Yui Kawaguchi
Choreographer, Dancer Consciously, I learn from what has been. Instinctively, I move through what is now.
A body under the gaze, yet I dance – quietly – my own freedom. - Yui Kawaguchi
Yui Kawaguchi is a Berlin-based choreographer and dancer. Her work combines contemporary dance, live music performance, and digital formats such as animation and augmented reality. She collaborates regularly with musicians and ensembles from both the classical and contemporary music worlds, and has developed choreographic works for venues including the Konzerthaus Berlin as well as projects with musicians such as Aki Takase. Her work has been presented internationally, including at the OzAsia Festival Adelaide, MODAFE Seoul, and the New National Theatre Tokyo.
Yui Kawaguchi is a choreographer and dancer based in Berlin. Her work moves between contemporary dance, live music performance, and digital formats. In changing constellations with musicians, artists, and researchers, she creates choreographic works in which body, sound, and space enter into dialogue. She is interested in the body as a carrier of memory, perception, and relationship—and in dance as a space where experiences beyond language can be expressed and shared.
Kawaguchi began dancing at the age of six and studied dance and theatre in Tokyo. At eleven, she started choreographing alongside her dance training. As a dancer with companies such as H.art.Chaos and Kota Yamazaki, she soon performed on renowned stages worldwide. In 2001, she choreographed the opening ceremony of the East Asian Olympics. With Media-Drive Unit 66b/cell (2000–2004), she moved between Tokyo’s club scene and the international art world.
Since 2005, she has lived and worked in Berlin, developing her own work and collaborating with choreographers and directors including Ismael Ivo, Helena Waldmann, Tomi Paasonen, Nir de Volff, and Nico and the Navigators. Her work has been presented at numerous international festivals, including the New Vision Festival Hong Kong, the International Dance Festival Vancouver, the New National Theatre Tokyo, the OzAsia Festival Adelaide, and MODAFE Seoul.
A milestone in her choreographic work is andropolaroid (Cologne Dance Prize, 2010). Her choreographic voice is evident in works such as MatchAtria (2014), created in collaboration with Japanese artist and filmmaker Yoshimasa Ishibashi. Flying Pictures at Hamburger Bahnhof (2019), and the opera production Suor Angelica with the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Kirill Petrenko and directed by Nicola Hümpel (2020). In 2024, she choreographed and embodied the role of Anna II in The Seven Deadly Sins with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin under Joana Mallwitz.
Her strong affinity for music has led to close artistic collaborations with musicians including Aki Takase, Daniel Hope, Matan Porat, and the Kuss Quartet. Since 2008, she has continued the series Die Stadt im Klavier together with pianist Aki Takase. In further interdisciplinary projects, she has worked with writer Yoko Tawada and visual artists including Chiharu Shiota and Gabi Schillig. Since 2018, she has maintained an ongoing collaboration with musicians of the Ensemble ImPuls der Suite.
Since the pandemic, Kawaguchi has expanded her choreographic practice into virtual spaces and 3D animation. Works created in this context include the AR dance performance Du musst Dein Leben rendern! (2022, nominated for the AUREA Award) and the exhibitions AR-Loopmachine (Tanzmuseum Cologne, 2023), Endlichkeit der Pixel (ITI Berlin, 2024), and Fragile Landschaften (Japanese Cultural Institute Cologne, 2026).
