WORKS
W
by Lisa Kusanagi & Li-Chin Li
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/1106306448
directed & performed by Lisa Kusanagi (dancer) & Li-Chin Li (Sheng player)
conceived, visualized, and produced by Lisa Kusanagi
original music by Li-Chin Li & Tianyu Zou
cinematography by Lyu MingYang
edited by Lisa Kusanagi & Lyu MingYang
filming location: Paris, France
As an overture to our long-term performance research, “W” interrogates the theatrical archetypes of “virgins, witches, and bitches” reductive roles that have defined women across generations. Through feminist and embodied inquiry, this non-verbal work blurs ritual and reality, tracing inherited expectations and silent resistances inscribed in women’s bodies.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/1106306448
directed & performed by Lisa Kusanagi (dancer) & Li-Chin Li (Sheng player)
conceived, visualized, and produced by Lisa Kusanagi
original music by Li-Chin Li & Tianyu Zou
cinematography by Lyu MingYang
edited by Lisa Kusanagi & Lyu MingYang
filming location: Paris, France
As an overture to our long-term performance research, “W” interrogates the theatrical archetypes of “virgins, witches, and bitches” reductive roles that have defined women across generations. Through feminist and embodied inquiry, this non-verbal work blurs ritual and reality, tracing inherited expectations and silent resistances inscribed in women’s bodies.
kopitoto
A film by Lisa Kusanagi in collaboration with JuJu Kusanagi and Yvonne Meier
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/309727006
Our planet's majesty is mysterious and awe-inspiring. A dance film "kopitoto" offers a glimpse into the snowy Japanese forests and the mythical inhabitants within. In nature, there's no concept of good or evil—only existence and coexistence. My work avoids moral categorization of natural elements, presenting them as they are with a childlike playfulness: beings sharing the same world.
A film by Lisa Kusanagi in collaboration with JuJu Kusanagi and Yvonne Meier
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/309727006
Our planet's majesty is mysterious and awe-inspiring. A dance film "kopitoto" offers a glimpse into the snowy Japanese forests and the mythical inhabitants within. In nature, there's no concept of good or evil—only existence and coexistence. My work avoids moral categorization of natural elements, presenting them as they are with a childlike playfulness: beings sharing the same world.
Ripe
A short film by Lisa Kusanagi
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/414259453
"Ripe" is an experimental work that critically examines the politics of women's bodies within hyper-sexualized media and cultural landscapes. The work confronts how commercial and pornographic industries shape, distort, and dehumanize sexuality, identity, desires, and relationships for female-identified and gender-nonconforming bodies. Through pedestrian movement, symbolic everyday gestures, visual narrative, and subtle humor, the film explores the consequences of these visual representations on body image and self-perception. "Ripe" serves as both artistic expression and social commentary, pushing audiences toward greater awareness of how pleasure-selling industries impact our understanding of sexuality and bodily autonomy across the gender spectrum.
A short film by Lisa Kusanagi
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/414259453
"Ripe" is an experimental work that critically examines the politics of women's bodies within hyper-sexualized media and cultural landscapes. The work confronts how commercial and pornographic industries shape, distort, and dehumanize sexuality, identity, desires, and relationships for female-identified and gender-nonconforming bodies. Through pedestrian movement, symbolic everyday gestures, visual narrative, and subtle humor, the film explores the consequences of these visual representations on body image and self-perception. "Ripe" serves as both artistic expression and social commentary, pushing audiences toward greater awareness of how pleasure-selling industries impact our understanding of sexuality and bodily autonomy across the gender spectrum.
Rewilding
Conceptualized, choreographed & directed by Lisa Kusanagi
Venue at the Auditorio Guillermo y Sofia Jenkins, Universidad de las Americas Puebla (Puebla, Mexico)
Rewild (verb) - Restore to its natural uncultivated state
Excerpt: https://vimeo.com/193778761
Conceptualized, choreographed & directed by Lisa Kusanagi
Venue at the Auditorio Guillermo y Sofia Jenkins, Universidad de las Americas Puebla (Puebla, Mexico)
Rewild (verb) - Restore to its natural uncultivated state
Excerpt: https://vimeo.com/193778761
We Participate We Contribute We Benefit and We Are Victims Simultaneously
Conceptualized, choreographed & directed by Lisa Kusanagi
Venue at the Auditorio Guillermo y Sofia Jenkins, Universidad de las Americas Puebla (Puebla, Mexico)
With the students of Universidad de las Americas Puebla in Mexico, we physically experimented with how religions and politics are reflected in their living environment and culture. We probed complex sociopolitical realities through the lens of Michel Foucault's quote "Liberation opens up new relationships of power, which have to be controlled by the practice of liberty."
