Communicate through dance, regardless of age, nationality, or disability!

The place where plays are born
File.6 My Color Dance Workshop
Koichi Imai (editor/writer)

There's a unique facility in Kawasaki City called "Culttz Kawasaki." Its official name is "Kawasaki City Sports and Culture Center." It's a complex that includes a hall that can accommodate 2,013 people, as well as large and small gymnasiums, a martial arts room, an archery range, and a training room. It opened on October 1, 2017. It's located on the site of a former gymnasium, and this style was realized because the hall of the nearby Education and Culture Center was scheduled to close in March 2018. It's a place where you can train your body and hone your senses. That's the image you might have.
The nickname "Culttz Kawasaki" is a combination of "culture" and "sports," and was the idea of a local junior high school student. It has become a bustling facility that revitalizes the area, focusing on culture and sports, and uniting the Fujimi district of Kawasaki City with the surrounding area.

Now, at Culttz Kawasaki, an initiative called "My Color Dance Workshop" is being held. This is part of a public art community project, a project based on the idea that local citizens participate and create a work of art together with professional artists. Focusing on the diversity of Kawasaki City, people with and without disabilities are participating in dance workshops together and working hard to create works in order to solve the issue of creating a society that embraces and supports people with various needs.
"As a citizen, I have many thoughts. I wanted to convey the importance of striving for a society in which everyone, from children to adults, including people with disabilities, can live together, regardless of cultural or nationality differences. This project was born from that thought."
" says Akane Murata, who is in charge of the business.

The workshop instructor will be Shintaro Hirahara, a dancer and choreographer who leads the dance company OrganWorks, has provided choreography for a variety of stage productions, and is also a participant in the Condors led by Ryohei Kondo, and the dance group "Dansu" with Shintaro Oue and Mirai Moriyama.
First, a one-off workshop was held in October 2018. This was carried out under the commission of the city's cultural foundation's "Para-Art Promotion Model Project," which promotes the creation of an environment where people with and without disabilities can participate in cultural and artistic activities together. Subsequently, a total of eight workshops were held between December 2018 and March 2019 as part of Culttz Kawasaki's project. The series continued as one course, culminating in a presentation of the results on March 30th.
"Under Hirahara's guidance, all participants explored ways to express concepts such as 'connections with others,' 'living together,' and 'communication' through dance, and had the experience of conveying these concepts to others," said Murata.

In fact, Murata has had an interest in "coexistence" since his university days, but before starting this project, he had no experience of interacting with people with disabilities. So, he first attended a course on the "Coexistence and Co-creation Project" held at KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre, where he learned about support and communication at "SLOWLABEL," a Yokohama-based organization that develops activities in which people with disabilities and able-bodied people create performances together. In other words, he immediately put what he learned into practice.

The first phase of the 2019 program began this June.
The workshop consists of 14 sessions, with Class A consisting of pairs of children and adults, Class B for those aged 10 and over, and Class C for people with disabilities.
The capacity is 70 people. Many local residents are continuing to participate from the previous workshop, and the workshop is full of enthusiasm and fun as the results are announced on November 2nd.

Although it seems to be progressing smoothly, there are still many issues to be addressed. The initial plan to have foreigners participate has not been achieved.
Kawasaki City is famous as a city with a large foreign population, including Koreans, Chinese, and Indians. Although there have been sad news stories about hate speech and other issues, Kawasaki City formulated the "Kawasaki City Multicultural Coexistence Promotion Guidelines" in 2005 (revised in 2008 and 2015). The city is a pioneer in Japan in systematically and comprehensively promoting policies related to foreign residents.

"Kawasaki City is home to people from many different countries. Even though people of different nationalities live together, there is still a certain amount of prejudice that remains. I wanted to convey the message that we should accept each other and live our lives together, and that this is important. Ever since I was assigned to Culttz Kawasaki, I had been thinking, 'I hope I can do something.'
"I told Hirahara that I wanted to convey through dance the message that we should live together while recognizing each other's individuality," said Murata.

They are currently in the midst of a trial and error process, reaching out to foreign acquaintances, redesigning flyers, and receiving advice from the ward office and reaching out to the foreign community.

"Until now, our public relations efforts have focused on the local Kawasaki ward, but we would like to broaden our horizons and expand our activities to the entire city of Kawasaki. Attracting visitors in preparation for 2020 is also important, so we would like to promote the event throughout Kanagawa Prefecture," said Murata.

The project has now reached the three-year milestone. The goal is to have it completed on May 24, 2020, in a hall that can accommodate 2,013 people, with the goal of "everyone, including people with disabilities, foreigners, adults and children, standing in the same space and creating one piece of work." The seats will also have to be filled.

There is a lot that needs to be done, but when I imagine people of all kinds gathering at Culttz Kawasaki, dancing and exchanging smiles, I get excited.

And the power of art is essential here.