Biography

Biography

Lisa Kusanagi, MFA, is a Japanese conceptual artist. Her expertise contributes to a wide variety of roles including body expressionist, director, choreographer, performance artist, filmmaker, and educator. She leverages her multi-cultural upbringing to influence the creative elements in her highly conceptual projects.

Born in Tokyo, Kusanagi was raised in Japan, Australia and the United States, and began her formal dance training at a young age at Tokyo’s Matsuyama Ballet School. She moved to the United States to pursue her education in 2007 and completed a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts, concentration in Dance, cum, laude, from Sonoma State University (CA, USA) and an Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Hollins University (VA, USA). In 2014, she founded a nonprofit performance art company, Lisa Kusanagi Dance Expressionist, in New York City and co-founded an experimental art company, Kusanagi Sisters, with her sister JuJu Kusanagi. Based in Tokyo, NYC, and Seattle, Kusanagi Sisters has produced live performances and films worldwide.

She is also known for her virtuosic physicality as a performer and has been praised for her "wit, skill, and a mind lustrous and inexhaustible" (CriticalDance.org). Her dance and performance art works have been presented in venues such as Movement Research at the Judson Church (NY, USA), Judson Church STUFFED (NY, USA), Danspace Project DraftWork (NY, USA), Harlem Stage E-Moves 16: The Takeover (NY, USA), HATCH Presenting Series (NY, USA), Sonoma State University (CA, USA), American College Dance Festival-West Region (CA, USA), D.I.R.T. Festival-Dance In Revolt(ing) Times: Holding Our Ground 2017 (CA, USA), Hollins University (VA, USA), Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival 2016 (MI, USA), Winona State University (MN, USA), Universidad de las Americas Puebla (Mexico), Danza UDLAP (Mexico), Performática 2016 (Mexico), Australasian Animal Studies Association Conference closing event: Animal Intersections (Australia), and others.

Her films, including work by Kusanagi Sisters, have been screened over 30 festivals, 12 universities, 3 galas, and many venues including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, AMC Theatres, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, and the JW Marriott Hotel Los Angeles billboards as part of L.A. Live, across the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Albania, Kenya, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Chile, China, and Indonesia. One of Kusanagi Sisters' original films, itsy bitsy, has received many recognition and several awards including First Place at 2016 Utah Dance Film Festival (UT, USA) and Audience Choice Award at 40 NORTH Dance Film Festival 2015 (CA, USA). Critic Megan Stevenson wrote, "The sisters, in canary yellow lipstick, performed delicate finger dances in a mushroom forest, sipped through novelty straws, carefully stepped over eyeballs on a bark floor, and played mushrooms like musical wine glasses. ...In this film (and often in the world), sometimes weirdness is paradise" (Seattledances.com). Their new collaborative dance film "kopitoto" won #mydancefilm at the 47th edition of Dance on Camera Festival 2019 and is premiered at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (NY, USA).

Kusanagi has been a member of Mark Haim Dance and Theater since 2012 and has performed in work by Yvonne Meier, Reggie Wilson, JoAnna Mendl Shaw, Fernanda D’Agostino, Kiani del Valle, The House of ia, Jacqulyn Buglisi, among other artists. With decades of dance and performing arts experience and bodily art exploration, she has collaborated on productions with international artists across multiple disciplines, such as: Yvonne Meier (choreographer, USA), Demelza Kooij (filmmaker, UK), Lars Koens (sounds artist, UK), Elise Schweitzer (painter, USA), Rashida Bolden (makeup artist, USA), Yi En Chen (choreographer, Taiwan), Naomi Rey Shalev (collage artist, Israel), Maxwell Transue (composer, USA), and Ran Bagno (composer, Israel).

