February 24, 2018
This post was originally published by Sarah Ray, Middlebury College Newsroom

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – “There’s something that’s actually really incredible about creating movement in your own body and then allowing that movement to live in someone else’s” says dancer and choreographer Cameron McKinney ’4, “because as soon as you give it away, it’s already different because no two bodies are the same.”

McKinney recently spent a week at Middlebury in residence with his dance company Kizuna, which he founded in 2014. In a weeklong “takeover,” Kizuna members taught all courses in the dance department’s curriculum. Kizuna, a Japanese word meaning bonds or connections between people, reflects McKinney’s interest in Japanese language and culture. He is currently developing a movement style that blends Japanese influences with aspects of capoeira, street dance, and contemporary floor work.

Cameron McKinney ’14 returned to Middlebury with his dance company Kizuna to teach classes and perform.

In the few short years since he graduated from Middlebury—where he first began dancing—McKinney has set to work filling a niche in the dance world that he felt was missing. And he’s been successful. He was recently named a participant in the Alvin Ailey Foundation’s New Directions Choreography Lab, was chosen as one of ten emerging choreographers for Doug Varone’s DEVICES choreographic mentorship program in 2015, and is on faculty at Gibney Dance Center. He has also taught on faculty at the Joffrey Dance School, the Southern Vermont Dance Festival, and Williamsburg Movement and Arts Center.

McKinney and his company capped of their weeklong residency with a performance at the Mahaney Center’s dance theatre.

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Cameron brings Kizuna Dance to the MIIS campus from March 5th – 10th, 2018. Cited in the Huffington Post as “one of the best performances of 2017”!

• Tuesday, March 6 Performance of full repertory at the Chautauqua Hall in Pacific Grove 7-8:30 p.m. Co-sponsored by the Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce.
• Thursday, March 8: Dances born from Revolution: How Japanese Butoh Ideologies Can Influence Streetdance, lecture-demonstration. 7-8:30 p.m. Irvine Auditorium, 499 Pierce Street, Monterey.
• Friday, March 9: Movement Workshop, 11 a.m.– 12:15 p.m. at Carmel Barre, 465 Pacific Street ($12 fee for non-Institute participants)
• Saturday, March 10: Berkeley performance and Middlebury alumni events, 8:00 p.m. Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, 2704 Alcatraz Ave. Berkeley, CA 94705. Tickets: $15/$12. Limited seating: reserve here: https://www.artful.ly/store/events/14336

Learn more about Kizuna Dance
Kizuna Dance Marketing Kit 2017. PDF