IN CONVERSATION: Yayoi Kambara
PUSHfest Dance Festival | Oct 4-5
PUSHfest launches Oct 4 & 5 with an exciting lineup of national-renowned choreographers. We had a moment to catch up with choreographer and director, Yayoi Kambara and her group Kambara+ @kambaraplus as they develop a new work for the festival.
1. Tell us a little bit about your dance background.
I really love dancing. I started my performance career in the Bay Area primarily as a company member with ODC/Dance (2003 to 2015). Currently I direct and choreograph live performance works, films, and XR experiences for audiences interested in engagement and spectatorship with real-time human interactive computing. In 2023, I was recognized by Opera America as a female stage director and received an Isadora Duncan Dance Award in Outstanding Achievement and as a co-interrogator of Dancing Around Race. This is my first year as a Ph.D. student at University of California Riverside in Critical Dance Studies.
2. What can audiences look forward to seeing in your work at PUSHfest?
Epic storytelling with Black Benetar and the incredible dancers
3. What are the major sources of inspiration for your choreography? What are you curious about?
Right now? Kpop Demon Hunters, Imani Kai Johnson’s book Dark Matters in Breaking Cyphers, Sasha Velour’s the Big Reveal
4. If you hadn’t chosen this career, what might you have been doing in your life?
Postal official or dog trainer maybe a combo of both
5. What does your work respond to or activate, within this world or within yourself?
The capacity of discernment choice making and our bodies being knowledgeable to know.
6. What advice would you pass on to an aspiring choreographer?
Take time to figure out your consternations with dance so we can keep dancing.
TIX: https://pushdance.org/festival
DISCOUNT: Support Yayoi’s performance by buy $20 tickets to PUSHfest with the discount code: PUSHYAYOI
