We caught up with the brilliant and insightful SarAika Movement collective a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have SarAika with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
Our work ethic comes from our being and what we want to input in the dance community. We aim to offer the platform which we have been looking for, a safe place of growth and launch desired from our diverse communities. Sara Pizzi & Aika Takeshima, the founders of sarAika movement collective, are immigrants, women, POC, multidisciplinary artists, dancer-choreographers, activist and LGBTQIA+ supporters and representatives. We make art for and about people, representing and empowering the communities we belong to and creating awarewnss of topical aspects to spark creativity, reflection and imagination. Taking in consideration the founding values and mission of sarAika movement collective, we are a collaborative dance company which makes art for dancers and non-dancers of all capacities and identification, that is able to create unexpected creative work, a diverse workforce & inclusive, equitable work environment, which we consider fundamental for the growth and longevity of our workflow. In addition, as representatives of underrepresented communities such as LGBTQIA+, immigrants, POC, and women, ensuring our professionals and all of our communities are respected, feel safe and belong are essential having in our board the DEI officier Aika Takeshima to advocate and monitoring that our workflow and teamwork is based on the ethics of equity, diversity and inclusion.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
sarAika movement collective is a contemporary dance collective with a distinct taste for interdisciplinary collaboration. Founded in 2021 by Aika Takeshima, an immigrant from Japan, and Sara Pizzi, an immigrant from Italy, found a common artistic language from their perspective as immigrants living in America. Unifying their skills and knowledge as dancers, choreographers, activists, and part of the LGBTQIA+ community, they gathered a shared goal to create art about and for humans. Their company advocates for a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment. sarAika movement collective’s mission is to help people find possibility and freedom within themselves. No matter the mediums in which they work – movement, dance, theater, music, voice, paint, lightpaint, poetry, AR technology – the themes of their work are rooted in the sense of what people desire or need to let go of. Emotions, opinions, and experiences are what art embodies, capturing vulnerability. When one witnesses vulnerable work, they feel something. The ability to relate to this kind of art increases one’s connection to their authentic self, and allows us to connect to ourself and community. sarAika movement collective pursues this value of authenticity to bond their community. Their art is a form of activism documenting key issues and personal insights, to highlight minority groups and underrepresented communities, and create a safe space for reflection. As far as this society is going to be in need of this, sarAika will promote the longevity of art creating an impact for this society/communities. Thanks to the success of our performances and community events, we want to fund our collective in NYC in order to expand our artistic vision/methodology, inspiring our local young generations, promoting the longevity of art, strengthening the local artists community of artists and creating an impact creating space for reflection and art as social action, giving voice and provide a safe place of expression to all our close communities such as immigrant, POC, lgbtqa+, building a bridge between artists and non-artists, breaking the concept of regular performance. Our last performances had a topical aspect, and it was wonderful to see the huge impact we made in our community and among non-artist audiences, spark their imagination, expand their knowledge and create a space of self-reflection and personal identity. Those, performed not only for a trained audience, but being shared in various community events for under-represented communities, underserved population, child/seniors events and offering educational workshops for dancers and non-dancers, expanding the knowledge of contemporary dance and dance as social action to people which would have never meet that reality.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Three qualities which really create a positive impact in our collective and workflow are: organization, transparency and generosity. A clear orgazination was really game changing for us: splitting the work equally between Sara & Aika depending on our strength, scheduling our worktime and when to complete tasks, creation our branding quality and esthetic, using time to make graphic and written templates to save time afterwards for applications, promotion, marketing, ect.. Collecting and archiving every template and event material, organizing them in a clear way, so it is easier to pull up any time we need the material needed, was really helpful when we have to create contents quickly and efficiently. Transparency in how we communicate, introduce ourselves, how we approach our collaborators and how we present our work. Being our true selves, sharing our humanity, comprehension, qualities and gaps, appreciation of the support of all the people around us, clarity in explaining the context and expectations of each project, sharing what we need and wha we can give; those really brought us to create over time appreciation and trust from our community and collaborator, being able to support each other and shine together. Making work accessible to everyone, sharing our art on social platforms and websites, to open our identity and mission to anyone who is open to accept our call. Generosity in a term of “help to be helped”. If we do not support each other, as artists, as community, as humans, there is no way to improve and grow. Understanding where we come from, who we are, our abilities and resources, being humble to understand our position and always being open to help anyone in need who support our values and mission, and appreciating whoever is willing to help us to grow our community and work. These three qulaities were able to establish us pretty quickly in the dance enviroment and really paid off.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
As collective and beings who believes in the power of arts & collaboration, sarAika movement collective is always looking for collaborations, partnerships and connections. As movement collective who is aiming to create interactive and collaborative art experiences, we are firm to think that dance is not always enough to deliver a message being able to reach out to a wide and varius audience and the creativity of only two poople can only produce a certain quality of work. These are the reasons we love to collaborate with other artists, incorporating each different vision and unique experience/aesthetic. We love when our concept can be stretched to something new, revolutionary, changing medium of interpretation and delivery and still see how it can co-exist with dance and other arts forms. Also we love to see how our movements and aesthetic can inspire promotional campaigns, ads, and other kinds of platforms besides dance/art related. In other words, we are open to any collaboration, challenge, concept and medium to deliver our mission, message and concepts. We are opening the call to the universe: if you want to join our team, work together or just utilize our concepts- if you are an artist, or not, individual, organziation, corporation, just reach out to us! Cannot wait to see what we can create in the future together.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://saraikacreation.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saraikamovementcollective/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saraikamovementcollective
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzt6OwSe3GFvQwWKsLO02UA
Image Credits
BECCAVISION
