Meet Aoi Yamada, the Tokyo-based avant-garde dancer the fashion world can't get enough of
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True originals are hard to come by, but Aoi Yamada certainly qualifies. The Tokyo-based 21-year-old self-described “dancer, model, and expresser” is instantly recognizable. Not just because of her movements, but also owing to her avant garde performance looks, which could be anything from a leotard printed with Matsumoto Castle to a hairstyle that looks like a thatched Japanese roof. This sui generis effect makes her hard to forget.
Yamada started dancing when she was around five years old, trying out different genres before realizing that she was really just in it for the fun. “I enjoyed wearing my favorite clothes and dancing with my favorite music,” Yamada says. Her love of fashion also dates back to her childhood. In elementary school, she remembers buying new issues ofand experimenting with photo shoots, using her mother’s clothes.
At 15, she attended a dance specialty high school in Tokyo before meeting her current manager two years later. Then, she started to model and perform in music videos, stage performances, and at Basel World in 2018 and 2019. Still, she considers the Olympic performance her big break—and really, who could ask for a more global stage?
There is a certain quality in Yamada’s work that resists definition. She calls her practice “expression,” rather than “dance,” a decision she made after seeing images of the model Sayoko Yamaguchi and Butoh dancers. In a recent Instagram reel, Yamada performs to the sound and flashing lights of a clicking camera. Dressed in green pants and a turtleneck, topped with a pink robe and gloves, she mimes sweeping and posing for the camera, walking back and forth.
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