KOHEI NAWA

In November 2025, the performance “Planet [wanderer]” — a collaboration between choreographer and dancer Damien Jalet and sculptor Kohei Nawa — will have its Asian premiere with performances in Japan at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre and ROHM Theatre Kyoto.

The stage opens with a striking image: a black mass crouching in total darkness as shimmering stardust begins to fall upon it. Tiny particles drifting endlessly through the cosmos over vast spans of time and space accumulate to form the surface of a planet. Awakened upon this terrain, the dancers gradually transform in response to rain, mist, and light, and eventually begin to move. What emerges is a vision of life itself—oscillating between power and fragility, harmony and resistance, extinction and evolution.

“Planet [wanderer]” is part of a trilogy of collaborations that began with “VESSEL” (2016). While “VESSEL” drew on the underworld (Yomi no Kuni) from Japan’s oldest chronicle, Kojiki, and the subsequent film “Mist” evoked the heavenly realm (Takamagahara), “Planet [wanderer]” focuses on the third world, Ashihara no Nakatsukuni—the earthly realm where we live. “Wanderer,” part of the title, echoes the original Greek meaning of “planet”—“a wandering body.”

On this planet—subject to gravity and extreme environmental shifts—the dancers’ bodies sway and drift like reeds, wandering through an ever-changing landscape. Within their movement unfolds both the sense of rootlessness that defines our unstable age and the vitality of life that resists it.

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◼︎ Tokyo
Date&Time: November 1 (Sat), 2025 | 15:00 - 16:00 (Doors open at 14:30)
November 2 (Sun), 2025 | 15:00 - 16:00 (Doors open at 14:30)
November 3 (Mon), 2025 | 15:00 - 16:00 (Doors open at 14:30) *Audio guide available for blind and visually impaired audience members
Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre (Playhouse)
1‑8‑1 Nishi‑Ikebukuro, Toshima‑ku, Tokyo 171‑0021, Japan
Tickets

◼︎ Kyoto
Date&Time: November 8 (Sat), 2025 | 19:00 - 20:00 (Doors open at 18:30)
November 9 (Sun), 2025 | 15:00 - 16:00 (Doors open at 14:30) *Childcare service available
Venue: ROHM Theatre Kyoto - South Hall
13 Okazakisaishoji‑cho, Sakyo‑ku, Kyoto City, Kyoto 606‑8342, Japan
Tickets

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Concept and Choreography: Damien Jalet
Concept and Stage Design: Kohei Nawa

Music: Tim Hecker
Lighting: Yukiko Yoshimoto
Costumes: Sruli Recht
Sound Design Collaboration: Xavier Jacquot
Assistant to the Choreography: Alexandra Hoàng Gilbert
Outside Eye: Catalina Navarrete Hernández
Stage director: Masaya Natsume

Cast: Shawn Ahern, Karima El Amrani, Aimilios Arapoglou, Francesco Ferrari, Vinson Fraley, Christina Guieb, Astrid Sweeney, Ema Yuasa
photo: ©Rahi Rezvani

 

Planet [wanderer]