ABOUT

Takeshi Matsumoto is a dance artist and dance movement psychotherapist based in London, originally from Japan. His work moves between the artistic, the therapeutic and the deeply human — using the body and movement as a way of exploring what words alone cannot reach.

THE PRACTICE

Over two decades of performance, choreography and therapeutic practice have taken Takeshi’s work into some of the world’s most respected venues and into some of its most overlooked corners.

He has presented work in 18 countries, performing and collaborating at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, the Royal Opera House, Southbank Centre, Tate Modern, Young V&A, Sydney Dance Company, Dublin Dance Festival and the Bangkok International Children’s Theatre Festival, among many others.

He is co-director of Ichi Ni San, a company that creates dance performances for young audiences inspired by the intersection of British and Japanese cultures, touring nationally and internationally.

His practice spans artistic, educational, therapeutic and community settings — always with the body at the centre, and always with a particular sensitivity and attentiveness to what each person or group needs in order to feel safe enough to explore.

For over a decade, Takeshi has worked as a volunteer dance artist with stateless and refugee children at Rainbow School, on the border of Thailand and Myanmar. Using dance and movement as a means to express, explore and connect, he has collaborated with artists from the UK, Israel, Japan and Australia to create short dance films that give form to the children’s marginalised voices.

Two of these films — We Belong and Noy Jai — have been screened at festivals and educational institutions across the UK, USA, Canada and Thailand.

This work is not separate from his artistic or professional practice.

It is the same practice — the same conviction that the body holds something essential, and that movement can reach places where other languages cannot.