NORWOOD -- The Norwood Village Green Concert Series presents “TAKE Dance” downtown, Thursday, June 18, at 7 p.m.

TAKE Dance will perform “Somewhat Familiar Melodies” with music by Frédéric Chopin, The Drifters, Kyu Sakamoto, Momoe Yamaguchi, Kenji Sawada, Yuri Shimazaki, Eiji Miyoshi, Yuzo Kayama, Yousui Inoue, Chage & Aska. A group of shorter pieces will be performed after intermission.

“After the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, I felt that my heart was torn apart by the tragedy and devastation to my country and my people. Wanting to reflect back on all my childhood memories in Japan that gave me joy, I found myself listening to the music that flooded my ears through records, radio and television during the 70’s and 80’s, creating a window back into my childhood in Toyo, nostalgic memories of time spent with friends and family in my country came rushing back with each song. Using these popular Japanese songs, In Somewhere Familiar Melodies, I am taking a moment to dream of the past for a little while and remember the Japan I grew up in.” - Take

Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, - Takehiro “Take” Ueyama moved to the United States in 1991 to study dance at the Juilliard School in New York City. Upon graduation, he was invited to join the Paul Taylor Dance Company, touring the world with them for 8 years.

In 2003 Ueyama debuted his first choreographic work, Tsubasa, performed with fellow Taylor dancers at the McKenna Theatre at SUNY New Paltz, and in 2005 founded TAKE Dance. He has performed repeatedly as a guest artist with Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theatre. His television and film credits include PBS’s Dance in America series (with the Taylor Company), Acts of Ardor, and Dancemaker, a film by dancer/choreographer Matthew Diamond.

Having been a baseball player in Japan before fully committing to dance, Ueyama’s work blends both eastern and western sensibilities. Containing both powerful athleticism, as well as traces of his Japanese heritage by employing delicate gestures, his repertoire has been inspired by the beauty in nature, the duality of darkness and light in the universal human condition, and the humanity and compassion in day-to-day living. These elements, combined with his various partnerships and collaborations with artists of other genres, lend diversity to movement, music and subject matter

In 2005 Ueyama’s ‘s work, Sakura Sakura was a prizewinner at the International Modern Dance Choreographic Competition in Spain, and he was one of four choreographers selected for 2006 Free to Rep at FSU’s Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography. In 2010 he was the first choreographer to win the S & R Foundation’s prestigious Washington Award.

Ueyama has created and re-staged works for The Alvin Ailey School, Tallahassee Ballet, The New School, The Juilliard School, Purchase College, Princeton University, Vassar College, Marymount Manhattan College, Randolph College, Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School, the International Summer Dance in Burgos, Spain and ArcDanz in Mexico.

During 2013-2014 Ueyama created commissioned works for ArcDanz in Mexico, The Juilliard New Dances: Edition 2013, and The Hartt School.

Admission is free but there is a pass the bucket. For more information, visit www.nvgcs.com.