Abun-DANCE
Ninja Ballet
Warrior Woman is a Ballet, Neo-Classical & Contemporary dance, and Martial arts piece which mixes original choreography work of four dancers. Warrior Woman includes elements of ballet and modern dance, as well as Shaolin Kung Fu, Kali/Eskrima, Ninjutsu, and martial arts weapon forms, featuring long staff, sai, and sword works. Through dance, the Warrior Woman will teach them to transform their suffering and pain into motivation. By partnering this with martial arts and weapon training, the dancers will awaken the audience to their true potential, enabling them to become strong enough to break through the obstacles that once held them down, to become the Warrior Woman within.
About the Artists:
Shoko Tamai: Artistic Director and Choreographer
Shoko Tamai is a classically trained ballet dancer who has performed with leading dance companies in various venues around the world. Since she was two years old Shoko has studied various dance styles, including ballet, classical Japanese and Chinese dance, jazz fusion, African, Middle Eastern, and Indian dance. Shoko’s period of study with Jamie H.J. Guan, martial arts trainer for the Beijing Opera, initially ignited in her a burning passion for martial arts. Shoko has studied at the Central School of Ballet (London, UK), The American Academy of Ballet (NYC), The Paris Opera (France), and The Madrid Ballet School (Spain). She has performed with many dance companies, including Dance Theater of Harlem, Tokyo Ballet, and Cirque du Soleil.
She has performed at venues such as London’s Royal Opera House, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, The Theatre Royal in Glasgow, Lincoln Center, and Jacob’s Pillow, among others. Shoko has competed internationally, receiving the Solo Seal award from the Royal Academy of Dance in London, a Gold Medal in the New York Ballet Competition (American Academy of Ballet), and was a Finalist in The World Ballet Competition. Shoko was invited to represent Ninja Ballet at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of the 77th International Choreographer’s Festival with Dance Forms Professional in 2019 and was nominated for a New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Choreography for her work in “The Tempest”, directed by Owen Thompson, at the Plaxall Gallery in New York City. Her work has been featured in numerous publications, including BroadwayWorld, Dance Enthusiast magazine, Metro US, and TimeOut New York.
For more information on Shoko follow her on Instagram.
William Catanzaro: Music Director
William Catanzaro is a composer, sound designer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who works at Cat Studio. He is a NY-based Production Artist at HighJam. William has presented nationally and internationally at Tanzfabrik Berlin, Kyoto Arts Center, Architanz Tokyo, Amsterdam Theater School, Teatro San Martin (Buenos Aires), Kilkenny Arts Festival (Ireland), Kennedy Center DC, and New York City Center.
For more information on William visit his website here.
About Ninja Ballet:
A fusion of Eastern and Western dance methodology, practice, and performance, Ninja Ballet Dance Company fuses Classical Ballet and Martial Arts to explore innovative movement in dance and fight choreography, creating a new genre where ‘Swan Lake’ meets ‘The Matrix’. Ninja Ballet performers blur the line between what’s real and what’s possible, using classical and contemporary dance, acrobatics, and stage weapons, to create an immersive and interactive dance theater experience that seeks to reconnect people with nature and their environment, and to create a space where dance, music and visual arts become one.
For more information on Ninja Ballet visit their website here, or follow them on Instagram.
