About Session House

Session House is an independent arts venue in Kagurazaka, Tokyo, founded in 1991 and run ever since by the people who dance and work in it. It is small on purpose: one building where the studio, the theater and the gallery sit on top of one another, so that learning to dance, making a piece and showing it to an audience all happen in the same rooms.

In a single week the building may hold a beginners' ballet class, a rehearsal for a premiere, an exhibition opening upstairs and a full house watching contemporary dance in the basement. That mixture is what Session House is for.

B1F Studio / Theater

The B1F Studio opened in 1991. It is a 131 m² room with a high ceiling and a sprung floor with a linoleum surface; when the seating goes in it becomes a theater for an audience of about 100, close enough that the front row can hear the dancers breathe.
During the week, it is used as a dance studio offering ballet, contemporary dance, Nihon Buyo, and other movement-based classes.
On weekends and holidays, the studio becomes Kagurazaka Session House, an intimate theater mainly dedicated to contemporary dance and performing arts.
Session House presents performances throughout the year and provides opportunities for dancers and choreographers to develop and present their work.

2F Gallery “Garden”

Gallery “Garden” opened in 1995. It is a 100 m² multipurpose room seating around 50.
It is a flexible cultural space used for exhibitions, theater, dance, concerts, talks, workshops, film screenings, and other events.

Our Activities

The Session House Planning Office plans and produces performances, workshops, educational programs, and other cultural projects at Session House.

A particular focus of our activities is supporting emerging dancers and choreographers and creating opportunities for artists at different stages of their careers.
We believe that a theater can be not only a place where finished works are presented, but also a place where artists learn, experiment, meet others, and develop new forms of expression.

One building, three ways in

Take a class. Open classes run Monday to Thursday in contemporary dance, ballet, Nihon Buyo and somatic work, taught by dancers and choreographers who are themselves performing. No membership is needed and you can come once. See Dance Classes and Contemporary Dance Classes.

See a performance. At weekends and on holidays the studio becomes a theater, with contemporary dance, theater, music and interdisciplinary work most weeks of the year. See Performance Schedule, or watch from anywhere through Session Online Theater.

Make your own work here. Several long-running programmes exist to put artists on stage rather than simply rent them a room: Theater 21 Fes, an open platform running since the 1990s; Dzone, which supports a full-length production by an individual choreographer or dance company; Dance Flower for emerging choreographers; and University Dance Cross for student dancers. See Perform Here. The spaces can also simply be hired - see Space Rental.

Upstairs, the gallery keeps its own calendar of exhibitions and events, including the long-running croquis sessions where dancers are the models. See Gallery: Session House 2F Garden and Croquis.

Read our Annual Reports and Voice of Session House for artists' essays, performance records and reflections on the work created here.

Thirty-five years

Session House opened in 1991, in the years when the Japanese economy was collapsing, with no track record and no connections. The resident company Mademoiselle Cinema was formed in 1993, the gallery opened in 1995, and the programmes that carry young dancers from their first solo to a full evening of work were built one at a time in the years that followed. In 2026 the venue marked its 35th anniversary with a nine-day festival. The full story, decade by decade, is on Our History, and the artists who have shaped it are on Artists.

Practical information for a first visit - booking, paying, access and what to expect on the day - is gathered in the Visitor Guide. Enquiries in English are always welcome.

Dance classes

What's on

Visitor guide