An exciting new dance festival named Dance New Air will debut in Tokyo from Sept. 12, featuring performances, symposia, workshops and film screenings at venues in the central Aoyama district.
However, the back story to DNA is less exciting, as it has been slotted between two stagings of the longstanding Dance Triennale Tokyo in large part to try and help to save its chief venues, Aoyama Theatre and Aoyama Round Theatre, which are scheduled to close next year.
The campaigning organizers' fervent hope is also that, through DNA and audiences it attracts, the capital's strands of contemporary-dance culture will be helped to continue evolving and stretch far into the future, regardless of whether the theaters stay or go.