Na is involved in the Sino-Japanese Contemporary Performance Exchange, an ongoing initiative launched in 2024 that aims to foster “交流” (exchange) through contemporary theatre, dance, and performance among independent artists from China and Japan. Bringing together six artists—three from China and three from Japan—the project reimagines how Asian performance practitioners encounter one another and collaborate through residencies, workshops, and co-creative processes. It began in China in 2024, continued in Japan in the summer of 2025, and will return to both countries in the summer of 2026.
Our members are 坂本もも Momo Sakamoto, 萩原雄太 Yuta Hagiwara, ⼭本卓卓 Suguru Yamamoto, 张渊 Yuan Zhang, 王梦凡 Mengfan Wang, and 安娜 Na An. The second series of this exchange took place at the end of July 2025, featuring gatherings, workshops, presentations, and lectures held in Miyako, Tokyo, and Kyoto, Japan.
In both Chinese (交流, jiāo liú) and Japanese (交流, kōryū), the word “exchange” conveys more than just a transactional act or the kind of “collaboration” often emphasized in international cultural programs. What we mean is closer to the literal imagery evoked by the Chinese and Japanese characters: like the confluence of flowing waters—merging, lingering, and diverging through difference, creating new currents of encounter. This notion of relationship carries a nuance that resists direct translation into English. It may only be fully understood and embodied within the specific cultural and linguistic contexts of Chinese and Japanese. In such a process of 交流, moments of discomfort and misunderstanding are inevitable—and yet, it is precisely within these spaces that an unfamiliar and previously unwritten shared language begins to take form.
Please see the links below for more details of our project (in Chinese and Japanese).
https://www.hanchuyuei2017.com/kouryuukai
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/P3pprsmBIANdPFPBLKXZVg
The Minor Dance Festival 三人微小舞蹈节 was initiated by Wu Xiaobo, Wang Mengfan, and myself in 2025. After more than six months of online meetings, we came together in Beijing during the first two weeks of September to share our creative processes with audiences at Beijing Penghao Theatre. Rather than presenting finished choreographic works, we chose to open up our methods and invite audiences into dialogue—on practice, process, and lived experience.
The theme of this inaugural year, “An Open Field of Exploration,” served as a meeting ground where our three bodily histories entered into conversation. It also carried our reflections on the interwoven threads of personal history and cultural memory—threads we sought to unfold and share with those present. On September 6–7 at Beijing Penghao Theatre, the festival featured dance performances, gatherings, shared practices, workshops, and Q&A sessions.
Even without financial support, we hoped the insights born of bodily practice and action might spark new possibilities for the future—even if only minor ones. What matters, after all, is not only what we do, but how we do it: minor waves, endless ripples.
© 2025 by Na An
