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Kenta Kojiri, with a group of seven dancers based in Italy and Slovenia, connected people, artistic universes, choreographic practices and creative ideas in Gorizia, the European Capital of Culture 2025.

Thanks to the partnership with Yokohama Dance Collection and Kinosaki International Arts Centre, Aerowaves invited Japanese choreographer Kenta Kojiri who is the associate choreographer for Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse No.1 (Yokohama Arts Foundation), to remake his work “AHAI” with a group of selected participants from the PEPA, an artist development programme run by Artisti Associati in Gorizia.

In this part of Italy, on the border with Slovenia, the opportunities for meeting and cultural exchange between local and Japanese artists are very rare. The Japanese Choreographer created “AHAI, Imaginary Landscapes” during one residency in January and one in April 2025. The creative process generated a powerful artistic dialogue, where the different artistic and cultural backgrounds of the dancers and the choreographer became the basis for a choreographic and human exchange. The artists shared, negotiated, learned from each other, got lost in translations and found themselves in the construction of a show that was presented to the public twice on 23 April 2025. The dancers became a group, and are still connected today, thanks to this project, for many of them it was the first collaboration together.

The piece “AHAI” was originally created and premiered with 12 female students from Saitama Dance Laboratory in 2021. “AHAI” means the harmony between time, space, the body and the relationship between them. Through this work the dancers captured perceptions of the self from within as well as from outside, and dive into the theme of coexistence through physical expression. “AHAI” is based on Yasuhiro Morinaga’s music.

Kenta Kojiri actively involved the seven dancers Angelica Margherita (Italy), Simona Puglisi (Italy), Tjaša Bucik (Slovenia), Pamela Ranzenigo (Italy), Lisa Bergamasco (Italy), Michela Massolo (Italy) and Gloria Nardo (Italy) in the creative process. As part of the creation process, the dancers combined the choreographic material with improvisation tasks. Both the improvisation and the creation process were adapted to the dancers’ experience and training. Kenta shared improvisation tools based on classical dance and other techniques drawing from his experience as a dancer at Nederlands Dans Theater, which reflects the influences he received from Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe and Ohad Naharin. The dancers explored those choreographic tasks expanding their artistic knowledge and potentials, developing new individual and collective skills, becoming familiar with Kojiri’s artistic fingerprint.

All the choreographic material generated was set and rehearsed in the venue of the performances. The work was commissioned for a site specific space, a historic gym for gymnastics in Gorizia. The place is rich in history and memories, it echoes the architecture and decorations of the beginning of last century. The audience was invited to arrange themselves along the entire perimeter and the proximity with the dancers, who danced mainly at the centre of the gym, allowed them to discover and observe the most distinctive details and aspects of the choreography.

The creative process leaves an indelible mark on the dancers’ professional development and on the connections that the initiative has opened for them at a national and international level. For the choreographer, the challenge of translating his own work into another cultural context has certainly activated new ways of communication and new strategies of choreographic composition. The exposure to an audience of international dance professionals and to a local audience have finally confirmed the potential of the show, the strength of the performers, and the value of creating opportunities for artistic collaboration across continents.

The performance had two presentations, as part of the Aerowaves Spring Forward Festival and the European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica-Gorizia programme. They contributed to making Kenta Kojiri’s work well known in a vibrant international context and Kenta was able to meet several dance professionals in the days following the performances, including the thirty-three participants of the Aerowaves capacity building programmes: emerging curators, podcasters, dance writers and choreographers from all over Europe, with some guest participants from Quebec. He was able to open new connections and potential dialogues for future collaborations with many of the international guests from 45 different countries from around the globe.

Stepping out of your comfort zone, taking the risk of a blind date in an unknown cultural context requires an adventurous spirit, flexibility, responsiveness and active listening, all of which were presented to the gaze of the audience who attended the shows.