Israel-born choreographer Danielle Agami danced with the renowned Tel Aviv-based Batsheva Dance Company for eight years from 2002, and was its rehearsal director from 2008–10.
Following a move to the United States in 2011, she taught Batsheva’s iconic Gaga dance style that was invented as a “movement language” by its artistic director, Ohad Naharin, and is now practiced in many countries. Then, after stints working at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Santa Clarita, CA, and Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Oregon, Agami founded her own Ate9 Dance Company in Seattle in 2012 before relocating the troupe’s base to Los Angeles the next year.
After a cancelation in 2021 due to the pandemic, the upcoming performances at Setagaya Public Theater in Tokyo will be Ate9’s much anticipated Japan premiere.
The shows will comprise two programs, titled “EXHIBIT B” and “calling glenn”. Each includes different musicians, with the former involving hip hop producer Omid Walizadeh and the latter the drummer and composer Glenn Kotche from the U.S. rock band Wilco, who created the music part and also plays on stage.
Speaking recently, Agami, 39, said she hopes her dance company’s enthusiasm will make people in Japan open their minds to new possibilities in today’s uncertain situation of the world.
A double bill of “EXHIBIT B” and “calling glenn” runs Mar. 1–3 at Setagaya Public Theater, a 3-min. walk from Sangenjaya station on the Denen-toshi Line. For more details, please visit https://setagaya-pt.jp/
