John Moran

It was said that after seeing Tsukada from a distance on the street one afternoon, the composer knew the two strangers were "meant" to work together, and waited for her to return during a power outage.

This seems to have marked a shift in subject matter for Moran, who then began to appear in his works as himself, often telling highly personal stories about his bizarre life, and describing (in artistic terms) an "obsession" with his then next-door-neighbor, Tsukada. In numerous articles Tsukada has been described as Moran's "muse". In Tsukada's description, "If I am the disciplined Japanese girl, then he is the picture of what people think of as a tortured artist."

Their collaborations, under the title John Moran and his neighbor, Saori seemed to see immediate critical success. In addition to relocating their work to Europe sometime around 2007, Moran and Tsukada premiered several music, dance and theatre works throughout the period of 2005-2010, all of which featured Tsukada and Moran portraying autobiographical representations of themselves. Their work John Moran and his neighbour, Saori saw much European touring since 2005. The Guardian UK described the piece as "a work with genius as its foundation." and The New York Times cited their work as "one of the most important and innovative dance collaborations of the year", in 2007. The two performed frequently at venues such as Edinburgh Fringe, Dublin Fringe, Amsterdam Fringe, The Arches, Soho Theatre in London, as well as other theatrical venues across UK, Germany, Israel and Poland. Read Less