Meet sarAika movement collective | dance company

We had the good fortune of connecting with sarAika movement collective and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi sarAika movement collective, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
sarAika movement collective is a contemporary dance collective with a distinct taste for interdisciplinary collaboration. Founded in 2021 by Aika Takeshima, an immigrant from Japan, and Sara Pizzi, an immigrant from Italy, found a common artistic language from their perspective as immigrants living in America. Unifying their skills and knowledge as dancers, choreographers, activists, and part of the LGBTQIA+ community, they gathered a shared goal to create art about and for humans. Their company advocates for a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment. sarAika movement collective’s mission is to help people find possibility and freedom within themselves. No matter the mediums in which they work – movement, dance, theater, music, voice, paint, lightpaint, poetry, AR technology – the themes of their work are rooted in the sense of what people desire or need to let go of. Emotions, opinions, and experiences are what art embodies, capturing vulnerability. When one witnesses vulnerable work, they feel something. The ability to relate to this kind of art increases one’s connection to their authentic self, and allows us to connect to ourself and community. sarAika movement collective pursues this value of authenticity to bond their community. Their art is a form of activism documenting key issues and personal insights, to highlight minority groups and underrepresented communities, and create a safe space for reflection. As far as this society is going to be in need of this, sarAika will promote the longevity of art creating an impact for this society/communities. Thanks to the success of our performances and community events, we want to fund our collective in NYC in order to expand our artistic vision/methodology, inspiring our local young generations, promoting the longevity of art, strengthening the local artists community of artists and creating an impact creating space for reflection and art as social action, giving voice and provide a safe place of expression to all our close communities such as immigrant, POC, lgbtqa+, building a bridge between artists and non-artists, breaking the concept of regular performance. Our last performances had a topical aspect, and it was wonderful to see the huge impact we made in our community and among non-artist audiences, spark their imagination, expand their knowledge and create a space of self-reflection and personal identity. Those, performed not only for a trained audience, but being shared in various community events for under-represented communities, underserved population, child/seniors events and offering educational workshops for dancers and non-dancers, expanding the knowledge of contemporary dance and dance as social action to people which would have never meet that reality.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
sarAika’art is based on any physical medium which can evoke any inner personal exploration, deeper analysis of our inner self, the creation of a safe place for discovering and questioning & can bring togetherness in solving some common social issues. This creates performances which break the concept of standard performance creating collaborative, conceptual, interactive art experiences & teaching any level and any age, prioritizing any class that involves people with physical and mental disabilities or for underrepresented communities. What sets us apart from others is the themes our work underlines and the intention behind it. Breaking these two concepts down, the themes our dance represents does not start from a personal story or from our singular experience which rose a specific personal emotion; but are topical aspects within which everyone can resonate with. Therefore our choreographies speaks for/to/about people in order to be able to spark the imagination and inspire every individual no matter about status, language or experience. Regarding the intention: we are using our technique to tell a story, we are not using a story to show off our technique. We dancing for others, not for ourselves. Our dance is an action of love, dance as social action. And we are so proud that in the last couple of years, this message was well derived, being able to perform all over NYC receding appreciation and growth back, being able to produce performances and classes which gave a huge benefit to our community starting to create a more diverse, inclusive and equitable environment, as we are well followed by the DEI officer Aika Takeshima which was able to structure such a strong strategy.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Our favorite spot in the city is East Village in Manhattan. Multiple are the reason of why this was our first choice, but some to underline is the presence of a multitude of tethers and open spaces which offer time for creation and a really full program of wonderful shows. This is transforming the area into a really precious gathering area for contemporary artists in NYC. This in addition to the presence of really hidden cool spots where art and entertainment can co-exist in a creative way.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The one who needs a big shout out cause the huge impact for our dance collective is our resident artist Carol Prud’ Homme Davis. Carol, was born in Texas and moved to NYC in 1980, after graduating from Texas Christian University to pursue a career in dance. In 1994 she received a master’s degree in administration and Supervision in the Visual Arts from Bank Street and Parsons School of Design. She danced professionally, and was Artistic Director of “us” Productions, where she choregraphed and produced dance/theatre pieces with her company, ages 4 to 65. She served as the Visual Artist in residence with the Sandra Cameron Ballroom Studios and is the Visual Artist in residence the Peridance Dance Center in 2010 and 2022. Her artwork was shown in the first American Contemporary Dance Museum exhibition and is now in the permanent collection of the museum. She has drawn live and now via zoom, dance classes, rehearsals, and performances for over 150 professional dance teachers, performers and companies spanning over a variety of techniques. She can also be seen on the street and subway drawing her fellow human beings. Her exhibitions include: The Infinity Dance Theatre, The East Texas Fair, Anna Sokolow Dance Theatre Ensemble and Francesca Todesco web gallery, Goddard Riverside “Wham” Festival. Her work was featured in the “We Are All Bowery” Lower Manhattan Cultural Council project and the which was displayed in the Cooper Union windows in NYC. “Homeless Street Artists and Resident Bowery Artists projection exhibition in 2020 at the 6th Street and Avenue B, Alison Cook Beatty Dance exhibition: from Concept to Production….in the Raw, LES Resident Artists and Homeless Street Artists exhibition at the Elizabeth Street Garden and Cross Pollination produced by Putnam Dance Project. Her piece “My Reaction My Reflection” is featured in the art video: “PAUSE” which was Awarded the Tagore International Film Festival (India) – Winner Experimental Film Critic’s Choice Award La Paz International Film Festival (Bolivia) – Winner Best Experimental Short Film New Orleans Second Line FF – Winner Best Dance Film. She is now illustrating a book for Jeanne Donough based on Jazz dance pioneer Lynn Simonson. Carol illustrated the “Helmet” children’s puppet production and illustrated the book cover of “A Dancer Writes Haiku” by Marie Paquet-Nesson. She has received a Highlights scholarship in book illustration. Carol is artist in residence with sarAika and the American Dance Museum. Carol is the founder and owner of “Inside Change from Within” and “Inside Change, Inc.” both focus on social justice, food equity and arts exhibition, education and performance for all.

Website: https://saraikacreation.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saraikamovementcollective/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saraikamovementcollective

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzt6OwSe3GFvQwWKsLO02UA

Image Credits
BECCAVISION – Rebecca Marcela Oviatt