I am a dance artist, creator, performer, educator, and arts advocate. I create performances that explore the socio-political possibilities of transformation and empathy - portals which are most important to the nature of being human. Rooted in a physical and linguistic body, my work occupies an interdisciplinary space where elements of ontology, philosophy, musicology, science, and perhaps even the supernatural dance alongside one another.
My choreographic works have been presented throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, China, Japan, and extensively across Europe. I've created work for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Ormao Dance Company, and have received invitations from Danspace Project, Gibney Dance, Movement Research at Judson Church, The Joyce Theater (NY), Performática (Mexico), Tangente (Montreal), Kampnagel (Hamburg), Dansehallerne (Copenhagen), La Briqueterie - CDC Val-de-Marne (France), Dansateliers (Rotterdam), La Visiva (Barcelona), Body Arts Lab (Tokyo), and the i-Dance Festival (Hong Kong), amongst others. Notable highlights include my duet Bridge, which has performed in over 6 different countries, my solo The Clean State, which was a finalist in the Sadlers Wells Global Dance contest in London, UK, and my first evening-length work Sound Memory, which was selected as "Best Dances of 2009" by Time Out New York Magazine.
Other commissions/presentations include: American Realness Festival/AUNTS, PS 122 (NY), Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (MA), Dance Ireland (Dublin), and Dance Italia (Italy). I've been supported as an Artist in Residence at K3 Tanzplan Hamburg, in Germany, Joyce SoHo in New York, Springboard Danse in Montreal, and Bates Dance Festival in Maine. I was a danceWEB scholar at the Impulstanz Festival in Vienna, where I was mentored by and worked with Robin Poitras and Benoît Lachambre. In 2015, I was a US/Japan Creative Artist Fellow, where I studied Butoh at the Kazuo Ohno Studio in Yokohama and began collaborating with Kota Yamazaki.
I have been fortunate to perform with the Staatstheater Kassel Tanztheater under Johannes Wieland and be a founding member of his company. I performed in numerous works, notably the duet Shift, which won the Kurt Jooss Award in 2004. During that time (2002-2008), I was also a founding member of Larry Keigwin's company and additionally worked with Shapiro and Smith, Lar Lubovitch, Doug Elkins, Eun Me Ahn, Kevin Wynn, and the Metropolitan Opera with Doug Varone. Since then, I have worked with Wally Cardona, Steve Paxton, Christopher Williams, Irish Modern Dance Theater with John Scott, Erik Kaiel, Deufert & Plischke, Daria Faïn, Takahiro Yamamoto, Celia Rowlson-Hall, and continue to collaborate with Jocelyn Tobias, Jeanine Durning, and Kota Yamazaki. I received a New York Dance and Performance 'Bessie' Award Nomination for Sustained Achievement in Performance, in addition to being of Janessa Clarke's work Communion, which was nominated for Outstanding Production.
As a half Japanese - American artist, I was born in Tokyo, Japan and was raised in Northern California where I began breakdancing. I attended the Idyllwild Arts Academy and later studied Asian Cultural Studies, Documentary Filmmaking, and Dance at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, spending a semester abroad at SEAD-Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance, in Salzburg, Austria and earning my BFA. I completed the Master of Choreography program (currently Master of Theatre Practices) at ArtEZ University in Arnhem Netherlands in 2012 and received my MFA in Dance from the University of the Arts Philadelphia in 2019.
As an Assistant Professor, I currently teach courses in contemporary dance, improvisation, composition, and interdisciplinary performance in the Theatre and Dance Department at The University of Vermont in Burlington.