Directing Alumnus Simón Adinia Hanukai '12 Presents 'SPACES: Saint-Denis'

Directing alumnus Simón Adinia Hanukai ’12 presents SPACES: Saint-Denis, an immersive site-specific series of storytelling events at the Market Hall and the Basilica of Saint-Denis, France. Hanukai, who co-created the event with Jonathan Camuzeaux and Lauren Cox, serves as General Artistic Director. 

SPACES blends contemporary performance with ancient oral tradition, as the highly participatory experience aims to showcase the community that defines Saint-Denis. Silent dancers guide groups of audience members on a musical, movement-filled journey. Along the way, the groups encounter local residents who share personal, intimate memories of their lives in the city. 

Hanukai’s project promotes the idea that everyone has a story to tell. To that end, approximately 15 residents will be invited to share their stories. Those who accept will attend several coaching sessions with Hanukai, who will help them feel comfortable performing in front of an audience. 

Hanukai is a theater maker, director, and educator. At the start of his career in Oakland, California, he was a founding member of HeadRush Crew and the Co-Artistic Director of the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company. During his six-year tenure with both companies, Hanukai facilitated the creation of full-length dance theater pieces, which toured nationally and were seen by over 25,000 people per year. He has shared the stage with Desmond Tutu, Angela Davis, Alice Walker, Neil Young, Alfre Woodard, and Martin Sheen.

His New York, regional, and international directing credits include JUPITER (a play about power) (La MaMa E.T.C., NY), The Shared Prince (Cabaret Sauvage, Paris), Rest Upon the Wind (Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, NY), The Golden Drum Year (University Settlement, NY), Les Alibis (Junevents Festival, Atelier De Paris – Carolyn Carlson, France), Decline & Fall or A Guide to How the End Begins for Those Too Big To Fail (Tricklock Performance Lab, New Mexico), The Fall (Flamboyán, NY), and Flying Ace and The Storm of the Century (Superhero Clubhouse, Odin Teatret, Denmark), among others. 

Hanukai received the Dean’s Fellowship from Columbia University and the 2012-13 Emerging Artists Fellowship from New York Theatre Workshop. He has been a resident artist at the NACL Deep Space Residency, the Odin Theater in Denmark, the E|MERGE Interdisciplinary Artist Residency, the Catwalk Art Residency, and the Sally and Don Lucas Arts Program at the Montalvo Arts Center.

SPACES, originally slated for performance in October of 2020, has been delayed as a result of COVID-19. The event’s tentative 2021 dates are April 30, May 1, 6, 7, and 8. After its run in Saint-Denis, SPACES plans to come to Oakland, California in mid-July of next year.