Nami Yamamoto: Future Memory

"My current project, Future Memory (a working title), began with a conversation with a childhood friend about our aging mothers. Witnessing their fragility reflected our own futures and urged me to confront time—how the past is held, lived, and relived in our bodies, written and rewritten in our minds. Every present moment is my past. Every dance is my last dance. But can I leave my shadow behind? We are transforming our bodies into our soulful movement."

The project continues to evolve as an embodied reflection on how memory, dream, hope, tragedy, and loneliness move through time and the body.

The piece will be performed by Johanna S. Meyer, Sarah White-Ayón, Mutsuyo Omatsu Isaacs, and Nami Yamamoto.

Nami Yamamoto is a 2025-26 AAPI Dance Artist in Residence, a program which supports and celebrates new works by Asian American and Pacific Islander dance artists, made possible by TOPAZ ARTS, Inc. in part with funds from the NYS DanceForce, a partnership program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

About the Artist:

Nami Yamamoto, from Matsuyama, Japan, holds an MA in Dance Education from New York University and a BA in Physical Education from Ehime University. Nami is a Bessie Awardee (The New York Dance and Performance Award) for the outstanding production of Headless Wolf presented at Roulette in 2017. Her work has been funded by Creative Capital, Jim Henson Foundation, City Artist Corps, Foundation for Contemporary Arts and others. She has been nurtured and inspired by her residency experience at Movement Research, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, New Dance Alliance, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, Gibney DiP Resident Artist, CPR-Center for Performance Research and Baryshnikov Arts Center. Nami served as a core member of Artists of Color Council at Movement Research in 2020-2023. She is honored to be a Hodder Fellow at Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University in 2024-2025 and a 2025 USA Fellow. She currently teaches at Lehman College and NYC public schools through Together in Dance.

Photo 1 by Wolfgang Daniel
Photo 2 by Abigail Levine

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