Conceptualized, choreographed & directed by Lisa Kusanagi
Venue at the Auditorio Guillermo y Sofia Jenkins, Universidad de las Americas Puebla (Puebla, Mexico)
With the students of Universidad de las Americas Puebla in Mexico, we physically experimented with how religions and politics are reflected in their living environment and culture. We probed complex sociopolitical realities through the lens of Michel Foucault's quote "Liberation opens up new relationships of power, which have to be controlled by the practice of liberty."
Walking on Eggshells
Conceptualized, directed, and produced by Lisa Kusanagi
Presented by Harlem Stage (NY, USA)
Conceptualized, directed, and produced by Lisa Kusanagi
Presented by Harlem Stage (NY, USA)
itsy bitsy
A short film by Lisa Kusanagi & JuJu Kusanagi (Kusanagi Sisters)
https://vimeo.com/210891144
"itsy bitsy" is a dance film co-created with my sister, JuJu Kusanagi, that reimagines intelligence through movement and visual storytelling. Inspired by Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences (naturalistic, musical, logical-mathematical, existential, interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, linguistic, intra-personal, and spatial), the work explores diverse ways of knowing beyond traditional academic measures. Through playful choreography and striking visual composition, "itsy bitsy" challenges conventional definitions of intelligence and highlights the value of embodied knowledge.
A short film by Lisa Kusanagi & JuJu Kusanagi (Kusanagi Sisters)
https://vimeo.com/210891144
"itsy bitsy" is a dance film co-created with my sister, JuJu Kusanagi, that reimagines intelligence through movement and visual storytelling. Inspired by Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences (naturalistic, musical, logical-mathematical, existential, interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, linguistic, intra-personal, and spatial), the work explores diverse ways of knowing beyond traditional academic measures. Through playful choreography and striking visual composition, "itsy bitsy" challenges conventional definitions of intelligence and highlights the value of embodied knowledge.
16 Day Return Policy
Choreographed & Performed by Lisa Kusanagi
Presented by Movement Research at the Judson Church
Venue: Judson Memorial Church (NY, USA)
https://vimeo.com/97370498
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyAvcQAhe3A
"16 Day Return Policy" is one of Kusanagi's on-going multi-medium performance series, "Psychosomatic Erosion," which deals with hypersexuality and the politics of women’s bodies: how commercial and porn industries shape and distort our sexuality, sexual desire, sexual identity, gender identity, sexual norms, ideas of pleasure, and human relationships.
Choreographed & Performed by Lisa Kusanagi
Presented by Movement Research at the Judson Church
Venue: Judson Memorial Church (NY, USA)
https://vimeo.com/97370498
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyAvcQAhe3A
"16 Day Return Policy" is one of Kusanagi's on-going multi-medium performance series, "Psychosomatic Erosion," which deals with hypersexuality and the politics of women’s bodies: how commercial and porn industries shape and distort our sexuality, sexual desire, sexual identity, gender identity, sexual norms, ideas of pleasure, and human relationships.
A Work in Progress
Information WasteLand
Choreographed & Performed by Lisa Kusanagi
Choreographed & Performed by Lisa Kusanagi
Beyond Words
Conceptualized, Choreographed & Directed by Lisa Kusanagi
Presented by American College Dance Festival & Sonoma State University
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTlQf1ATcZc
"Let me weep over my cruel fate and sigh for my lost freedom. May the pain shatter the chains of my torments just out of mercy." - Gorge F. Handel
Conceptualized, Choreographed & Directed by Lisa Kusanagi
Presented by American College Dance Festival & Sonoma State University
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTlQf1ATcZc
"Let me weep over my cruel fate and sigh for my lost freedom. May the pain shatter the chains of my torments just out of mercy." - Gorge F. Handel
