Born in Saitama in 1966, Arai is currently based in Tokyo. Physical performer and dance artist.
In his twenties, he spent nearly a decade studying Noguchi Taiso under its creator Michizo Noguchi. This physical method, whereby one relaxes the body and follows nature, had a profound influence on Arai’s artistic practice. From 1987 to 1996, he led the theater troupe Denkikyokubadan, whose performances engaged with landscapes and urban environments. The company’s projects included a pay-what-you-can outdoor performance staged on the night of the full moon amid the skyscrapers in front of JR Omiya Station. In 1997, he began pursuing dance independently. Since then, he has performed both domestically and internationally in North America, Europe, and Asia. He has also undertaken numerous site-specific projects in dialogue with a given place including snowy outdoor landscapes (Aomori, Niigata), traditional Japanese houses (Shizuoka; Philadelphia, U.S.A), and valleys of fossils and unusual rock formations (Alberta, Canada).
He conducts barrier-free workshops “Karada Wo Kanaderu Waku Shoppu [Workshops for expressing the body]” under the theme of “Hogusu, Tsunagaru, Tsukuru [Loosen, connect, create]”. Conducted in spaces for education, welfare, and social inclusion, these workshops reach a wide range of participants from infants to the elderly. He approaches his work with the belief that performances and workshops are inseparable, like two wheels of a cart.
In the summer of 2022, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ASL), a progressive, incurable disease that gradually causes the muscles throughout the body to lose function. Most patients pass away from respiratory failure within 3 to 5 years of diagnosis. In January 2026, he underwent a tracheostomy and chose long-term mechanical ventilation in order to “live a little longer”—a decision made by only around 30% of people with ALS in Japan. Guided by the motto “To discover and invent fun, despite it all,” he continues his artistic practice and public engagement, embracing new possibilities from the perspective of living with ALS.

Born in Yamagata, currently based in Tokyo.
An artist working with physical expression and handiwork.

As a child, Itasaka loved to playfully draw lines between the ruled lines in her notebooks.
She loves matsuri (Japanese festivals)—places bustling with people where she can be among others without having to interact with anyone.
She was good at roller skating, swimming in rivers, and climbing trees.
From copperplate engraving—a world of inversion, accidental scars, exteriority, and yielding to something greater than oneself —to Noguchi Taiso.
She is weight itself. Weight is her way of being.
She has collaborated with Hideo Arai on workshops, creating spaces where the people she encounters can play together, in the here and now.
Through site-specific dance, she experiences the wonder of the body simply being there, resonating with the world.
Her stage work “Rurururareru” brings together visual art, theater, dance, sound, and magic.
She also creates illustrations with a light touch, makes improvised costumes, and keeps a growing pile of sewing projects without a predetermined purpose.
She currently cares for Hideo Arai while also continuing to enjoy her entire body through her practice, the Class of Weight.

Born in Tokyo, based in Germany since 1984.
Improvisation, performance.
While exploring theories and practices in creative music education in West Berlin as a scholarship recipient of Japan’s former Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Yamada, in her view as a natural consequence, developed her own artistic practice. Pursuing the creative and fundamental possibilities of musical expression through improvisation, she performs in a variety of international formations, ranging from solo recorder performances to large ensembles. She is also actively involved in projects that transcend the boundaries between artistic disciplines.
As a founding member of the Berlin-based group Ex Tempore, which is rooted in the creative energy that emerges through collective collaboration, she has been performing since the mid-1980s at venues including the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum of Contemporary Art, Gropius Bau, the Berlin Philharmonie Chamber Music Hall, the Akademie der Künsteand, and the unfinished subway station beneath Alfred Döblin Square among other unconventional venues. Through these performances, she explores the sounds embedded within spaces and objects, creating works in which the surrounding environment itself becomes an element of the music.
In pursuit of discovering and refining her own sound, and shaping it into a form which audiences can auditorily experience the air, she continues her daily practice, pushing the recorder to its expressive limits. She has created CDs that document this process.