Who's Who

Yoshiko Chuma 
Conceptual Artist/Choreographer/Artistic Director of The School of Hard Knocks, has been a firebrand of New York's downtown dance scene since arriving in 1976. She has created more than 60 full-length company works, commissions and site-specific events for venues in 35 countries, constantly challenging the notion of performance for both audience and participant. Her work has been presented in such diverse venues as Joyce Theater, the Eiffel Tower, Newcastle Swing Bridge, City Center, Lincoln Center, the former National Theater of Sarajevo, the perimeter of the Hong Kong harbor, World Financial Center, and an ancient ruin in Macedonia, among many others. She has received fellowships and awards for choreography and career work from John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, NEA, New York Foundation for Artists, Japan Foundation, Meet the Composer Choreographer/Composer Commission and Philip Morris New Works. Chuma has led workshops and master classes and been commissioned to create new work in East and West Europe, Asia, Russia, the Middle East, Manipur, and the U.S.   She received a 1984 BESSIE award for choreography and four more Bessies were awarded to her productions in 1992 and 1998. In 2007 she received a Bessie for Sustained Achievement. Her work has appeared in NY stages including: Danspace Project, La MaMa, PS 122, Dance Theater Workshop, Joyce Theater, City Center, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, and others. NYC site-works include Art on the Beach (1980s), the steps of Federal Hall (1980s and 1990s), World Financial Center, Staten Island Ferry, LentSpace with Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and other works worldwide. Chuma was Artistic Director of the Daghdha Dance Company in Limerick, Ireland from 2000-03 and is guest teacher/choreographer in the Dance MA program of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance. 

The School of Hard Knocks 

Under the artistic direction of Yoshiko Chuma, The School of Hard Knocks is a New York-based collective of choreographers, dancers, actors, singers, musicians, designers, and visual artists. Since premiering at the 1980 Venice Biennale, this award-winning company has created and performed over 60 original works in the United States, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. The School of Hard Knocks takes its name from the American idiom meaning to learn things the hard way on the proverbial "street," and was first used as the title of a performance at the 1980 Venice Biennale. Over the course of the company's history, more than 2,000 people have performed to wide critical acclaim under Chuma's direction in theatrical dance concerts, street performances, grand parades, large-scale spectacles and intimate living rooms.  (yoshikochuma.org)