Saison Artist in Residence
Online Research Residency: Open Group Session
Saison Artist in Residence, Online Research Residency (ORR) is a residency program for international
dance/performance artists to support creative research, providing an opportunity to broaden the scope ofcreative activities and deepen their connections with other international artists.
We started the online residency program in November 2021 and the participating artists joined monthly
group sessions and online workshops to share and exchange their research ideas, progress, and challenges.
In the open group session, the participating artists will be all together to share their own research outcomeswith some visual and audio materials with audience online. Please join our final open group session on 9 and10 February 2022.

Date and time
9 and 10 February 2022
The online open group session starts at 5:00 pm and ends around 8:00 pm (JST, UTC+9)

Participating Artists
Day1: Wednesday 9 February 2022 5:00 pm–8:00 pm (JST, UTC+9)
3M0T1NG
Zander Porter(USA/Germany)

Presentation andImagination ofJasmine Town
Zhen Yang(China)

A lesson fordancing Imaginary
WaltzNanakoMatsumoto(Japan)* After the presentation, there will be a 10-minute break. Then, there will be an open discussion for about 1 hour.

Day2: Thursday 10 February 2022 5:00 pm–8:00 pm (JST, UTC+9)
Aqua Lung

Pat TohCues - work inprogress for Cue(Singapore)

Pijin Neji(Japan)

Research Sharing on
the project Ghostly

Swinging Microphone
He Jin Jang(Korea)* After the presentation, there will be a 10-minute break. Then, there will be an open discussion for about 1 hour.

Registration
Please fill in the Google Form: https://forms.gle/GMjYTMF5Q1qEkQUJ8* We will send a link of the Zoom meeting via email a few days before the session.
* The detailed timetable for the day will be attached to the email sent to you.

supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan in fiscal 2021

Zander Porter (USA/Germany)

3M0T1NG
In 3M0T1NG, artist and choreographer Zander Porter speculates how the face might be(come) (un)freezable
images, disconnecting and complicating feelings from rendered and downloaded expressions in, of, and aroundphysiognomy. Cyborg mirroring, emoting exercises and body-attached smartphone duetting constitute research
practices to design launching points for new scores and moving-together. Eventually, invited dancers are advisedby less standardized/corporate/familiar symbols, such as (kaomoji): ☆*:.。.o(≧▽≦)o.。.:*☆ – where more
complexly-shaped expressiveness and inter-technological empathies emerge, 3M0T1NG (“emoting”) towards atransindividual-relational matrix.

Biography
Born in 1994 amid the World Wide Web, the fleshy figure of Zander Porter developed near theocean and mountains of (Tongva) Topanga (Santa Monica Mountains, Los Angeles).
Virtual-Zanders “Freshy” (2005-2008), “ORGZurvivor” (2007-2012), and “athlete__22”(2009-2013) comprise adolescence, circumscribing the ancestral function of xyr
Jewish-masculinized body’s bar mitzvah in 2007. Zander later acquired a high honors BA
in Art Studio with additional coursework in Computer Science and Performance Studies
from Wesleyan University in 2017, graduating a member of “Phi Beta Kappa” and nominatedfor University Honors after receiving the Elizabeth Verveer Tishler Prize. Zander completed additional
programs in Game Development in 2015 at DIS Copenhagen and German Language in 2017 at UCLA.
In 2017, in Berlin, ze became a core member of XenoEntities Network, a platform for discussion andexperimentation focusing on intersections of queer, feminist, and gender studies with digital technologies.
In 2021-2023, Zander pursues an MA in Choreography at DAS Graduate School – Amsterdam
University of the Arts.
Web: www.zanderporter.com

Zhen Yang (China)

Photo by Yusuke Tsuchida

Presentation and Imagination of Jasmine Town
I am going to make a detailed summary and “report” of the research at final presentation, such as sharing why andwhat about Jasmine Town and the research of first working progress in Yokohama Chinatown, and also raise newquestions in this process. I am also very sure that will reopen my perspective in this presentation to prepare for mynext step，and open to discussing and trying to imagine together how to build the theater work of Jasmine Town on
the next step.