As an Assistant Professor of Dance (Tenure Track) at University of the Americas (Mexico; 2015-2017), Kusanagi focused on teaching what it is to be a body-based artist, and its ethics and responsibilities. She has taught dramaturgy, performance and ethics, dance-for-camera, dance studies, contemporary and modern dance, ballet, alternative techniques, repertoire, dance profession, and senior thesis projects. As a guest-teacher, she has given master classes and workshops at Winona State University (MN), Sonoma State University (CA), Patrick Henry High School (VA), Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival (MI), Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla (Mexico), Performática (Mexico), Australasian Animal Studies Association (Australia), and Sharing Project Napoli (Italy).

Kusanagi was a 2018 Artist in Resident at Winona State University (MN). She is an adjudicator for 92nd Street Y Mobile Dance Film Festival 2019 (NY) and 2018 Midwest RAD Fest: Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival Screendance (MI).

As of 2019, she is based in Tokyo, Japan and working internationally.

プロフィール

東京生まれ、東京・シドニー・アメリカ育ち。
4歳からクラシックバレエを始め、13歳で松山バレエ学校本校で本格的にバレエを学ぶ。
明治学院高校卒業後渡米し、カリフォルニア州立大学ソノマ校ダンス科でモダン・コンテンポラリーダンスを学び、首席で学士号取得。
後、ヴァージニア州ホリンズ大学院で首席でダンス修士号を取得。
2012年からワシントン州、シアトルの Mark Haim Dance Theater のカンパニーメンバーとして振付家マークハイムの元で働き、彼の代表作の１つであり、全米で高い評価を受けた "This Land Is Your Land" のオリジナルメンバーにキャストされ、全米・パリツアー公演を経験。
2014年にニューヨークで NPO法人 Lisa Kusanagi Dance Expressionist を設立し、Judson Church、St. Mark's Danspace Project、Harlem Stageなどのアメリカの歴史ある劇場で数多くの芸術作品を振付け・製作・監督・演出し、アメリカ、ドイツ、フランス、メキシコ、オーストラリアでの独自の作品のツアー公演経験を積む。
同年、芸術家である妹、JuJu Kusanagi と共に Kusanagi Sisters を設立し、共に映画と舞台のプロデュースを始める。Kusanagi Sistersの今までのオリジナル作品はパフォーマンスとショートフィルムを含めこれまでで、世界18カ国 (アメリカ、イギリス、フランス、イタリア、スペイン、ポルトガル、ベルギー、スウェーデン、ノルウェー、アルバニア、ケニア、オーストラリア、メキシコ、キューバ、コロンビア、チリ、インドネシア、中国）アメリカ25州で公演・上映された。Kusanagi Sisters のダンスフィルムの一つ、"itsy bitsy" は 2015年にアメリカ・カリフォルニア州の 40 NORTH Dance Film Festival で観客賞を受賞、2016年にアメリカ・ユタ州のUtah Dance Film Festivalで１等を受賞。2015年11月から2016年2月まで L.A. LIVE の一部としてロサンゼルスの JW Marriott Hotel の LED広告掲示板に映画 "itsy bitsy" が上映される。新作ダンスフィルム"kopitoto" は第47回 Dance on Camera Festival 2019の#mydancefilmに入賞し、ニューヨークのリンカーン・センターにて2019年7月にプレミア上映される。
2015年から2017年の間、メキシコ名門私立大学 Universidad de las Americas Pueblaにて、准教授 (テニュア・終身雇用資格取得)として身体・舞台芸術、ダンス(コンテンポラリー・モダン、クラシックバレエ)、振付、ダンスフィルム、芸術理論、芸術哲学などを教える。その他、アメリカ、オーストラリア、イタリア、メキシコの大学や協議会から招待され、公演やマスタークラスを設け、舞台・身体芸術を教える。
2017年11月、The New York Times で演技と制作したショートフィルムが評価される。
現在は、2019年度から東京を拠点に、海外の映画祭の審査員として活躍している他、舞台・パフォーマンスアート・映画の製作・監督・演出・プロデュースをしている。