Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

YAMADA Un is a dancer and a choreographer from Japan, now living in Tokyo, born in 1969, began dancing at the age of 13 as part of physical therapy to overcome an illness. She has trained in modern dance, butoh and various dance styles.

Since 1996, She has been an active choreographer and has been invited to festivals in Asia and Europe. She also begun performing solo dance. Her solo works explore the absurdity of daily life. In addition, she has a performance project as a collaboration with musician ADACHI Tomomi in Europe and Japan. The project is “VACA” which focuses on the relationship between dance and music through the exchange of sound and movement between the dancer and musician. The performances usually consist of a improvisation duet and short pieces which deal with intricate movement-sound correspondence and coincidence.

She entered the Yokohama Dance collection 2000 where she won the Young Choreographer’s Prize from French Embassy in the solo x duo competition organized by Yokohama Cultural Foundation. She was nominated for TOYOTA Choreography Award 2002.

She established her dance company “Co. YAMADA UN” in 2002.

Yukiko shinozaki studied classical ballet for 12 years in Tokyo. In 1988 she moved to the U.S and studied modern dance at Portland State University in Oregon, where she also received her B.A in psychology. She moved to New York in 1992 and worked with Donna Uchizono, Mia Lawrence, Apostolia Papadamaki, Yasmeen Godder and others. She also presented her own pieces at different venues in NY such as Dixon Place, Judson church, Cunningham dance studio. In 1997 she arrived in Belgium to work with Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods. She was in the productions of Splayed Mind Out, appetite, and Highway 101. She also worked as an assistant of Meg Stuart for the piece Remote, which was created for White Oak dance project. In 2000 Shinozaki and Heine R. Avdal created a duet, Cast off Skin, which toured in various venues through out Europe. In 2001/2002 she created terminal with Heine R. Avdal and Christoph De Boeck. Terminal has been performed extensively both on national and international venues, and is still touring throughout 2004 and 2005 at many festivals in Europe. In 2003/2004 she created closer a collaboration project together with Heine Røsdal Avdal and Christoph De Boeck. Closer is touring trough out 2004 and 2005. Shinozaki collaborated with Christelle Fillod for a solo piece, “Breaking through the roof of its house”, which was premiered on February 3rd, 2005 in deSingel, Antwerp. Shinozaki and Fillod are now working on a group piece “Inner Horizon” which premiered on April 21st in Kaaitheater, Brussels.