Biography
Yang Zhen is a choreographer and artistic director from China’s post-90s new generation.
He focuses on the existence and aesthetic relationship between individuality andcollectivity within different social contexts based on perceptions of community life andcultures of places. He graduated from Minzu University of China College of Dance in2014, after which he created a trilogy of works “Revolution Game”. In 2016, he wasawarded the Chinese choreographer at the Artist lab of the Julidans festival inAmsterdam, At the same time, he officially opened his works in different regions. Yang’s
latest production in the series, Minorities, Premiered in Munich in May 2017 and was subsequently
invited to be performed at Tanz in Heilbronn Germany, the theater in Pumpenhaus Müster and Ostwest
Tanz Festival in Gieben. In August 201, Minorities held its Asian premiere at Taipei Art Festival 2017.
After that, Minorities was invited back to Germany, Freiburg Theater Festival 2018, and start its Premierein North American on 2019CanadianStage, Toronto, Canada. And Stanford University, USA.
Web： www.redvirgo.org

Nanako Matsumoto (Japan)

A study on choreographic texts for dancing with someone/thing beyond boundary
The Imaginary Waltz (I.W.) is the idea and practice of dancing the waltz with someone/ something imaginary. In thisfinal presentation, I will first invite each to join in the workshop of I.W. and then share my experience at ORR.
I started my research in this ORR with this big question; How can I share my practice of I.W. with other people?
Through my research and workshop, I have become aware of my process which is helping me to create a sharablestructure. I will share my findings in a form of a workshop.
In the workshop, each participant will dance the I.W. while listening to a text about someone or something. Afterthe dance, we will talk about the experience of dancing the I.W. and how their body interacted with the images. I
would like to continue this online workshop in the process of preparing the performance in October 2022.

Biography
I am a performer who mostly works with dance and text and has been involved in making atheatrical piece as a performance duo "team chiipro". My interest as an artist starts fromreexamining my body which had experienced dancing classical ballet at an earlier age. I
am now interested in collecting and reassembling personal and collective memory with mybody. Recent works are based on research of specific places or times using a single “step”
as a medium. 2013-now Co-chairing a performance duo "team chiipro” 2021Oct. 《Kyoto
Imaginary Waltz》 @THEATRE E9 KYOTO (KYOTO EXPERIMENT 2021 AUTUMN) 2021 Mar. 《KokyoRunningman》 @Tokyo University of the Arts Yokohama Campus (RAM PRACTICE 2021［Exhibition］)
2021 Jan. 《Sugamo Imaginary Waltz》 @Tokyo Arts and Space (Dobutsuenzoo by Aokid) 2020 Dec.
《Kokyo Runningman》@ST spot (Labo 20#22) 2019-now Member of “B.I.C project" by Kota Yamazaki.
Web: https://www.chiipro.net/

Pat Toh (Singapore)

Aqua Lung
Breathing from artificial air supply becomes an act through which the complexities of human and non-humanrelationships are made visible, articulating current concerns on being human, ecological crisis and the post-humancondition. A research into breath in an aquatic dimension provides an environment where the human respiratory
system is limited by nature and inseparable from technology. As issues of breathlessness are so urgent lately withthe pandemic, this project imagines means of survival; the recovery of breath and how we can keep it going evenafter it has collapsed. The watery condition serves as a challenge for human respiration and provides a medium
through which the usually invisible motion of air is made visible. In the research conducted through scuba diving,
free diving and respiratory systems of amphibians, the possibilities of respiration beyond the human form areexplored.

