Ryuji Yamaguchi
dancer, choreographer, educator in Jordan
My Diary: Secret Journey Amman
In the chilly winter in February, 2020, Yoshiko Chuma and the School of Hard Knocks International crashed into utopia at King’s Academy and downtown Amman. My Diary: Secret Journey Amman is a composition created and designed by Yoshiko Chuma and Ryuji Yamaguchi. This performance is based on twenty chapters that cross over within the frame of one hour. Musicians, dancers, and film editors interact, but not directly—a parallel to incidents of sound, text and action, and a metaphor for endless continuous circles of life that fluctuate between utopia and war. While observing, the audience will perceive the results of war: tipping utopia.
Presented by: Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, King’s Academy
Concept Design, Installation, and Direction: Yoshiko Chuma and Ryuji Yamaguchi
Film editors: Agnė Auželytė, Majd Manaa, Ursula Marlee H. Marcussen
Music Soundtrack: Jason Kao Hwang
Dance Artists: Adam Wawi, Alaeddin Rahmeh, Anas AlQatawe, Duanduan Lin, Emran Al-Amareen, Hala AlDur, Hanae Yoshida, Haneen Shraim, Mahmoud Shraim, Mera Diab, Noor AlJamal, Raneem Nahhas, Ryuji Yamaguchi, Salleh Belagon, Teera AlTal, Valeria Dimitrova, Yanlin Li, Yiran Zhao, Zaid AlJamal, Ziqi Yu
Stage Managers: Khalid Siraj, Taha Noui Mehidi, Yiran Zhao
Assistant to Stage Managers: Zaid AlZoubi
Pianist: Hani Alkarrain
Assistant to Director: Emran AlAmareen
PR & Communication Director: Ruba Hattar
Secret Journey: Amman
1000 Gifts of Dance
In 1000 Gifts of Dance, a movement artist approaches a passerby in Amman to participate in a short collaboration. The movement artist performs in a public space, while the volunteer acts as the video artist. Through the series of social and artistic interactions that pursue, and through the repetition of such events within a limited neighborhood, the project disrupts spatial and social relations in the city and poses the following questions: Who gets to create art? Who gets to decide on the value of art?
Commissioned as part of IN/OUT Festival by Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts. Oct 11-31, 2019, 400 such interactions took place in Jabal Al-Lweibdeh, Amman. Directed by Ryuji Yamaguchi, and co-directed by Alaeddin Rahmeh and Asem Al-Khojah
