Darcy Sai Naganuma

 

Darcy Naganuma is the Artistic Director/ Founder of Naganuma Dance and Executive Director of The ZGroove Project. Born and raised in Lihue, Hawaii, Darcy has wandered across the U.S. and around the world as a dance-maker, performer, and educator/wide-eyed learner. Recent projects have acquainted her with people of all walks of life-- sheep herders in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, tango aficionados in Argentina, a shoe-maker in Turkey, and biologists at a wildlife refuge in Puerto Rico. Her NYC-based ensemble--launched in January of 2006-- has created a buzz at such venues as Joyce SoHo, Dance New Amsterdam, 92Y, Ailey, 92Y Tribeca, NY City Center, and a 33-floor apartment complex. In August 2010, the company performed signature works under the NYC stars in a City Parks Foundation commissioned SummerStage evening. 2011 highlights include four world premieres--including an evening-length collaboration with former Merce Cunningham technical director Christopher Young, and works for the Harvard Ballet Company and Sounds of a New Century Festival (co-presented by Joyce SoHo and the American Composers Orchestra). Awarded the San Diego Fellowship in 2011, she is also teaching and pursuing her Dance Theatre MFA at the University of California, San Diego.

 

Dedicated to cross-cultural, interdisciplinary exchange and the synthesis of ideas, contexts, and idioms, Darcy has collaborated with such artists as the Grammy nominated Brazilian Girls (USA), painter Li Huai (China), visual composer Pierre Mansire (Amsterdam, Paris), New Yorker cartoonist Edward Koren (USA), composer Ji-il Jeon (Korea), costume designer Camilla Chuvarsky (USA), Nuyorican Grand Slam Poet Eboni Hogan (USA), filmmaker Linda Brieda (Germany), street dancer Kambi Gathesha (Kenya, Saudi Arabia), and her brilliant/inspiring students.

 

Darcy has led open technique classes and workshops at many of the major institutions in New York City, including Dance New Amsterdam, Broadway Dance Center, Peridance, and the school of the Westchester Ballet Company. She is wildly passionate about teaching/mentoring and has designed laboratory-model workshops/residencies for students around the globe. Her movement influences include elements of postmodern release technique, underground hip hop/funk styles, gaga, contemporary ballet, martial arts, Japanese dance, and Forsythe-based improvisation. She is a devoted student of movement practice emerging from the lineage of Stephen Petronio, and has appeared in the work of Pavel Zustiak (Palissimo), Yolande Snaith, Doug Elkins, Ron K. Brown, Alwin Nikolais (directed by Alberto del Saz), Lara Luzim, Ashlee Vilos, and Christopher Huggins (Opus Dance Theatre), among others. Darcy holds a B.F.A. and Dance Education certification from the University of Utah, where she was a Presidential Scholar and recipient of the Interdisciplinary Arts Scholarship. She has appeared in commercials and dance specials on both the MTV and VH1 networks, and was invited to perform at the UN Headquarters in May 2007.