Air:Man – Japanese Choreographers On The Street in Harajuku

Here are a couple of extremely cool people we ran into on the street in Harajuku. We first noticed them because of their unique funky fashion, but there is much more to these two characters than just style.

On the right is Kazutaka; on the left is Mayumi (sometimes spelled “maUmi”). They are two of the founding members of a Japanese choreography group called Air:Man. Even if you’ve never heard of Air:Man, you have almost certainly been exposed to their massive-and-impressive body of work. Air:Man’s projects are far too numerous to list, but they include award-winning work on the famous UNIQLOCK ad campaign for Uniqlo, choreography for Japan’s biggest musicians (Yuki, Glay, SMAP, Puffy, TM Revolution, Kaela Kimura, etc), commercial work for major brands (Suntory, Kirin, DoCoMo, Asahi, Louis Vuitton, IKEA, etc.), movie credits (Taste of Tea, Cutie Honey, etc.), TV work (NHK, Fuji TV, TBS, etc.), stage plays, live events, and much more.

According to their blog, Air:Man also choreographed Kyary Pamyu Pamyu‘s dance moves in her now-famous PONPONPON music video. Here is a translation of the post where they talk about working with Kyary on her video:

Choreography group air:man is mentioned briefly in the September 2011 KERA Magazine column “Wei-wei-wacha-wacha” (p. 189) by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu whose music video choreography we took care of the other day.

We are so grateful!

That was the first time we worked with Kyary, but what can I say about her…
She was young and carefree. Also, her nice personality and the good atmosphere that she created. She was really a great person.

As for Kyary’s dancing, she made us surprised that she did it perfectly before the camera even though she did not have much time for rehearsal and she had to learn the moves within a few days.

For your information, here is the “PON PON PON” by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

Many of choreography group air:man’s members are still saying that it would be great if we can work with Kyary again for occasions such as her concerts, etc. (^0^)

So, there’s a little inside information on the PONPONPON video – courtesy of a random meeting on the street in Harajuku. We didn’t get brand info from Mayumi and Kazutaka because they didn’t have time to fill out our form. That said, enjoy the pictures and check out the Air:Man website if you’re into Japanese dance or choreography!

Click any of the street snaps to enlarge them.

Comments are closed.

  1. JamJammieJam

    SooOOoOoOo cool * o *
    I love me some Kyary Pamyu Pamyu! <3

  2. BIIIIIIIKES!!!!!!!! two things

    first wow

    second where from??????