About
Namiko Gahier-Ogawa is a French-Japanese dancer and choreographer based in Paris. She studied literature at Université Paris VII – Diderot and classical piano at the Conservatoire, then obtained the national degree in jazz dance, training at the Rick Odums International Institute in Paris and at the Alvin Ailey School in New York.
She works as a movement director and choreographer in opera and theatre. In 2004 she co-founded Yumé Arts, of which she is artistic director, developing pieces that combine contemporary dance with theatre, video and live music, using improvisation techniques.
Her opera credits include Susanna / Handel (Royal Opera House), Madama Butterfly / Puccini with director Paul Higgins and Iris / Mascagni (Opera Holland Park), and the revival choreography for Madama Butterfly (Scottish Opera). She has also choreographed A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the commedia dell’arte Arlequin, Emperor of the Moon with the baroque conductor Stéphane Fuget; The Fall of the House of Usher and Radio Brooklyn for Sonia Jacob (Compagnie L’Oreille à Plumes); Zyklus – Lieder dansés, Berg / Schumann, for Dorli Lamar (Compagnie Alto); works inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Beheading Holofernes with Carine Piazzi (Compagnie Konfiské.e); Du style (Compagnie Tempus); and L’Enfant et les Sortilèges / Ravel–Colette (Compagnie Celui qui souffle) at the Festival d’Avignon.
As a dancer and adviser she has worked with Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre in Northern Ireland, Compañía Agua Sakra in Chile, Compagnie David Gumbs, Compagnie Mouvementé – Cécile Ghrenassia and Ensemble Rives (De nul lieu et du Japon) in France, and in opera productions directed by Nigel Lowery, Nikolaus Lehnhoff and Pierre Audi for Dutch National Opera, Opera Vlaanderen, English National Opera and the Baden-Baden Festival.
Chronology
2025
- The Silver Bell, Camille Saint-Saëns — dancer and choreographer, as Circé / Fiametta, New Sussex Opera.
2023–24
- Thermodanse — dancer and choreographer, an arts and science project with CentraleSupélec. La Scène La Recherche, ENS Paris-Saclay, 17 February 2023.
- De nul lieu et du Japon — dancer and choreographer with Gaël Mevel’s ensemble, Compagnie Rives. Teaser
- La danse de l’enfant qui cherche — dance with the cellist Gaël Mevel, Compagnie Rives. Teaser
2021–24
- L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Maurice Ravel — co-stage director, Compagnie Celui qui souffle.
2020
- Susanna, George Frideric Handel — movement director, Royal Opera House.
2019
- Zyklus – Lieder dansés, Berg and Schumann — dance and choreography, Yumé Arts. Maison Heinrich Heine (6 April), Nocturnes de Laude (13 April), Le Lavoir Moderne Parisien (22–23 June).
- The Apartment, Leah Goldberg — collaboration with director Sonia Jacob, Compagnie L’Oreille à Plumes. Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme, 14 April.
- Le Mystère des couleurs, a book by the singer Manu Da Silva — choreography for the staging, directed by Damien Luce. March.
2018
- Vibrazione Artemisia — choreography, Compagnie Konfiskée (Carine Piazzi). Journée du Matrimoine, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. September. Programme, p. 20
- Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest — music and theatre with Debussy’s Préludes and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. Choreographic collaboration with director Sonia Jacob. April–May. L’Oreille à Plumes
- Zyklus – Lieder dansés, Berg and Schumann — Pôle Culturel, Verrières-le-Buisson (Essonne). March–April.
2017
- Monsieur Badin, Courteline — movement direction, Compagnie Tempus, Montpellier. December.
- Coach at Led By Her. October. Video
- Tail of the Tongue — Philomela, after Ovid’s Metamorphoses, choreography with Margarita Papazoglou. Hanko Festival, Finland. August.
- Tears — performance at the École normale supérieure, rue d’Ulm. June.
- Zyklus – Lieder dansés, Berg and Schumann, first stage of the creation — Dance Box festival, Tenri, Châtelet. April.
- Movement direction for motion capture — Manzalab serious game. March.
- Master’s degree (Master 2) in professional and personal coaching. February.
- 2017–18 — collaboration and performances with Dorli Lamar, Compagnie Alto.
2016
- Iris, Pietro Mascagni — movement director, Opera Holland Park.
