Cameron McKinney

KIZUNA DANCE
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Described as “mesmerizing” [The Stewardship Report] and “brilliant” [Huffington Post], Cameron McKinney is a New York City-based choreographer, dancer, educator, and author. He founded Kizuna Dance in 2014 with the mission of creating works that celebrate the Japanese language and culture. Since then, he has received many awards and honors, including recently being named a participant in the Alvin Ailey Foundation’s New Directions Choreography Lab, provided through generous support from the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation. In addition to a commission for a new work at The Thacher School (CA) in March 2018, he also has received commissions to create original works twice from the Joffrey Ballet School, twice from the Let’s Dance International Frontiers Festival, and from Long Island University Brooklyn, The Moving Beauty Series, Williamsburg Movement and Arts Center, SpectorDance Studio, and the Steffi Nossen School of Dance. He was chosen as one of ten emerging choreographers for Doug Varone’s DEVICES choreographic mentorship program in 2015. He is on faculty at Gibney Dance Center, and has taught on faculty at the Joffrey Dance School, the Southern Vermont Dance Festival, and Williamsburg Movement and Arts Center.

As a professional educator, Cameron has lead workshops, master classes, and residencies at Gibney Dance (NYC), Joffrey Dance Center (NYC), Spectrum Dance Theater (WA), De Montfort University & Curve Theatre (UK), Performatica (MEX), The Dance Complex (MA), Moving Target Portland (ME), Hunter College (NYC), Denmark Arts Center (ME), Dancin’ on the Edge (NJ), SpectorDance (CA), Studio Muku (Japan), and Madison Dance Studio (TN), among many others. He will also be leading guest classes and residencies in the UK and throughout California in 2018. He is currently building Nagare Technique, a training module for contemporary floorwork that blends streetdance styles and contemporary sensibilities.

He has presented choreographic work nationally and internationally at prestigious institutions and festivals such as The Japan Society (NYC), Performatica (Mexico), Serendipity and the LDIF Festival (UK), Gibney Dance (NYC), Movement Research (NYC), Dixon Place (NYC), the Boston Contemporary Dance Festival (MA), Against the Grain / Men in Dance (WA), the Wassaic Summer Project Festival (NY), Triskelion Arts (NYC), Nazareth College (NY), The Moving Beauty Series (NYC), the 92nd Street Y (NYC), the Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater (NYC), and the KUNST-OFF Arts Studio (CA), among many others.

Kizuna Dance presenting “Koibito”, a darker and emotionally‐driven work about chaos and missed connections.

Cameron has performed works by and/or toured with 10 Hairy Legs, Christal Brown | INSPIRIT, Dante Brown | Warehouse Dance, Chafin Seymour | Seymour::dancecollective, AnA Collaborations, Andre Zachary | Renegade Performance Group, Joya Powell, The Median Movement, Francesca Harper, and Bryan Strimpel, among others. Cameron holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance/Japanese from Middlebury College.

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