Meet Ai Toyoshima | Dancer/Choreographer, Artistic Director of the Time Capsule Project

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ai Toyoshima and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ai, what habits do you feel helped you succeed?
That I always want to step out of my comfort zone and choose to fail forward by continually challenging myself with something new.

I am the type of person who wants to move on to something new once I feel like I have completed a new skill set or one chapter in my life/career.

I can’t stay in one place too long because it becomes too comfortable for me. I always need new challenges because that’s what excites me most.

And by exploring many different aspects of a live theater, I can confidently say that I am very unique with my creation because of all the knowledge and experience I’ve gained from very many different things.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
One of the great accomplishments last year as a theater director/choreographer was The Nutcracker and Marie, which I developed from the ground up with my collaborators.

It is one of the projects I did with the Time Capsule Project, which is where I have been appointed to Artistic Director. My goal was to bring the Nutcracker story to life in a new way to younger audiences and their families who had never been to a live theatrical experience.

I learned through the process that it always makes the process of creation better when there is a genuine collaboration happening with my collaborators.

Although I was the director of the project, that didn’t mean that all the juicy ideas all came from me. Sometimes a surprising idea came out of nowhere when we were all brainstorming together.

Allowing myself to listen to my collaborators made the production greater than I ever imagined.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would take my friend for a long walk, especially if they were visiting New York from Japan for a week.

I always love walking down from South Ferry to feel all the history of New York by saying hi to the Statue of Liberty, a little prayer at the 9.11 Memorial, feel the greatness of the city at City Hall and Brooklyn bridge, and indulge myself in Chinatown and Little Italy with some good local food!

I believe it is always the best way to explore the uniqueness of the Big Apple by walking!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
It’s so hard for me to pick only one person since all the people I’ve met in my life have influenced me in one way or another, but if I had to pick only one person, I would love to shout out Minami Yusui, who is my mentor and the founder of YU-project.

During the lockdown, I participated in Yu-Seminar and all the things she’s gifted me through the Yu-Semi has helped me become who I am today.

I learned from her to see things through many different lenses,and being able to have different perspectives on one thing help me move forward with positive energies and gratitude, and help me achieve many small goals en route to my big goal.

But the most important thing I’ve learned from her is that the result is not what makes my career and life richer; but the experience of going through a process does.

Yes, if I can get the result that I am looking for at the end of my journey, that’s great. But often, gifts are in the process and how I receive all these gifts depends on how present, curious and open I can be during the process.

When I only focused on the result, I often felt devastated by the results I got. But when I switched my focus on a process, I was able to see many more small victories rather than a singular concrete result on one thing.

Website: https://www.timecapsuleprojectnyc.com/

Instagram: https://timecapsuleproject.nyc

Youtube: https://youtu.be/Caf3Jfaqtrk?si=Xn_k4Fn0ntkQd6UK

Image Credits
First and Second Photo: Miku Hirayama w/ iPhoto
Third Photo: BringAbout capture by James Jin
Fourth Photo: James Jin