- Le Corps dessinant — exhibition, Musée des Arts et Métiers – CNRS. December. Musée des Arts et Métiers
- Hors-Champs, Êtres de papier — Compagnie Instant Pudding, Théâtre Mouffetard. October.
2014
- Madama Butterfly, Giacomo Puccini — movement director, Scottish Opera.
2013
- Madama Butterfly, Giacomo Puccini — movement director, Opera Holland Park.
- L’Été Chushingura — coordination of the production at the Festival d’Avignon, and performing in kimono with Bando Sengiku, master of Nihon-buyō, in a company of eleven dancers and actors from Tokyo, Amsterdam, Beijing and Taiwan.
2012
- Funk — dancer and adviser, Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre. Created in Enniskillen, toured Northern Ireland and the Dublin Fringe Festival.
2008
- Tannhäuser, Richard Wagner — dancer, Dutch National Opera.
2005
- Rinaldo, George Frideric Handel — dancer, Vlaamse Opera.
Undated
- Castor et Pollux, Jean-Philippe Rameau — dancer, Dutch National Opera.
- Les Troyens, Hector Berlioz — dancer, Dutch National Opera.
- Les Voiliers du Luxembourg, a musical film by Nicolas Engel — choreography. Shown in European festivals and broadcast on ARTE. Film
In her own words
My name is Namiko. My grandfather’s name is Ogawa. I am Japanese through my mother and was born in Paris. I graduated with a master’s degree in literature (Lettres modernes, Université Denis Diderot – Paris VII) and a licence in Japanese, before dedicating myself to dance and composition.
After studying classical piano at the Conservatoire of Sucy-en-Brie for fifteen years, I graduated with a Diplôme d’interprétation, niveau supérieur, and joined the Rick Odums International Institute of Paris, obtaining the national degree in jazz dance. I deepened my contemporary and improvisation skills through masterclasses all over Europe, with Ultima Vez / Wim Vandekeybus, the Akram Khan Company, the Forsythe Company, Batsheva Dance Company, DV8, Carolyn Carlson, Simone Forti, Alban Richard, David Zambrano and Damien Jalet. In New York, I trained at the Alvin Ailey School in the Graham, Horton and Limón techniques, and in 2004 I became the artistic director of Yumé Arts in Paris.
My work as a choreographer has always developed in parallel with professional dancing, each feeding the other. I performed in operas staged by Nigel Lowery, Nikolaus Lehnhoff and Pierre Audi, with the choreographers Amir Hosseinpour, Jonathan Lunn and Denni Sayers, at Dutch National Opera, Opera Vlaanderen, English National Opera and the Baden-Baden Festival.
In Chile, I danced for the Agua Sakra company, where I created the piece Cima with Nikola Bahna and Juan-Pablo Corro, about Mapuche culture and ancestral knowledge. During my stay in Santiago I was asked to direct the Centro Anandamapu at Cerro Blanco, and we co-founded the platform Conexión Danza with Matucana 100, the main theatre of Santiago, developing production support for Chilean contemporary dance companies with the Goethe-Institut and the French Embassy.
In Northern Ireland, I was hired by the Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre Company as a dancer and adviser. The piece Funk was created in Enniskillen, funded by the National Lottery, and toured Northern Ireland and the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2012.
I then worked for the opera and theatre company L’Entretien des Muses, choreographing actors and baroque singers accompanied live by the baroque ensemble of Stéphane Fuget (harpsichordist of Les Talens Lyriques), in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the commedia dell’arte Arlequin, Emperor of the Moon by Anne Mauduit de Fatouville, in open-air productions and festivals. In Lyon, I choreographed La Machine aux couleurs for the Aliquando company, directed and performed by the baroque violinist Stéphanie (first violin of Laurence Equilbey’s Insula Orchestra), with the support of the Royaumont Foundation — exploring on stage the meeting of solo violin and texts by Denis Diderot.
During residencies, I collaborated with the jazz composer and pianist Dominique Fillon on Born in 68, and in Amsterdam with the composer and pianist Gary Goldschneider on my piece Notes from the Underworld, which I produced.
In 2013, I coordinated the presentation of a Japanese production at the Festival d’Avignon, L’Été Chushingura, a contemporary and traditional dance piece with Bando Sengiku, master of the Kabuki dance Nihon-buyō. I performed in kimono in both styles, within a company of eleven dancers and actors from Tokyo, Amsterdam, Beijing and Taiwan, after studying the Bando style of Nihon-buyō with master Bando in Tokyo.
