Two years ago, Ayaka Nakama asked a number of people close to her – a neighbour, her father, her friends – to describe their first memory of themselves dancing. Based on these descriptions, she reconstructed these movements precisely with her own body. This is the starting point of Freeway Dance. Nakama welcomes us into a garden that contains multiple references, a place where the idea of mono-culture is abandoned; a garden in which to sit, to swing on the swing, or to eat something in one of the food stalls. She dances in this immense space with incredible care, her tiny figure owning the room. Although the choreography is predetermined, the music changes nightly. Before entering the performance space, you – the spectator – will receive an email requesting the name of a song associated with a particular moment in the past when you were dancing or listening to while driving. At once, as a form of contamination, the dances remembered by the others are danced inside the memories of the people present in the room. Born in 1992 and resident in Kobe, Nakama has worked with Mika Kurosawa, Reina Kimura, Toshiki Okada (chelfitsch), contact Gonzo and many others. Freeway Dance is a hymn to dance as a meeting place, where memories, people, geographies, and forms of freedom flow. Coming to us at a time in which dancing is more of a memory than an activity…

See also: Bring your kids