Born with a hearing disability, Ken Kanokozawa developed a liking for dance from a young age, and subsequently joined the Tsukuba University of Technology dance school Soul Impression and studied street dance formally. He then started doing contemporary dance in 2015. In summer 2016, he traveled by himself to the United States to study various dance styles. With his motto of “Just Be Yourself,” Kanokozawa is now widely active as an artist in dance, musicals, and film. He is also an accompanist for the SLOW CIRCUS PROJECT, Japan’s first social circus company. His numerous credits as a performer include the contemporary circus show sense of oneness at the Yokohama Paratriennale 2017, the musical HONK! by Phamaly at the 2020 True Colors festival, and the opening and closing ceremonies for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

This project is an attempt to make new creative experiences for the performing arts in the digital age. Based on the universally understood lion dance, and the result of a collaboration between an innovative Okinawa eisa folk dance group, the Tokyo-based art group GRINDER-MAN, and the visual design studio WOW, the performance was first staged at Garaman Hall (Ginoza Village Cultural Center), Okinawa, in 2020. Two 3D-printed gold and silver lion head costumes, gradually awakening dancers, and live vocals and piano music are fused in real time with augmented reality, and streamed online. In 2021, the performance was held in four outdoor locations in Shibuya.
https://shishi.grinder-man.com/

Tokyo Field of Expression Club is an inclusive dance group launched at Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre in June 2019. High school student and other young people both with and without disabilities enjoy free and natural forms of physical expression, mutually energizing each other’s personalities and ideas, and creating new dance performances together. Regardless of ability or disability, they work together to create and to express through their body the things that emanate from within. Since 2021, the project has also conducted outreach activities at social welfare facilities in Tokyo.
https://www.geigeki.jp/performance/tokyonohara_2022/

Hiroko Nishi (President, Inclusive Field for Dance)

Hiroko Nishi, PhD, is a professor at Toyo Eiwa Jogakuin. After studying traditional modern, and contemporary dance at Ochanomizu University at both undergraduate and graduate levels, she has continued to work with different kinds of people, including those with physical impairments, mental and developmental disorders, and visual or hearing disabilities, to stage performances in and outside Japan and such practices as creative physical expression by children, dance theory at psychiatric hospital wards, and inclusive dance in communities. Consistently engaging with diversity throughout her career, Nishi has recently proposed a shift from inclusion to co-creation, and is developing a theory and practice of “co-creating facilitation,” from which emerges free and vital expression. She has served as chief facilitator of Tokyo Field of Expression Club since 2019.

Nanae Koizuka (Musician / Instructor, Toyo Eiwa Jogakuin)

Nanae Koizuka is a pianist. She graduated from Kyushu University’s 21st Century Program, receiving the President Award. Her studies at university focused on cultural policy, bringing her into contact with outreach activities where performers take their music to listeners to share directly. She has since pursued research and music as her life’s work. Koizuka completed a master’s degree and doctorate at the Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Music, receiving the Acanthus Music Award. She has performed with the Central Aichi Symphony Orchestra and Kyushu Symphony Orchestra, and for the Agency of Cultural Affairs Emerging Musicians Training Project Orchestra Series.

Hitomi Nagano (Musician)

Hitomi Nagano is a percussionist and member of the percussion duo Kameha and the piano, flute, cello, and percussion quartet The Circle. She completed undergraduate and graduate degrees at Tokyo University of the Arts, winning the Acanthus Music Award for the latter. Nagano is active across a wide range of styles and genres, including premiering many new pieces as well as solos, ensembles, theater performances, recordings, and concerts. She is also a committed advocate of music in education and welfare, performing on-site, holding music classes, teaching brass brand clubs, and assisting with music therapy.

Masaharu Nagano (Musician)

Masaharu Nagano is a percussionist. He holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from Tokyo University of the Arts, receiving the Doseikai Award for the former. He then appeared that year at the Doseikai’s New Performers Concert. He won the top prize in the snare drum category at the Italy Percussion Competition. At the Japan Society for Contemporary Music’s 12th Contemporary Music Contest Kyogaku, he received the Jury Special Encouragement Prize. With EITETSU FU-UN no KAI, Nagano has toured Europe, performing as a Japanese taiko drum soloist in twelve locations, including the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, Musikverein in Venna, and Berlin Philharmonic. He has also performed on numerous soundtrack recordings, including the anime film Belle.