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 and completed a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts, concentration in Dance, cum laude, from Sonoma State University (California, USA) and a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Hollins University (Virginia, USA). In 2014, she founded a nonprofit performance art company, Lisa Kusanagi Dance Expressionist, in New York City and co-founded an interdisciplinary art company, Kusanagi Sisters, with her sister JuJu Kusanagi. Based in Tokyo, NYC, and Seattle, Kusanagi Sisters has produced intermedia live performances and experimental 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 and programs such as Movement Research at the Judson Church (New York, USA), Judson Church STUFFED (New York, USA), Danspace Project DraftWork (New York, USA), Harlem Stage E-Moves 16: The Takeover (New York, USA), HATCH Presenting Series (New York, USA), Sonoma State University (California, USA), American College Dance Festival-West Region (California, USA), D.I.R.T. Festival-Dance In Revolt(ing) Times: Holding Our Ground 2017 (California, USA), Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival 2016 (Michigan, USA), Winona State University (Minnesota, 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 across the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Czech Republic, Albania, Kenya, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Chile, China, Taiwan R.O.C., Indonesia, and Australia; at venues including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, AMC Theatres, The Four Seasons Hotel, and JW Marriott Hotel Los Angeles L.A. Live. Kusanagi Sisters' original films itsy bitsy and kopitoto have received many recognition and awards including Lawther/Graff No Violence Award at the Academy Award qualifying the 60th Ann Arbor Film Festival (2022), 2nd Place in The Best of 2021 in the Theaters by Het Parool Amsterdam-based daily newspaper (2021), Audience Favorite Award at the Cornish Screendance Festival (2021), Best Dance Film Award nomination at BAFTA-qualifying the 10th Aesthetica Short Film Festival (2020), Finalist at the 18th Annual Dance Camera West (2020), #mydancefilm Winner at the 47th Annual Dance on Camera Festival (2019), Semi-Finalist at the San Mauro Film Festival (2018), Best International Film Finalist at the Bestias Danzantes Festival de Cine de Danza (2016), First Place at the Utah Dance Film Festival (2016), Award Finalist at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival (2016), Audience Choice Award at the 40 NORTH Dance Film Festival (2015). According to the Los Angeles Times, "kopitoto is lighthearted and weird, invoking hidden forest creatures and the life of a wintry Japanese wood itself. It’s the unholy alliance of Willy Wonka and an ‘80s Residents video (without the menace but with 100 times the technical skill)." — written by Michael Ordoña, January 8, 2020. Seattledance 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" -- written Megan Stevenson by December 18, 2015.
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 (sound 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 Universidad de las Americas Puebla (Mexico; 2015-2017), her teaching and research focus on ethics and responsibilities of being a body-based artist. As a guest-teacher, she has given master classes and workshops at Winona State University (Minnesota, USA), Patrick Henry High School (Virginia, USA), Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival (Michigan), 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 (Minnesota, USA), and a juror of 92nd Street Y Mobile Dance Film Festival 2019 (New York, USA) and 2018 Midwest RAD Fest: Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival Screendance (Michigan, USA).
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 and completed a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts, concentration in Dance, cum laude, from Sonoma State University (California, USA) and a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Hollins University (Virginia, USA). In 2014, she founded a nonprofit performance art company, Lisa Kusanagi Dance Expressionist, in New York City and co-founded an interdisciplinary art company, Kusanagi Sisters, with her sister JuJu Kusanagi. Based in Tokyo, NYC, and Seattle, Kusanagi Sisters has produced intermedia live performances and experimental 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 and programs such as Movement Research at the Judson Church (New York, USA), Judson Church STUFFED (New York, USA), Danspace Project DraftWork (New York, USA), Harlem Stage E-Moves 16: The Takeover (New York, USA), HATCH Presenting Series (New York, USA), Sonoma State University (California, USA), American College Dance Festival-West Region (California, USA), D.I.R.T. Festival-Dance In Revolt(ing) Times: Holding Our Ground 2017 (California, USA), Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival 2016 (Michigan, USA), Winona State University (Minnesota, 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 across the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Czech Republic, Albania, Kenya, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Chile, China, Taiwan R.O.C., Indonesia, and Australia; at venues including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, AMC Theatres, The Four Seasons Hotel, and JW Marriott Hotel Los Angeles L.A. Live. Kusanagi Sisters' original films itsy bitsy and kopitoto have received many recognition and awards including Lawther/Graff No Violence Award at the Academy Award qualifying the 60th Ann Arbor Film Festival (2022), 2nd Place in The Best of 2021 in the Theaters by Het Parool Amsterdam-based daily newspaper (2021), Audience Favorite Award at the Cornish Screendance Festival (2021), Best Dance Film Award nomination at BAFTA-qualifying the 10th Aesthetica Short Film Festival (2020), Finalist at the 18th Annual Dance Camera West (2020), #mydancefilm Winner at the 47th Annual Dance on Camera Festival (2019), Semi-Finalist at the San Mauro Film Festival (2018), Best International Film Finalist at the Bestias Danzantes Festival de Cine de Danza (2016), First Place at the Utah Dance Film Festival (2016), Award Finalist at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival (2016), Audience Choice Award at the 40 NORTH Dance Film Festival (2015). According to the Los Angeles Times, "kopitoto is lighthearted and weird, invoking hidden forest creatures and the life of a wintry Japanese wood itself. It’s the unholy alliance of Willy Wonka and an ‘80s Residents video (without the menace but with 100 times the technical skill)." — written by Michael Ordoña, January 8, 2020. Seattledance 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" -- written Megan Stevenson by December 18, 2015.
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 (sound 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 Universidad de las Americas Puebla (Mexico; 2015-2017), her teaching and research focus on ethics and responsibilities of being a body-based artist. As a guest-teacher, she has given master classes and workshops at Winona State University (Minnesota, USA), Patrick Henry High School (Virginia, USA), Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival (Michigan), 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 (Minnesota, USA), and a juror of 92nd Street Y Mobile Dance Film Festival 2019 (New York, USA) and 2018 Midwest RAD Fest: Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival Screendance (Michigan, USA).
