About us
sarAika movement collective is a New York–based contemporary dance collective founded by immigrant choreographers Sara Pizzi (Italy) and Aika Takeshima (Japan). Interculturality is the core of sarAika’s artistic identity: they use cultural difference as a creative tool, shaping choreography, collaboration, and leadership through shared authorship and lived intercultural experience.
Drawing from distinct cultural and physical lineages, sarAika develops physically rigorous, concept-driven work that combines structural clarity with sensorial depth. Their choreography transforms migration, identity, and cultural memory into embodied performance, activating the body as a site of exchange between global perspectives and local realities. Diversity is not presented as representation, but practiced as a method for expanding contemporary dance.
This intercultural approach also defines what sarAika offers beyond performance. The collective connects contemporary dancers globally through collaboration, festivals, exchanges, and cross-border projects. Since 2021, sarAika has performed widely in the U.S. and abroad, with commissions from IATI Theater, Et Alia Theater, Naoko Tosa (Kyoto University), Philip Baldwin (Stony Brook University) and Peter Schelfhout (University of Bridgeport), and The Museum of the City of New York, New York Fashion Week, among others. sarAika was a resident artist at Dance Base Yokohama during YPAM2022 (Yokohama International Performing Arts Meeting), Performance Project at University Settlement, Jamaica Arts Center and Spoke The Hub. sarAika’s choreography has been presented at venues including at New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Judson Church, New York City Center, Movement Research, HERE Arts Center, Symphony Space, Queens Theatre, The Riverside Church, Dixon Place, The Chain Theatre, Mark DeGarmo Dance Salon, Arts On Site, The Tank, Triskelion Arts Theater, Peridance Studio, Ruth Page Center for the Arts (Chicago, IL), Detroit Film Theatre – Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) (Detroit, MI), and internationally in Sweden, Italy, and Japan. Their work was streamed on the Time Square billboard and on Channel 25 & CBS. sarAika yearly joins the NYC Japan & Dance Parades and Pride March, and founded in 2025 the Osaka International Contemporary Dance Festival, extending their mission to connect communities globally through dance.
Core values
DEI
Led by certified DEI practitioner Aika Takeshima - we aim to provide a safe platform for growth within our communities. We strive to spread diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the dance industry. sarAika believes in diversity as a way to become more innovative and creative, building a space where all can feel respected and safe to be authentic to themselves. We make sure that everyone feels respected, within a sense of belonging and contributing by creating an inclusive environment and leveraging the diversity we have.
Collaborarion
The strength of the sarAika movement collective is its unique approach to interdisciplinary collaboration. sarAika's work with various art forms, including movement, theater, music, voice, painting, light painting, poetry, and AR/VR technology. Teamwork among artists with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and creative approaches was the defining factor that led to the success of sarAika. Embracing diversity leads to innovation, precisely what sarAika does, making their work accessible, unpredictable, and effectively delivered.
Commuity
Sara Pizzi and Aika Takeshima are immigrants, women, POC, and queer. As spokeswomen of those groups, we strive to create art representing and empowering the communities we belong to. 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.
MISSION STATEMENT
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.
Through concept-driven, sensorial, and structurally precise performance, sarAika transforms migration, identity, memory, and queerness into embodied knowledge, activating the body as a space where global perspectives and local communities meet. Rooted in values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the collective is committed to expanding whose voices, bodies, and histories are visible in contemporary dance.
Beyond the stage, sarAika builds platforms for connection through festivals, residencies, education, and international exchange, fostering dialogue between artists and audiences across cultures. Their mission is to use dance as both an artistic practice and a civic act: to cultivate empathy, challenge dominant narratives, and create spaces where difference becomes a source of collective imagination, resilience, and transformation.
VISION
Founding our vision in the statement, “Dance is an art form which expresses the emotions and feelings that human beings cannot express in words, questions our belief and opens up to unfamiliar perspectives.” sarAika movement collective’s vision is to offer dance experiences that authentically showcase diversity so that we can bring diverse, underrepresented voices to be listened to. This is by breaking down the typical performances by making performances experiences that speak about and for us, our insights, and our rights.
sarAika makes dance for and about people.
Sara Pizzi is an Italian dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher in New York City. She graduated from Steps on Broadway and Peridance Certificate programs in 2020. Sara performs with several esteemed dance companies, including The Next Stage Project, Kaleid Collective, Six Degrees, FLDP and more. She is also the co-founder of the sarAika Movement Collective.
As a dedicated educator, Sara teaches at Dalton School and for the “Hands are for Holding” program by Gibney.
Additionally, she works as an associate photographer and videographer for BECCAVISION.
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.
As a certified Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practitioner, Aika centers equity and accessibility in both her creative work and teaching practice, fostering supportive and rigorous learning environments for dancers of diverse backgrounds. Her artistic work approaches contemporary dance as a socially engaged practice, where movement becomes a site for lived experience, dialogue, and connection across cultures.
As a 200-hour certified yoga teacher, her movement practice integrates dynamic floorwork, somatic awareness, and spine-initiated movement, drawing from her background in ballet, street dance, and yoga. Her class and work emphasize anatomical clarity, fluidity, and intentional expression, advancing contemporary dance as both an artform and a tool for connection.
In 2025, Aika launched the Osaka International Contemporary Dance Festival (OICDF), a new annual platform that connects Japanese and international artists through performance, research, and education. The festival reflects her vision of using dance as a bridge between local and global communities, building sustainable networks for emerging creators.
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