A Brief Biography

 

Keiko Kitano has most recently worked in the Dance Major program of Japan Women's College of Physical Education. From 1991 – 2003, she was a principle dancer of Miyako Kato Dance Space. In 1996, She started working as a solo dance artist and was invited to many international dance festivals abroad. In 2001, she founded the Tokyo Dance Collective with Rick Thomson and TAMURANMUSIC(Hiroshi Tamura), with the aim of unifying Dance, Music and Multimedia.

 

She has resided in Toronto since April 2003, and most recently began working with Sonora (at the 2004 Distillery Jazz Festival) creating improvised works of dance, media and music, as well as working with violinist Parmela Attariwara (at DaiDonDen in 2004 and fFIDA 2005). Her choreography has also been seen at Sooryu Dance Festival 2004, CANFAR 2004 at the ROM and the “Visit Japan Campaign” in 2005 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

 

Her latest collaboration piece has been seen at Dai Don Den 2 in March 2006 with 4 collaborators (musician, costume designer from Tokyo, visual artists from Toronto). She always enjoys working with artists from different disciplines and cultural backgrounds yet with similar sensibilities. Her interests are in forms of Japanese dance and Butoh both for study and dance creation. Keiko is one of the co-founders of Green Tea, a Collective of Japanese Dance Artists in Toronto, and she holds a Master's degree in Dance.