Stop Calling Them Dangerous: Love Story Palestine vol. 10
The School of Hard Knocks
Artist: Ryuji Yamaguchi
Presented by Yoshiko Chuma
In partnership with CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing)
“Love Story Palestine” is about war, and borders, centered around Palestine, and from the viewpoint of Ryuji Yamaguchi — dance artist and educator based in Jordan for the past 16 years. The performance features stories and images of numerous Palestinians, including those from Gaza, whom Yamaguchi has lived alongside.
Statement: We refute the idea of an immigration travel ban — America is a nation of immigrants. We want the participants and our audience to see the other parts of the world in a new light. This is about sharing experiences — sharing experiences of other lives and other worlds. And through our sharing, explore what can and can’t be felt through our varied cultural and historical differences.
*Acknowledgement: Yoshiko’s experience in Palestine with dancer and activist Noora Baker (one of the leading dancers and directors of the El-Funoun Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe company in Ramallah, Palestine) has been a substantial inspiration for this project.
Ryuji Yamaguchi first came to King’s Academy in Jordan in 2007 as the dance program coordinator. In 2022, he was appointed dean of residential life. Born in Nagoya, Japan, He grew up in Japan and the USA. He received his B.A. in East Asian studies from Harvard University and a M.A. in educational leadership at Columbia University. His dance activities have spanned the Middle East, Europe, Japan and the United States, and he has performed in works by such choreographers as Yoshiko Chuma, Douglas Dunn, Brenda Divelbliss and Christopher Williams. Mr. Yamaguchi has collaborated with numerous Jordanian and Palestinian artists, and has invited over 40 Japanese and American artists to Jordan. As a core member of Yoshiko Chuma & The School of Hard Knocks (SOHK), Yamaguchi has created over 10 SOHK productions in Jordan and Palestine since 2007. In 2013, he founded Jordan Youth Dance Exchange.
Yoshiko Chuma (conceptual artist, choreographer/artistic director of The School of Hard Knocks) has been a firebrand in the post-modern dance scene of New York City since the 1980s, has been consistently producing thought-provoking work that is neither dance nor theater nor film nor any other pre-determined category. She is an artist on her own journey. A path that has taken her to over 40 “out of the way” countries and collected over 2000 artists, thinkers and collaborators of every genre since establishing her company The School of Hard Knocks in New York City in 1980.
Founded by the Japanese writer/lecturer/healer Yasuko Kasaki and artist Christopher Pelham in 2004, CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) offers arts and cultural programming as well as spiritual mind-training rooted in the non-dualistic teachings of A Course in Miracles (ACIM), which reminds us that we are limitless spiritual beings and encourages us to remember our true nature by committing to a practice of deep, non-judgmental inquiry. CRS produces the Crossing Boundaries and Paradise Laboratory concert series conceived by gamin, publishes the web magazine only love.art, offers grants to artists, and is an ongoing funder of Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M3).
La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival
La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival continues to support La MaMa’s commitment to presenting diverse performance styles that challenge audience’s perception of dance by featuring performance/installations, experimental film screenings & public symposiums which address dance artists’ engagement with the current political climate, as well as honoring diasporic histories and legacy, ancestral inspirations and inter-generational dialogue.