Dance

Yayoi Hirano

Born and raised in Japan, Yayoi is a graduate of Toho Gakuen College of Drama. In 1989, she became the first mime artist to receive the Japanese Ministry of Education Fellowship and spent a year collaborating with mime and dance artists in Germany and Canada. She has lived in Vancouver since 2002. Yayoi has extensive […]

Colleen Lanki

Colleen Lanki has been directing, choreographing and performing internationally for over two decades in shows of every variety. She has a BFA in Theatre Performance from Toronto’s York University and an MFA in Asian Theatre and Directing from the University of Hawaii. From 1995 to 2001, Colleen was based in Tokyo, where she studied nihon […]

Kanon Suzuki Hewitt

Kanon Suzuki Hewitt is a hafu Japanese/American who grew up in Tokyo, and currently lives, studies, and works in Canada. She began ballet at age four, which quickly blossomed into a love of dance, theatre, and other performing arts. Since age 12, Kanon has performed as a professional actor and dancer, and stage managed, assistant […]

Hiroe Hoshi aka Negma

Hiroe Hoshi aka Negma is a professional bellydancer based in Victoria Vancouver Island BC. She has been performing belly dance in Tokyo Japan, Dubai UAE, Vancouver Canada. ​In Arabic, the word Negma means Star which is a literal translation of Negma’s Japanese family name. Negma’s belly dance career began 14 years ago at Karima Arabian […]

June Fukumura

June Fukumura is a second generation Japanese-Canadian inter-disciplinary theatre artist with a BFA in Theatre Performance and a Certificate in Sustainable Community Development from Simon Fraser University. ​June is the Co-Founder of New(to)Town Collective an artist collective with a mandate to create new experimental works; provide ongoing accessible physical theatre training and experimental research workshops […]

Aretha Aoki

Aretha Aoki is a choreographer, performer, and Assistant Professor of Dance at Bowdoin College. Her current research is an exploration of the body as a medium for the residue of family history. Aretha’s work has been presented at various venues throughout New York City, New England, and Canada. She works in collaboration with other artists, […]

Teresa Kobayashi

Teresa Kobayashi is a master koto player, the daughter of renowned koto sensei Miyoko Kobayashi. She also plays the shamisen and shakuhachi and danced odori for 27 years. As a child, she was primarily interested in dance, and began learning the Hanayagi style of nihonbuyo (odori dance) at the age of six. However, she found […]

Peter Kosaka

Peter Kosaka is a Japanese-born actor who built a film and theatre career primarily in Toronto, all while working a day job in finance. He came to Canada to study acting at the University of Windsor, receiving his BFA in 1985. After graduating, he worked as a dancer in a modern dance company, and later […]

Tsuneko Kokubo

Tsuneko Kokubo was born in Steveston BC in 1937, and raised in Japan. Returning to Canada in her late teens, she studied Fine Arts for four years at Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University), focussing on drawing and painting. She has worked extensively in theatre as a performer (physical theatre and dance) and […]

Dawn Obokata

Dawn Obokata has been acting professionally since 1980. A graduate of the University of Toronto, Dawn is a long-time artistic collaborator with Actor’s Lab Theatre in Toronto, (now known as LeTHAL) where she has created several image and movement-based performances. Dawn has toured in Canada and Europe with her solo performance Soulscape Wilderness Trilogy, a […]

David Shimotakahara

David Shimotakahara is the founder and Executive Artistic Director of GroundWorks DanceTheater dedicated to the creation, production and presentation of new work in Dance. Based in Cleveland OH, since 1998 this group of outstanding artists has introduced dance lovers and neophytes alike to an experience that is unconventional, yet deeply human and resonating. GroundWorks continually […]

Lisa Betts-LaCroix

Lisa Betts-LaCroix is a writer, speaker, actor and dancer. A champion of radical educational reform, Lisa co-founded of a network of 350+ families in the San Francisco Bay area who independently educate their children outside of traditional school; the group sets new precedents for community-based, independent learning for high-ability kids. Her Free Learning Dinner Salons […]

Jay Hirabayashi

Jay Hirabayashi was born in Seattle, Washington in 1947, but grew up in Beirut, Lebanon, Cairo, Egypt, and Edmonton, Alberta. He has a B.A. degree from the University of Alberta and a M.A. degree from the UBC in Buddhist philosophy. In 1978, Hirabayashi began a career as a dance artist. After performing with several prominent […]

Denise Fujiwara

Denise Fujiwara is a choreographer, dancer, teacher and presenter. EUNOIA, her multimedia adaptation of Christian Bök’s award-winning book was premiered by World Stage at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, and received three Dora nominations; it was named one of NOW’s Top 5 Dance Shows of 2014, and has begun national touring. In 2015 she was a […]

Chiyoko Izumi

Chiyoko Izumi is an odori dance instructor in Hamilton, Ontario, who has been teaching odori for over 70 years. She began to study odori at age 10 in Vancouver, two years before she was sent to Japan to care for her sick grandmother. Izumi returned to Canada after her grandmother’s death, and married her husband […]