed media on paper with found objects
    • Dunes
      Dunes
    •