Kensaku Shinohara (choreographer / performer) 

Born in Sapporo, Japan, Kensaku Shinohara is an immigrant, researcher, and interdisciplinary dance artist. His praxis draws on anthropology, sound exploration, and intimate collaboration, which informs his work as a choreographer, videographer, and performer.  The cultural friction he experienced after immigrating to New York City in 2009 prompted his current research around sexuality, masculinity, rage, boundaries and being an outsider in the places we call home. Through movement, soundscape creation, and play, he investigates the primal forces that move and motivate our lives, while simultaneously challenging social hierarchy, systems of power, and the individual values we each hold true. His work invites and provokes the disruption of the audience’s comfort. Described as being "Haunting" (Steven Vargas, LA Dance Chronicle) and “intense, weirdly angry and dryly hilarious” (Sheldon Smith, ODC Dance Stories), Shinohara’s highly physical, experimental work has been presented at venues such as Queens Museum, JACK, Movement Research at Judson, St. Mark's Church (New York City), REDCAT, François Ghebaly, Japanese Cultural & Community Center (Los Angeles), ODC Theater (San Francisco), Chaillot Théâtre national de la Danse (Paris), Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (Lisbon), Seed Dance (Tainan) as well as venues in Tucson, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Kuala Lumpur, and major cities in Japan.  Shinohara has been supported by New York Foundation on the Arts, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Japan Foundation New York, 92nd Y Harkness Dance Center, Queens Arts Fund (New York City), CultureHub LA (Los Angeles), Kunstencentrum BUDA (Belgium), among many others. ​As a performer, Shinohara has performed with artists such as Ishmael Houston-Jones, Dimitri Chamblas + Kim Gordon, Will Rawls, Daria Faïn, Yoshiko Chuma. He has also appeared in commercial films/events for Calvin Klein and Grand Seiko. He is a founding member of LA-based experimental band, Perfect Band. He holds a BA in anthropology from International Christian University in Tokyo, and an MFA in choreography from California Institute of the Arts. 

photo: Angel Origgi / REDCAT