Aichi Triennale 2025: A Time Between Ashes and Roses, Period:September 13 to November 30, 2025, 79 days, Venues: Aichi Arts Center, Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Seto City

What’s On

Black Grace

  • Performing Arts
  • Aichi Arts Center

Performances

Japan Premiere
Paradise Rumour
  • “Paradise Rumour” 2023
  • Photo: Toaki Okano
Date

September 13 [Sat] - September 15 [Mon, holiday]

Venue

Aichi Prefectural Art Theater, Mini Theater (B1F)

Tickets

Tickets for performing arts programs are scheduled to go on sale Saturday, July 12, 2025.

Staff
Direction and Choreography:
Neil Ieremia

Profile

  • Formed in 1995 in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand.
    Based in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Black Grace is a dance company whose founder, Neil Ieremia is Samoan, and whose members have roots in various Pacific Islands neighboring Aotearoa, New Zealand. Since its founding in 1995, it has become New Zealand’s foremost contemporary dance company. It has won the highest praises internationally for its distinctive style, which fuses traditional dance and ceremonial motions of the South Pacific with contemporary dance. About 20 years have passed since Black Grace’s last performance in Japan in 2005. For the Triennale they will perform Paradise Rumour, which had its world premiere at Sharjah Biennial 15 in 2023, and was roundly applauded at subsequent performances in venues including the Harris Theater (Chicago) and other stops on its US tour, as well as the Saint James Theatre (Wellington).
The work takes as its theme the contrast between the fantasy of “paradise” and the realities(= deception) that actually confronted South Pacific migrants who are exposed to prejudice and discrimination. The performance relates the individual and collective memories from the days when Western missionaries first set foot on the islands right up to the present day. The four dancers express the sub-themes of “hope and resistance,” “sadness and acceptance,” “suppression and liberation,” and “faith and crisis” with powerful movements brimming with vibrant energy.
Even today, discriminatory language continues to be used against immigrants and indigenous people in countries around the world. In its journey through the past and present, Paradise Rumour asks us, “How far have we really come since then?”

Selected performances
2023
“Paradise Rumour,” Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present (UAE)
2022
“O Le Olaga – Life,” Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival Massachusetts (USA)
2018
“Crying Men,” ASB Waterfront Theatre (Auckland, New Zealand)
2016
“As Night Falls,” Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre (Auckland, New Zealand)
2012
“Vaka,” 9th Busan International Dance Festival (Korea)