CHALLENGING BOUNDARIES THROUGH DANCE A new dance production performed at King’s Academy marks 15 years of creative collaboration between the school and internationally acclaimed artist Yoshiko Chuma. BY MUNA AL-ALUL
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or the past 15 years — almost as long as King’s Academy’s doors have been open — Yoshiko Chuma has been traveling to Jordan to host one-of-a-kind dance workshops for King’s students. An internationally acclaimed artist and choreographer, Chuma is also the artistic director of The School of Hard Knocks, which she established in New York City in the 1980s. Working alongside her longtime protégé and creative collaborator Ryuji Yamaguchi, King’s Academy’s dance program coordinator and dean of residential life, Chuma has been offering King’s students the unique advantage of her tutelage, as well as the opportunity to participate in one of the many dance productions the pair have created together and performed in Jordan and Palestine. Known for producing thought-provoking work that is neither dance nor theater nor any other pre-determined category, Chuma has been described as a “firebrand in the post-modern dance scene of New York City.” Her work has taken her to over 40 “out of the way” countries and brought together over 2000 artists of every genre. Thanks to her longstanding commitment to King’s Academy over the years, some 32 international artists have followed in her footsteps and visited King’s to host artistic workshops for its students. Chuma’s own “brain to bone” workshops at King’s have helped students acquire a better awareness and understanding of their movements, how to refine those movements and, in turn, to consider how they can develop their consciousness through movement. 10
BEYOND KING’S