This article appeared in Tokyo Weekender Vol. 4.
To read the entire issue, click here.
The door to a small, underground studio in Tokyo swings open, and in files a procession of 17 women in identical garb: sleek, bobbed hair; navy, pinafore-style dresses over blouses with billowing sleeves; gleaming white ankle socks. Responding to the presence of an audience — a small camera crew, a director and myself — they switch into performance mode, smiling widely, shaking their heads rapidly and shuffling their feet as they pass through the door in single file, giving the impression of freshly wound wind-up dolls. At their tail is a woman clad in all white, walking normally.
This is Avantgardey, a dance crew known for eccentric, energetic and perfectly synchronized performances. Their names are Nona, Pani, Moca, Fuka, Seira, Nagano, Ayane, Oya, Sono, Harune, Miyuu, Macchan, Aimu, Kotone, Kohana, Chacha and Ui, and the 18th individual is Akane, their choreographer, producer and general creative mastermind. Since Avantgardey first formed in 2022, it’s amassed global popularity, most notably through a widely appreciated stint on America’s Got Talent, and garnered millions of followers on social media. These days, the group’s schedule is packed with TV appearances, fan events and live performances throughout Asia. We have precisely an hour and a half to conduct a photo shoot with them — immediately after, they need to head out to prepare for a solo concert at Nakano Zero — but fortunately, the group functions like a well-oiled machine.
Akane was coming off another huge success at the time she assembled Avantgardey; in 2017, a routine she had choreographed for Osaka’s Tomioka High School Dance Club, known as the Bubbly Dance, went immensely viral. Set to Yoko Oginome’s “Dancing Hero (Eat You Up),” it featured a veritable army of teen dancers dressed in exaggerated 80s, bubble-era office lady fashion — sequined, shoulder-padded skirt suits, perplexingly architectural hairstyles, technicolor makeup — moving in perfect unison. For much of the dance, their expressions are too neutral, a precocious approximation of a high-functioning professional. Occasionally, though, a dancer will flash an exaggerated smile or a look of mock anguish at the crowd. To date, the Bubbly Dance video uploaded on Akane’s YouTube channel has been viewed 118 million times.
Many of the dancers in Avantgardey are ex-members of the Tomioka High dance club, hand-picked by Akane; their high school uniform-esque costumes seem to hearken back to these roots. (Akane says she chose the style “because the contrast between the color navy blue and white arms is clear and looks great for dancing.”) The group’s mini-big break came in 2023, via the DJ Steve Aoki, who invited them to perform at one of his concerts. World fame arrived next, in the form of AGT, which averages about 10 million viewers per season. The group appeared on season 18, capturing the hearts of the panel of celebrity judges with their initial performance, set to the city pop classic “Cinderella Honeymoon” by Hiromi Iwasaki, followed by dances to Yoasobi’s “Idol” and “Money, Money, Money” by ABBA.
Avantgardey made it all the way to the final round, but maybe the American public wasn’t quite ready for something so intricate and unusual. Despite being a fan favorite, the group was eliminated in the finals. The ultimate winner of the season was a duo act: a man and his amazingly well-trained border collie.
With all the members gathered in one small room, one can’t help but think: Seventeen people is really a lot. Somehow, though, the atmosphere never feels hectic or overwhelming. The members begin hitting a series of geometric group poses concocted by Akane on the spot, carefully calibrating the angles of their arms and legs and their distance from one another.
Despite her petite stature, Akane is an imposing figure, cloaked in a quiet yet palpable air of authority. She’s exacting: Between shots, she and another member of the production staff gently weave through the small forest of be-wigged dancers, carefully adjusting their bangs, brushing aside errant hairs and ensuring that socks are properly pulled up. Nothing is left out of place.
After precisely an hour and a half, Avantgardey accomplishes a final pose, graciously presents us with branded stickers and immediately files out of the room, up the stairs and into a fleet of cars that will ferry the members to their next event. It happens so quickly, it’s nearly disorienting.
