KIZUNA DANCE

With more than 17 years of Japanese language study, Cameron McKinney (Artistic Director of Kizuna Dance) created Kizuna Dance with the mission of using contemporary floorwork to create works that celebrate Japanese culture. He was recently selected as a 2019-20 U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission Creative Artist Fellow to collaborate with renowned Japanese choreographer Toru Shimazaki and present work in showcases in Japan. He has been a Choreography Fellow at The School at Jacob’s Pillow, an Alvin Ailey Foundation New Directions Choreography Lab Fellow, a Hearst Choreographer-in-Resdience at Princeton University, and an Asian Cultural Council Individual Grantee. His work has been supported through grants from the New York City Artists Corps, the Rader Young Artists Foundation, DanceNYC, and Brooklyn Arts Council. He recently collaborated with filmmaker Cayla Mae Simpson to create TOKIMEKI BLUE, a month-long dance film installation which recently premiered in the Fosdick-Nelson Gallery in Alfred, NY in September 2021.

 

Through Kizuna Dance, Cameron has also presented work and taught in twenty states and in Mexico, France, and the UK, as well as in Japan at the U.S. Ambassador's Residence and at Morishita Studios. His commissions include The Ailey School, Princeton University, twice from the Joffrey Ballet School, twice from the Let’s Dance International Frontiers Festival (UK), Slippery Rock University, The Dance Gallery Festival, Indiana University, and Bates College, among numerous others. His teaching credits include Adjunct & Visiting Lecturer positions at Princeton University, Montclair University, Bard College, and Queensborough Community College. He has taught on faculty at Gibney Dance since 2016, and has taught for festivals nationally and internationally.

 

He is currently building Nagare Technique, a training module that blends streetdance styles and contemporary floorwork. In 2021, he launched the inaugural Open Intensive, a week of day-long intensives made entirely free for all participants, featuring high-quality dance education provided by the company artists of Kizuna Dance.