Takako Segawa
Takako Segawa has been working with Maxine since 2004 as a visiting principle performer, researcher, and rehearsal assistant in Maxine’s ongoing projects, performing and creating in Canada, Greece, Singapore, Japan, and Indonesia. Maxine's Moments in Time, the full-length solo work danced by Takako, has been called “reaching a new state of mind” by the Globe & Mail, and nominated for a Dora award in Best Performance. Krima!, memory and cycle projects also feature Takako as a principle ensemble player and soloist. Born in Kochi in 1976 and growing up with a traditional background, Takako trained in both traditional arts and contemporary Japanese movement styles throughout her youth. She received the All Japan Kobe Dance Festival Award in 1994 and 1998. She graduated from Nippon Sports Science University in Tokyo in 1998 and from the London Contemporary Dance School in 1998-1999. She has worked with companies in England, Italy and Japan. From 2001-06 Takako danced as guest artist for the leading companies in Athens-Greece including performances in their annual seasons and at the 1st International Athens Dance Festival, the Kalamata International Dance Festival, the Mediterranean Dance Festival, and in annual seasons in Athens. As a soloist she was recognized at the Stuttgart International Solo Dance Festival in 2005, Toronto Dora award nomination in 2015. In Canada, as well as working with Maxine, and with Corpus Dance projects, Takako has been a visiting artist for Xing Ballet Theatre, Cube3, Buyaku (choreographer Keiko Ninomiya), several independent performance projects and Hiroshi Miyamoto touring their work in Toronto, Tokyo, Kochi, and Aomori, Japan. In Japan Takako has produced Contemporary Dance Art vol.1, 2, 3 in Kochi and Fukuoka. She has performed with “Rachel dance art museum”. and the Asahi Arts Square Festival (Tokyo), choreographed for the Kobe Ballet Studio and produced work funded by the Ministry of Culture performing in Kochi with Dance media TOKYO Naoto Iina. Most recently she was guest artist at high schools in Kochi, Kobe, Osaka, Tokyo's Nippon Sports Science University and the Aomori Contemporary Art centre. She established her own company called 'Fluid Elements' in 2016. Her current project ongoing since 2016, 'Ky-ho Buki' , is funded by the Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council.
Takako says about working with Maxine: “Maxine’s process and understanding of movement is at a high theoretical level that also is profoundly human. Her methods first intrigued me and now have actually changed the way that I perform and create. She has developed a unique and powerful practice that integrates both intuition and intelligence: Content & meaning translated into impulse, control of physical energy, and three-dimensional space. The result is dance that is more detailed, more grounded, more substantial, more sensual, more human. She has led me to dance right to my nerve endings – exhilarating! “ Maxine says about Takako: " We have both grown from the years that we have shared our artistic journey together to the point that now Takako's dancing of my choreography embodies the clarity and simplicity that we both crave...very exciting and heart-warming."
