Hanako Hayakawa: 遊戯 (Yugi) no.3 – Sophiensæle | Independent Theater in Berlin
Hanako Hayakawa: 遊戯 (Yugi) no.3
Cuteness is never innocent. It is a performance of desire, a gesture of survival, and a site of self-inflicted violence.
In 遊戯 (Yugi) no.3, Hanako Hayakawa traces the political aesthetics of cuteness in a society driven by the demand for attention. Here, cuteness becomes both a necessary performance and a strategy for survival. Hayakawa’s body becomes a site where genealogies of girlhood—from contemporary manga and anime to Madame Hanako of Japonism and the twentieth-century educational dance magazine 遊戯と唱歌—are reimagined as tactical forms of subjectivity. Through the intensification of desire, softness, ambiguity, and rupture, girlhood emerges not as a fixed identity but as a mode of performance that can be inhabited, disrupted, and transformed.
Cuteness becomes a violent, subversive, and playful tactic of identity, turning the very conditions that make it necessary into the grounds for their possible undoing.
The information on accessibility is still in progress and will be updated as soon as possible. If any questions remain unanswered until then, please feel free to contact the communication department at barrierefreiheit@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 35. Please note that details may change by the day of the event. Therefore, if you find out after you have purchased your ticket that the performance is no longer accessible to you, you can contact us for a ticket return at ticketing@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 45 until 5 business days after the event (Monday through Friday between 10am and 6pm).
Early boarding
If, for artistic reasons, the door to the auditorium does not open until very shortly before the performance begins, there is the option of early boarding.
Tickets
- Reservations can be made via the ticket telephone at 030 283 52 66, Monday to Friday from 4pm-6pm
- Via the online ticket shop
- At the box office
You can also find more information about accessibility at the house here.
Choreography, dance: Hanako Hayakawa
Sound design: bela
Movement research in dialogue with: Kidows Kim, Yasuko Yokoshi
Light design: Leticia Skrycky
Scenography: Leticia Skrycky, Hanako Hayakawa
Research, dramaturgy: Andrea Rodrigo
Costume research with stylist: Yuri Nosho
Creative production: Andrea Rodrigo
Project management, administration: Laura Cecilia Nicolás
A production by Hanako Hayakawa in co-production with Sophiensæle, Kaaitheater and BUDA Kortrijk. Funded by the Capital Cultural Fund (HKF). With the support of Dance Base Yokohama and Theaterhaus Berlin Mitte. Media partners: The Berliner, Missy Magazine, Siegessäule, taz, tip Berlin.
Hanako Hayakawa (b. 1995, Nagano) is a dancer and artist based in Berlin. Drawing on her experience as a dancer and an interpreter, her artistic practice focuses on the concept of the “mediatic body”—the body that sees and the body that is seen. Through this lens, she brings to light perspectives and relational dynamics within social power structures. Her major works include Lurker, presented at TOKAS, Tokyo (2021), DESINGEL, Antwerp (2024), Sophiensæle, Berlin (2025), YDP, London (2026), and Kyoto Art Center (2026). As a dancer, she has collaborated with international artists including Tino Sehgal, Leiko Ikemura, Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe, Miet Warlop, Emmilou Rößling, Simon Van Schuylenbergh, Kazumichi Komatsu, and Tetsuya Umeda.