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.








