Biography

Shinichi Iova-Koga (aka: momo io)

Shinichi Iova-Koga's work is grotesque, beautiful, and funny. As a dancer he is never less than mesmerizing — ephemeral like smoke, limpid like a vernal pool. He has developed a personal form of mixed-media dance theater that integrates contradictory impulses — the ancient and the technological, the chaotic and the formal, nature and nurture. He might be called a dancer at the edge.

~RITA FELCIANO

 

Interviews with Shinichi  

momo@inkboat.com

Originally a photographer, filmmaker and theater actor/director, Shinichi (born 1968) entered the life of Butoh dance in 1991 (initially through Akeno Ashikawa and then consistently through Hiroko Tamano). In 1998, he founded the performance company inkBoat.

Shinichi's productions, both solo and ensemble, have been experienced throughout the North American Continent, Europe and Japan. Productions collide between dance, theater and cinema to illuminate the personal existence entering or exiting the stage (living room, street, screen or…).

Shinichi has collaborated intensively with cokaseki (Germany: 2004-present), Yumiko Yoshioka and TEN PEN CHii (Germany: 1996-2001), Do Theatre (Russia: 1997-present), Minako Seki (Germany: 2001-present), Shadowlight Theatre (SF: 1993-1997), Degenerate Art Ensemble (Seattle: 2001), and often creates improvisation evenings with longtime production collaborators Yuko Kaseki, Sten Rudstrøm and Cassie Terman.

Shinichi and inkBoat have received funding from Rockefeller Foundation, Irvine Dancemaker Grant, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Creative Work Fund, Zellerbach Family Fund, Barkley Fund, American Composers Forum, Meet the Composer, CASH grant and the California Arts Council. Shinichi was an Wattis Artist in Residence at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 2002. inkBoat and cokaseki won “Outstanding Performance” from the Isadora Duncan Awards for the production of “Ame to Ame” in 2004 as well as the award for “Visual Design” for “Heaven’s Radio” in 2003.

German Version

inkOlogy: Curriculum Vitae for inkBoat works

Outside inkBoat (below):

Innocent Weapons
(as co-creator/dancer)
Trio performance of Koga, Ishide Takuya and Nagaoka Yuri.
The Pit | Tokyo | August 2005

adapt (site specific Berlin based performance company co-founded by Koga, Kaseki, Seki, Rudstrøm, Karavan and Willars).
The Hidden Garden (as co-choreographer/dancer)| Sapporo Art Park | Sapporo, Japan | July 2003
Glass Anatomies (as co-choreographer/dancer) | Staatsbank | Berlin | January 2002

Do Theatre (St. Petersburg, Russia)
(as dancer)
Nonsense | SF Arts International Festival, Theatre Artaud | San Francisco | May 2005
Nonsense | StadtTheatre Aachen | Aachen, Germany | Feb 2004 - June 2005
Bird’s Eye View | Monacco Dance Forum | Monacco | December 2004
Nonsense | Graz | Graz, Austria | June 2004
Bird’s Eye View | Herna | Herna, Germany | May 2004
Bird’s Eye View | Urgano | Urgano, Italy | February 2004
Bird’s Eye View | StadtTheatre Aachen | Aachen, Germany | December 2003 – March 2004
Civilization/Anti-Civilization | Schloss Bröllin, Germany | August 1998

Yumiko Yoshioka and TEN PEN CHii (Germany)
(as dancer)
Test Labor | Theatre am Halleshes Ufer | Berlin| June 2001
DA-PPi | Tacheles | Berlin | October 1998
Test Labor | Kana Theatre | Stettin, Poland | August 1998
Test Labor | Schloss Bröllin, Germany | August 1998
Jikken No. 11 | Klempenow | Germany | June 1998
DA-PPi | Orpheum Theatre | Graz, Austria | May 1998
Der Letzte Klang der Erde | Site specific | Graz, Austria | August 1997

Degenerate Art Ensemble
(as guest choreographer and dancer)
Rinko | On The Boards | Seattle | November 2000
Rinko | Moore Theatre | Seattle | September 2000
Rinko | Sand Point | Seattle | August 2000