Experimental dance performance delves into questions of identity and self

AMMAN — On Saturday, New York-based choreographer Yoshiko Chuma and Madaba-based Ryuji Yamaguchi put on a multimedia experimental dance performance titled “Secret Journey: Amman” with youth at the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts.

The performance addresses the question: “How does one frame an experience?” and the artists used the “School of Hard Knocks”, a method created by Chuma and furthered by Yamaguchi, to work with 20 young people in Amman dancing dabke and break dance, according to the event’s Facebook page.

Chuma was born in Osaka, Japan. Inspired by her interest in American idioms while spending time in the US, she founded the School of Hard Knocks in 1982.  “I first came to Jordan in 2007,” she told The Jordan Times on Saturday. 

This project was “very challenging” she said, noting that the participants were young and she “still has to get to know Jordan better”.

“It’s important to teach dance to youth,” Yamaguchi said, noting: “I think it is important to be honest with one’s body, to accept who you are and to fully realise yourself.”

“My approach is really going along with Yoshiko Chuma’s approach and the School of Hard Knocks about accepting people where they are and pushing them in a direction where they want to go rather than to become uniform,” Yamaguchi told The Jordan Times.

Yamaguchi noted that Jordan is “very fortunate” to host Chuma, who has 40 years of experience in New York City and is “very much recognised internationally”.

“To have someone of such calibre here working with the youth of Amman is incredible,” he said.

Yamaguchi is a founding faculty member and teacher at King’s Academy, a coeducational boarding high school in Madaba that was attended by HRH Crown Prince Hussein and seeks to fulfill His Majesty King Abdullah’s vision of producing “a new generation of enlightened and creative minds”, according to the academy’s website.

With Chuma, Yamaguchi has showcased six major productions in Jordan and Palestine, according to the event’s Facebook page. 

“This project is about Yoshiko Chuma’s relationship with Amman, my relationship with Amman and my relationship with Yoshiko Chuma. So it is really reflecting on our 13 years of interacting in various ways,” noted Yamaguchi.

“Secret Journey: Amman” was produced by Midan: Amman Dance Lab, according to Yamaguchi.