ABOUT ME
Photo by Tilly Parsons
Side note:
I’m also fluent in Japanese (I hold a Japanese Language Proficiency Test N1).
The preferred pronunciation of my name in English is “Ree-na” :)
Rena Sangawa (she/her) is a dance artist based in Melbourne/Naarm and Sydney/Gadigal, currently studying for the Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA).
Rena is originally from Tokushima, Japan and has lived in Sydney for 10 years before commencing studies in Melbourne. Her first encounter with dance was Awa-Odori, a parade/festival/matsuri danced and celebrated by the community in Tokushima prefecture. After her international transfers to Manila and Kanagawa prefecture at a young age, from the age of 4, Rena began learning ballet in a local gym for children. As a Japanese immigrant, Rena finds passion in performing, choreographing and producing works that question realness in digitalised society through hypothetical human and cultural relationships.
She trained in classical ballet and contemporary dance in Sydney while completing Advanced 2 of the Royal Academy of Dance exam. Rena was a member of the Senior Youth Ensemble at Sydney Dance Company 2019-2021.
In Year 12, Rena completed HSC including subjects such as the highest level of mathematics: Mathematics Extension 1 and Extension 2, as well as Music 1 with voice/singing.
Along with her tertiary studies, she performed for the UoM Master of Music ‘The Fairy Queen’, RISING Festival ‘MULTITUD’ (dir. Tamara Cubas), MUSE Festival for multiple student-led works, Science Gallery Melbourne ‘SWARM’, the Government House Victoria Ballroom in Governor’s Performance Series Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) Variety Show and many more.
Through the VCA, Rena collaborated with Melissa Toogood supported by Merce Cunningham Trust, Gregory Lorenzutti, Chimene Steele-Prior and Luke George. Rena is proud to have directed and choreographed ‘//command_shift^ break’ which premiered in Union Theatre for Mudfest. Her passion for the process of art making was reinforced as a secondee for a new work development at Legs On The Wall. Rena recently performed a site-specific work ‘transmitting magenta’ for Guild Fringe at the Melbourne Fringe Festival commissioned by the University of Melbourne Student Union.
Post graduation, Rena is excited to extend her love for creating art in collaboration with dancers, musicians, interdisciplinary artists and more!
Ethos & artist statement
Artistically, Rena finds passion in performing, choreographing and producing works that question realness in digitalised society through hypothetical human and cultural relationships.
Growing up in Japan during the late Heisei Era and experiencing the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Rena is artistically driven by Japanese sub-cultures that are not explored in mainstream media and the strong bond of Japanese people’s solidarity as an underlying ethos.
Photo by Char Lee
With the rise of short attention spans in young people due to mass production of and exposure to highly simulating videos of short duration, Rena predicts that they will soon face a lack of social skills and the drive for less impactful motives in life.
Reflecting on her personal experiences of observing the nature of nihilism and existentialism in recent years, she feels the urge to create art to offer an escape from the linear timeline in reality. For Rena, the notion of experiencing an art piece is valuable for its duration, using art as a validation to pause our stream of consciousness in an uninterrupted environment and a way to find personal meaning in the space between time.
Being an existentialist herself yet altruistic, Rena is curious to understand the perspective of how different generations approach the time of life and explore how it influences her choreographic practice.