Biography
Pat Toh situates her practice at the intersection of theatre, dance and the live arts. Sheworks with the body as resource and site of experiment where she examines theremnants, effects and trauma of ideologies and bio-power.
A Shell-NAC Arts Scholarship recipient, she trained at the National Institute of DramaticArts(Australia) and graduated with a Bachelor of Dramatic Arts (Acting). She holds aMasters of Arts from the National Institute of Education (Singapore). Her work Pretty Things
was nominated for “Production of the Year”, “Best Director” and “Best Ensemble” in Singapore for The
Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards (2012). She has presented at Esplanade’s The Studios: RAW, M1
Fringe Festival, M1CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival, Indonesia Dance Festival and State ofMotion: Rushes of Time. She was The Substation’s artist-in-residence and an associate member atDance Nucleus, a space for independent dance makers in Singapore.
Web: www.pattoh.com

Pijin Neji (Japan)

Cues - work in progress for Cue
The time fragmented, losing a linear sense from the past to the future, lockdown in the present and the body, I put
the word “Mourning” on the pandemic situation based on the experience. The word itself was a choreography
which helped me to consent to the situation and the research aimed at creating a choreography of waiting for an
opportunity to act and processes for recovery from the loss. The research is going on with interviews with people
who recovered from the coronavirus and who can share the “Mourning” sense, and also some texts written byJapanese psychiatrist Bin Kimura, which are about the relationship between the time sense and the subject who
recognize it. What is the choreography to go out of the Mourning situation? How can I get out of the body?

Whatis “outside”? It is challenging to make questions and ideas come to the dance. At the final presentation, thework-in-progress performance “Cues” will be shared, and the research reflects in neji&co.`s performances “Cue”
in 2022, and “Out” in 2023.

Biography
With unique physicality developed through butoh training, Pijin Neji approaches his body
microscopically in his solo works and treats bodies materially in choreographic pieces. Heestablished the company neji&co., the group itself is intended as a form of choreography togain insight into the future. He creates dance works by paying attention to the gestures thathave no purpose and disappear at the moment of movement, the theater space that
integrates them as theatre pieces, and the time of performing arts. Through the work, urge theaudience to ask the significance of witnessing the performance in the theater, and think about how
people can get a vision for the future and what kind of body can get a perspective in the present age. Asa member of the Research Collective which consists of an editor, artist, and choreographer, Hecontinues his research on tombs, funerals and burials based in Kyoto.
Web: http://nejiandco.com/

He Jin Jang (Korea)

Research Sharing on the project Ghostly Swinging Microphone
The project Ghostly Swinging Microphone is exploring “oscillating consciousness” by inviting swinging microphoneand dance into the space. Consciousness is something that doesn’t die but flows in the air forever. So this can be aspiritual concept for presence and absence(grief). This research is a corporeal practice for mourning, a precarious
study for the precarious, and a space for a bodily requiem. Aiming to create a ritualistic performance, this projectwill explore body and force, patterns and rhythms, and consciousness and ghostliness. Dancing body along withthe swinging mic creates uncanny echoes with its movement and sound. And what happens in our mind and bodywhen we see these echoes are perhaps “consciousness.” This work tries to penetrate into consciousness thatloosens the gap between living and non-living, existence and non-existence. How can we survive and be with eachother if consciousness and soul (of the living and the dead) vaguely glimmer around, within, and beside us?

Biography
He Jin Jang Dance explores the contemporary concept of the body and its traces
through the four stages of life – birth, aging, sickness and death. HJJD’s artistic
research includes staging performances, writing, encouraging discourses andself-organizing platforms to serve all of the above. HJJD sees the body’s reaction to
the inescapable human weakness as the dance of nervous systems, that has so muchto uncover in the frame of Live Arts. HJJD debuted in the United States and Austria in2008 and was recommended as one of the ‘Notable Female Choreographer’ by theDance Magazine, USA. The group’s artistic research has been presented in the form ofperformances/workshops/lectures at festivals and art organizations in over 30 cities around the world.
Jang was an Artist-In-Residence at Movement Research and Fresh Tracks Artist at New York Live Arts inthe US. Jang was also a DanceWeb Fellow in Austria, Moving Dialogue Artist at National Center forDance in Romania, Visiting Artist at DanceLab in Netherlands, and Resident Artist at Laboratorio
Condensacion in Mexico. Jang is also serving the field of dance as curator/dramaturg/essayist.