In 2011, Japan experienced an unprecedented triple whammy — 9.0 magnitude earthquake causing a major tsunami, which led to a nuclear meltdown in Fukushima. The place of my birth, Ishinomaki, a small Eastern coastal city was the closest to the epicenter and was devastated. I had no idea what to do — helpless and without agency. My collaborators of our brand new company (Team Sunshine, which at the time had only done one show) asked if I wanted to make art about it. I figured it couldn’t hurt. So we started a small project about loss and confusion and disasters happening in far away places, which eventually became JapanAmerica Wonderwave. Over a couple years, with production support from Asian Arts Initiative and COMMOTION Festival and funding from Wyncote Foundation and many crowdfunding supporters, this dance-theatre “elegy” premiered in May of 2013. I consider JapanAmerica Wonderwave to be one of my greatest artistic contributions to date, and one that the Philly Inquirer called “…touchingly optimistic about humanity, what we endure, what we survive, how we grieve, and how we care for each other.”

Production history: Asian Arts Initiative (2011); COMMOTION Festival (2012); Christ Church Neighborhood House (2013); NPN National Conference (2013); National Asian American Theater Festival (2014)

For full production credits, visit https://www.teamsunshineperformance.com/japanamerica

Photos by Lindsay Browning