Lisa Kusanagi, MFA, is a Japanese artist with expertise in choreography, performance art, and dance film. She leverages her trans-national upbringings and influences in the creative elements of her conceptual projects. She investigates conceptual virtuosity through physical artistry.
Born in Tokyo, Lisa 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 partnership with the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (Frankfurt, Germany), The Forsythe Company (Frankfurt, Germany), and the American Dance Festival (North Carolina and New York, 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, 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 (Puebla, Mexico), Danza UDLAP (Puebla, Mexico), Performática 2016 (Puebla, Mexico), Australasian Animal Studies Association Conference closing event: Animal Intersections (Adelaide, 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, Greece, Albania, Kenya, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, China, Taiwan, Macao, Indonesia, Australia, and Japan; at venues including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Michigan Theater, AMC Theatres, The Four Seasons Hotel, JW Marriott Hotel Los Angeles L.A. Live, and Cineteca Nacional Mexico. Kusanagi Sisters' 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), The 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.
As an Assistant Professor of Dance, Tenure Track, at the Universidad de las Americas Puebla (Puebla, Mexico; 2015-2017) and a full-time faculty/Research Associate at the J.F. Oberlin University (Tokyo, Japan; 2020-2023), and her teaching and practice-based research focus on choreography and ethics and responsibilities of being a body-based artist. As a guest artist, she has choreographed new dance pieces and given workshops at Winona State University (Minnesota, USA), Patrick Henry High School (Virginia, USA), Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival (Michigan, USA), Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla (Puebla, Mexico), Performática (Puebla, Mexico), Australasian Animal Studies Association (Adelaide, Australia), and Sharing Project Napoli (Naples, Italy).
In 2022, she founded an international short film festival, the MUNI Film Festival, in Japan with JuJu Kusanagi. The MUNI Film Festival has premiered and screened internationally recognized short films and hosted guest artists such as Mahboobeh Kalaee (Iran) and Dr Lars Koens (Netherlands & UK) in venues such as Sainokuni Saitama Art Theater (Saitama, Japan) and J.F. Oberlin University (Tokyo, Japan).
Lisa is a 2018 Winona State University Artist-in-Residence (Minnesota, USA), 2023 Pola Art Foundation Grant for Emerging Artists fellow (Japan), and Miami Light Project: Here & Now 2024 commissioned artist (Florida, USA).
Born in Tokyo, Lisa 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 partnership with the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (Frankfurt, Germany), The Forsythe Company (Frankfurt, Germany), and the American Dance Festival (North Carolina and New York, 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, 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 (Puebla, Mexico), Danza UDLAP (Puebla, Mexico), Performática 2016 (Puebla, Mexico), Australasian Animal Studies Association Conference closing event: Animal Intersections (Adelaide, 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, Greece, Albania, Kenya, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, China, Taiwan, Macao, Indonesia, Australia, and Japan; at venues including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Michigan Theater, AMC Theatres, The Four Seasons Hotel, JW Marriott Hotel Los Angeles L.A. Live, and Cineteca Nacional Mexico. Kusanagi Sisters' 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), The 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.
As an Assistant Professor of Dance, Tenure Track, at the Universidad de las Americas Puebla (Puebla, Mexico; 2015-2017) and a full-time faculty/Research Associate at the J.F. Oberlin University (Tokyo, Japan; 2020-2023), and her teaching and practice-based research focus on choreography and ethics and responsibilities of being a body-based artist. As a guest artist, she has choreographed new dance pieces and given workshops at Winona State University (Minnesota, USA), Patrick Henry High School (Virginia, USA), Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival (Michigan, USA), Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla (Puebla, Mexico), Performática (Puebla, Mexico), Australasian Animal Studies Association (Adelaide, Australia), and Sharing Project Napoli (Naples, Italy).
In 2022, she founded an international short film festival, the MUNI Film Festival, in Japan with JuJu Kusanagi. The MUNI Film Festival has premiered and screened internationally recognized short films and hosted guest artists such as Mahboobeh Kalaee (Iran) and Dr Lars Koens (Netherlands & UK) in venues such as Sainokuni Saitama Art Theater (Saitama, Japan) and J.F. Oberlin University (Tokyo, Japan).
Lisa is a 2018 Winona State University Artist-in-Residence (Minnesota, USA), 2023 Pola Art Foundation Grant for Emerging Artists fellow (Japan), and Miami Light Project: Here & Now 2024 commissioned artist (Florida, USA).
