Prologue (tentative title)
work in progress
@KinoSaito
June/July 2026

This residency project develops an ongoing choreographic work that began with Orihara’s 2014 solo Prologue (performed at La MaMa), originally centered on her relationship with her mother and now expanding to explore the broader influence of mothers—women she has encountered who have profoundly shaped her life and artistic voice. Tentatively titled Resonance, the project will evolve through a series of workshops, an open rehearsal, and a final performance. A key inspiration for Orihara is her late teacher Nanako Yamada, who transmitted Dalcroze’s 20 gestures, an early modern dance practice that influenced both Japanese and American pioneers. During the residency, Orihara will share a selection of these gestures with participants, guiding them to develop their own movement vocabularies and collaboratively build new material. An open rehearsal will provide space to experiment and deepen the work, while the culminating performance will present this evolving choreography, incorporating projection and video in collaboration with a videographer, as she continues to investigate the intersection of memory, lineage, and embodied resonance.

From Miki
I started think about this work and expanded to 4 mothers, I immediately thought about asking Nya and Ghislaine to join me. I have never choreographed on other than myself but I thought this will be possible. 
Beautiful videos captured by Tomoko show what we did these 3 weeks. Worked hard, laughed hard and eat well!!!
I am very much looking forward to exploring and expanding this work more until I finish this work!