A cross cultural, cross generational, storytelling experience connecting Tokyo and San Francisco through contemporary dance, film, and jazz
Costumes & Coffee
$100 - $1000
Artists
Sophia Noel
Executive Producer
ChoreographerSophia Noel is a contemporary dancer based in Tokyo with Hip-Hop, Salsa, Swing, and Ballet in her repertoire. Graduating from Columbia University, she joined the marketing team at Airbnb headquarters and in addition served as the director of the internal dance program, teaching classes, choreographing and producing performances. In 2019, curiosity around the Japanese language sparked the idea to book a one way ticket to Tokyo where she now performs, choreographs, teaches, and more.
Akira Tana
Composer
Jazz DrummerBorn and raised in California, Akira Tana earned degrees from Harvard University and the New England Conservatory of Music. There he performed in both classical and jazz idioms, playing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and student ensembles as well as with musicians such as Helen Humes, Milt Jackson, Sonny Rollins, George Russell, and Sonny Stitt. Tana recorded frequently as a sideman in the 1980s, and began releasing albums as a leader in the 1990s. Currently he is a professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Ben Tarquin
Director
CinematographerBased part of the year in Japan and part of the year in his hometown Oakland, CA, Tarquin is an international videographer, photographer and editor, at the intersection of the classical arts, documentary, and street dance. Tarquin grew up to the sounds of the Oakland underground before studying architecture at La Villette in Paris, France. His experience in design led him over the last decade to help build YAK Films into an internationally acclaimed video production company capturing new forms of street dance emerging from the United States, Europe, and Asia.
What is TONARI?
TONARI (となり) is the Japanese word in common vernacular for “next to” or “neighbor.” Typically we think of our neighbors as the people closest to us. The ones we wave to in the morning on our way to work, or the barista at the local coffee shop who already knows your order.
But in the modern world, you can Zoom a Japanese drummer thousands of miles away and instantly ask him to play a fan drum. Your mother living in California can complain about how messy your room is over Facetime. And suddenly your neighbors are not just the people in the house next door. The person next to you, can both be an ocean away and right in front of you.
This project TONARI highlights two neighbors who sit 8,000 miles away: Tokyo and San Francisco. Every member of the TONARI team represents a unique connection point between the US and Japan, and our piece weaves the beauty of these two cities on the water through film, dance, and music.
Press Room
Contact
Email: hello@sophianoel.com
Instagram: @wearetonari
Mission
In America’s hyper-sensitive racial climate, art forms and energies tend to be landlocked. Often public reactions confine artists and audiences by their backgrounds: your identity becomes a barrier of what you can create and what you can enjoy. Sentiments of gatekeeping, “Black music is only for black people” or “Only Japanese people can wear kimonos” are pervasive. Meanwhile, Japan’s physical borders have been closed from the rest of the world for over two years which has created challenges for artists in Japan to exchange and showcase Japanese culture on the global stage.
This piece seeks to explore new ways for performing arts to connect cultures and people together for learning and creation by merging physical with digital culture, fusing traditional with contemporary art forms and forging a pathway for Tokyo, San Francisco, Black and Japanese art exchange for the first time. With this piece, we must break open these borders. This is not cultural appropriation, this is unabashedly pushing forward culture, together.
Sponsors
