Takako Hasegawa
As the founder of Dancing Architects, Takako manages
all aspects of projects and artistic directions
Takako is a small Japanese woman, a bit chubby and not so young any longer, and enjoys great food and great company. Obsessed with architecture and contemporary dance, so much so that she cannot think of them separately, so she put them together and created Dancing Architects as the platform for research. Since then, the thrills of how much there is to explore and discover have been keeping her busy going.
Originally from Tokyo, Takako is based in London and works across architecture, choreography and education. When she holds her camera, she feels she is dancing with the camera framing and capturing transient moments and movements too. She is educated at the Architectural Association (London) both in Architecture and Spatial Performance & Design, also qualified in teaching Art & Design in higher education. Takako has performed and exhibited internationally, collaborated with many dancers on choreographic projects, and directed various performative architectural events and experiences while generating cross-disciplinary dialogues between art, architecture, contemporary dance and theatre. With many years of experience in teaching with the idea of architecture as movement, she has taught at the AA, Chelsea Collage of Arts and a number of other courses since 2005. Takako is currently pursuing her PhD at the AA exploring her long-term passion and obsession with architecture and choreography.
Julie Anne Stanzak (Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch)
A long term collaborator, Julie directs and leads movement
and choreography of Dancing Architects activities
Image: Ulli Weiss
Since her young age in the USA, Julie Anne Stanzak has always been a dancer. After studying at the School of American Ballet New York and Washington School of Ballet, her professional career started at Chicago Lyric Opera Ballet, then at the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam. In 1986, Julie joined Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, a legendary Dance Theatre Company in Germany, where she has been performing to this day, and has travelled throughout the world with the company to its critical acclaim.
Since 1990, Julie has been choreographing and directing various performances for several international dance companies, as well as teaching workshops and seminars for dancers, actors, and non-professionals alike throughout Europe, Japan, UK and USA. Notably, since 1993, working in a close collaboration with Teatro la Ribalta, Akademie Kunst der Vielfalt (Academy Art of Diversity), she has choreographed and assisted for its productions. In 2018, Julie created a performance ‘Biting the Silver of the Moon, the Sun in my Mouth’ with 8 Japanese dancers, that premiered in Tokyo’s National Theatre.
As a dancer and artist, Julie values the process of searching for our internal truth and our need to communicate. With a deep understanding of the importance of space both inside and outside of our body and mind, her workshops inspire the way we question the world and ourselves beyond boundaries.