This intense coordination is to be expected, though. The hallmark of an Avantgardey performance is astonishing precision. Movements range dramatically in style and sensibility, graceful at times and nearly slapstick at others — they’ll all swoop around the stage with the refined air of modern dancers before rapidly switching to a low, stooped-over stance, arms swaying like pendulums, and then suddenly one member is being thrown in the air while four others crawl on their hands and knees. They’ll jitter around on tiptoe like a legion of haunted dolls or wobble in procession like baby quails following their mother, before breaking into a complex formation, undulating like an ocean wave.
Throughout, the members cycle through an array of exaggerated facial expressions, the sorts of faces you’d pull if a camera-wielding friend proclaimed, “Let’s take a silly one!”: duck-lipped pouts, crossed eyes with nostrils flared, eyes narrowed and mouths contorted into jokey lipsticked grimaces. One of their signature looks involves a hyperbolically blank expression, with the eyes held almost uncannily wide open. “During filming, our contact lenses often fall out,” jokes Nona, who is particularly skilled at emoting and often takes a center position.
The expressions, I think, are the crux of Avantgardey’s wide appeal. They create a unique tension, adding another dimension to the group’s performances. Their dances overwhelm the viewer with their meticulous uniformity, subsuming individual dancers into a perfectly synced unit. This, on its own, is the sort of thing we’ve all seen before; AGT is awash with large and astonishing dance groups. The tongue-in-cheek comic flourishes are something new. They serve as an invitation to examine each dancer closely, thinking about them as an individual … but, then again, they’re all painstakingly choreographed and practiced, too. Which makes the whole thing even more compelling — funny faces, timed perfectly, performed with utmost seriousness.
On AGT, the members said their dance is filled with Japanese spirit. What they mean by this isn’t something as obvious as their clothes or movements or song choices. When asked how she defines “Japanese spirit,” Akane gestures toward something more abstruse and profound. “I am not trying to express Japanese culture, but rather to express the subtlety and exquisiteness that is unique to Japan,” she says.
Sono, one of the members who acts as an MC for the group during public appearances, expounds more on this idea. “The Japanese culture I want to share with the world is one that is incredibly delicate and attentive to detail. Japanese craftsmanship and art often showcase meticulous attention to fine details, and I feel that this is highly valued globally,” she says. “As we create our performances, we also focus on precision, aligning our positions down to millimeters and matching the angles of our choreography. This attention to detail is a strength of Japanese culture that I want to convey to the world!”
Akane says she picked the members of Avantgardey because she recognized in each one a desire to express her own individuality and a drive to succeed. They might function like a machine, but they’re not meant to act as mere cogs in it. “Even though we all have the same hairstyle and wear the same uniform, I encourage those interested in Avantgardey to recognize that each of us has our own individuality despite the similar appearance,” she says. “I ask the members to self-produce and highlight their unique personalities.”
This is most evident on their social media accounts — each member has her own, in addition to the group’s official page — where different members showcase different talents, specialties and bits of their own making. Nona often goes viral for her videos of herself running in place, for instance, while Seira has a running gag of eating hot food to Michael Jackson music; Macchan likes filming and editing videos, so she uploads behind-the-scenes content and blooper reels. They also post shots from their practice room, K-pop dance covers and street-style photos of themselves out of costume; Miyuu, Moca and Pani are particularly fashionable.
What unites them all is a genuine love of performance, remarkable telegenic-ness, even (or perhaps especially) while making ridiculous facial expressions, and a goofy, charming affect. Their comradery is evident, even being around them for just a short amount of time. “Because there are so many of us, practice feels like being at school, which is a lot of fun,” says Moca. “I spend most of the day with the members,” notes Kotone.
If the group’s current schedule is any indication, that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. In the past few months, they’ve performed in Hong Kong and Taipei and collaborated with a parade of brands and noteworthy figures, including — to name a few — Suzuki, Cetaphil, Onitsuka Tiger, the filmmaker Stephen Chow, the Jabbawockeez, the city of Osaka, Crocs and Netflix Japan. Their ultimate goal, says Akane, is to perform in Las Vegas; along the way, they want to “leave a one-of-a-kind avant-garde impact that, once seen, will not be forgotten.”
“Performing or dancing with a large group is certainly challenging, but it has 17 times the power compared to dancing alone,” she says. “I believe that this large number of people coming together makes it possible to convey even more energy.”
Check out Avantgardey on Instagram at and on YouTube.
