In June, it was reported that Ando would sit out the 2011–12 Grand Prix series. She later decided not to compete all season, and in ISU events she appeared only once as an invited skater in the exhibition of the World Team Trophy. Instead, Ando participated in numerous shows worldwide, and among them, a benefit event for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, called "Reborn Garden", was planned, co-choreographed and co-produced by Ando herself. The characteristic choreography by Ando and Tsurutani is to a non-stop sequence of various music assembled into one story scene, similar to a ballet program.