Noami Funaki. Photo: Ryoko Konami
Tickets on sale starting 12/11.
Recognized as a 2023 Princess Grace Award recipient in dance, a 2024 Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch”, and 2025 Jadin Wong Fellow, tap dance artist Naomi Funaki shares an in-process presentation of a new evening-length work, Ikigai. Reflecting on the 2011 Tohoku earthquake & tsunami, Fukushima nuclear disaster, and personal experience, Funaki blends rhythm, live music, and narrative to explore resilience, memory, and connection.
This in-process presentation is a culmination of Funaki’s weeklong Works & Process residency at Guild Hall. Consisting of both performance and conversation, the evening offers audiences an intimate glimpse into the work’s development and the ideas shaping its evolution.
This presentation is part of the 2026 Dance Out East Festival—a collaboration between Guild Hall, The Church, The Watermill Center, and Works & Process that highlights the creation of new choreographic work ahead of its continued development within Works & Process’ 2026 dance festivals.
Ikigai was commissioned and created, in part, with the support of Works & Process Residency Tino & Rajika Puri Creative Residency and The Joyce Theater Foundation’s Creative Residencies Program made possible by lead funding from TD Charitable Foundation. Additional support provided through residencies at 92NY, CUNY Dance Initiative at Hunter College, Guild Hall of East Hampton, and an Asian American Arts Alliance Jadin Wong Fellowship.
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Naomi Funaki
Naomi Funaki is an award-winning tap dance artist from Tokyo, Japan, currently living in New York City. Since moving to New York in 2016 to pursue her career in tap dance, she has performed at New York City Center, Lincoln Center, The Joyce Theater, Radio City Music Hall, MET Gala, The Guggenheim Museum (New York City and Spain), Vail Dance Festival, and All Arts TV. Naomi is a 2023 Princess Grace Award winner, a 2024–2025 Joyce Creative Residency artist, the recipient of the 2025 Jadin Wong Fellowship, and was recognized as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2024. She has worked with Ayodele Casel, Caleb Teicher & Company, Music From The Sole, and Dorrance Dance. Choreography credits include Ayodele Casel’s “Artists at the Center” at New York City Center, associate choreographer of “Diary of a Tap Dancer” at The American Repertory Theatre, assistant choreographer for “Bzzz” at The Joyce Theater, and assistant tap choreographer for New York City Center’s Encores! “Wonderful Town”.
Photo: Ryoko Konami
Sponsors
Performing Arts programs are supported in part by Galia Meiri-Stawski and Axel Stawski, Henry and Peggy Schleiff, The Melville Straus Family Endowment, Monica and Peter Tessler, and Vital Projects Fund. Music Programming is supported in part by The Ellen and James S. Marcus Endowment for Musical Programming, and the Anne Wolf Concert Fund.
Additional support provided by Friends of the Theater: Natascia Ayers and Jim Ciquera, Bonnie and Joel Bergstein, Gene Bernstein and Kathy Walsh, Amy Cooney and Marty Feinman, John and Joan D’Addario, Suzanne and John Golden, Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan, Steve Pesner, in memory of his wife, Michèle Pesner, whose entire life was devoted to all aspects of culture, The Schaffner Family Foundation, Lisa Schultz and Ezriel Kornel, Stacey and Oliver Stanton, and Susi and Peter Wunsch.