All photos are by BeccaVision unless mentioned.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Queens Choreographic Lab: Creation of a New Contemporary Dance Work
📅 Date: July 6~11th
📍 Location: Cucala Dance Studio (47-10 32nd Place, 2nd Floor, Long Island City, NY 11101)
Queens deserves more accessible spaces for contemporary dance education and creation. This LAB was created to support the next generation of artists by providing high-level training and performance opportunities without financial barriers.
A chance to train, create, perform, and collaborate with sarAika movement collective — completely free.
We are now accepting applications from 10 pre-professional and emerging dancers based in Queens to join a 6-day intensive choreographic lab in Long Island City from July 6~11, 2026 at Cucala Dance Studio.
This is not just a workshop.
This is a collaborative creative process leading to the creation and premiere of a new contemporary dance work.
Participants will experience:
— Contemporary dance technique & movement research
— Creative research & composition
— Collaborative rehearsal process
— Performance opportunity
— Community dialogue & mentorship
This LAB aims to help emerging dancers deepen their artistic voice, expand their collaborative experience, and build connections that support their future creative paths.
We will build a new work from the ground up — exploring movement, ideas, and human connection through an intensive shared process.
The project will culminate in a public performance in LIC featuring:
— the premiere of the newly created work
— repertory by sarAika
— interactive audience improvisation
— guest performance by Cucala Dance Company
— post-show artist conversation
> FREE TO PARTICIPATE
Applications are NOW OPEN — but spots are limited and the deadline is June 15th.
Spoke The Hub Presents Wheelhouse # 10
📅 Date: Saturday, June 20 • 7:30 PM – 9 PM
📍 Location: Spoke The Hub (748 Union Street Brooklyn, NY 11215)
Wheelhouse #10 brings together dancers, movers, and neighbors for an evening of live performance, process, and conversation 🎉. Hosted by Spoke the Hub, this series opens the studio doors so you can see how new work grows from first spark to full piece. sarAika will present their duet “Unsaid, Still Understood”.
We are supported by
What we offer
Perform our works at your event
We’ve performed for over 70 events throughout NYC and broadly since 2021.
Create your work
Commision.
We do commit to maximize your company’s artistry and dancers abilities.
Model for your arts
For students to professional artists.
From basic line to complexed shape.
Your artistry × our artistry
Share our methodology
Full range of motion by:
Joints fluidity, Dynamic weight shifting, Reflective floor-work. And how creating space inside our body reflects outside space.
Our mission
sarAika movement collective creates contemporary dance as a site of intercultural exchange, embodied inquiry, and social connection.
Founded by immigrant and queer women choreographers Sara Pizzi and Aika Takeshima, the collective uses cultural difference not as representation, but as a creative method—shaping choreography, collaboration, and leadership through shared authorship, rigorous physical practice, and lived experience across borders.
About us
Aika Takeshima
DEI practitioner
Aika Takeshima (she/her) is a contemporary dance artist, choreographer, and movement instructor from Japan with over a decade of international experience across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. She is the co-founder and co–artistic director of sarAika movement collective in New York City and the founder of the Osaka International Contemporary Dance Festival (OICDF) in Japan.
Contribution for us means
As immigrants, women, POC, and queer, we strive to create art that represents and empowers the communities to which we belong. Our collective comprises artists from our communities who perform and produce artworks that reflect topical aspects and personal insights delivered for our communities to spark empowerment, reflection, and inspiration.
If you believe in the power of art to empower communities, we would appreciate your support and donation. Every small or large donation is appreciated and fundamental in realizing our dreams and empowering our communities.
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Get In Touch
Questions or requests to our shows/creation/class/ws, or any ideas from you!
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