WARNER
ワーナー
Dancer, Choreographer, Creative Director, Songwriter
WARNER is a dancer, choreographer, creative director and songwriter who worked with Amuro Namie between 2000 and 2005. He is known to have provided the artist with some of her most ambitious choreographies.
His other collaborations include BoA, Utada Hikaru, Crystal Kay, JUJU, Kuroki Meisa, AKB48, Koda Kumi, Shimatani Hitomi, Girls Generation, Nishino Kana, Third Generation J Soul Brothers, TVXQ.
In a 2003 interview, Amuro Namie said that she enjoyed WARNER’s choreographies a lot: “for some reason he always thinks of just the choreography that I’d been wanting to do, so we don’t change much at all. […] With WARNER-san’s dances, I think they’re really cool, so they stick in my head right away, but sometimes the dance doesn’t stick in my head at all. “
WARNER commented on Amuro’s dancing skills in the same interview:
Namie-san has a very quick memory for choreography. Not compared to other artists, I mean she’s faster than the dancers themselves. That’s how high a level she’s at. For the filming of a PV, the dancers rehearse for a week to 10 days, but Namie-san perfects something that’s the same level, or higher than the dancer’s in 2 days. She’s not in with the top people I’ve done choreography for, she is the top! The songs I work on for Namie-san are the type of songs that I myself like a lot, so I come up with the dances really quickly.
The choreography for ‘So Crazy’ took me about a day to complete. If I’m feeling a song, I’m flooded with ideas. And the fact that she can dance also helps me finish quickly. Because I can do just what I want to. I don’t have to be thinking about her comfort, and I can make something that’s really high level, so it makes me happy as a choreographer. Even with her dancing while she sings, Namie-san is an amazing artist. Alot of the time, she’ll be able to sing perfectly even doing things that I had worried, ‘Maybe these moves would be tough to sing at the same time with.’ She tackles with it by doing a simulation of her singing while she does the dance rehearsals.
Before I started to work with her, I’d heard rumours that she had good dance sense, so I was looking forward to working with her, but I realized when I did that it’s really true. Working with her, I realized that she soaks up everything. It amazed me. I always have an image of how I want things to come out beforehand, but rather than being just the way I had imagined, she takes it to the next level. There’s been a lot of parts that she’s convinced me of. So I look forward to each day I work with her, thinking, ‘I wonder what kind of way she’ll show my work this time?’ I’ve just started the current dance, but I’m looking forward to seeing it take shape.
Dancer
-PV-
LOVE 2000 (2000) [?]
-TV-
Say the word (2001) [?]
Choreographer
-Tour-
SO CRAZY tour featuring BEST singles 2003-2004 (Put ‘Em Up, shine more, SO CRAZY)
-PV-
shine more (2003)
Put ‘Em Up (2003)
SO CRAZY (2003)
ALARM (2004)
WANT ME, WANT ME (2005)
-TV & Live Events-
Say the word at MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN (2002)
MUSIC FEST PEACE OF RYUKYU (2002)
MTV Cool Christmas (2002)