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.
Described as having a sense of “serious urgency” (Jen Norris, Dance Reviews) and being “intense, weirdly angry and dryly hilarious” (Sheldon Smith, ODC Dance Stories), Shinohara’s highly physical, experimental work has been presented at venues such as JACK, Queens Museum, Movement Research at Judson, St. Mark’s Church (New York City), François Ghebaly, Japanese Cultural & Community Center (Los Angeles), ODC Theater (San Francisco), Centro de Arte Moderna (Lisbon), Seed Dance (Tainan) as well as venues in Tucson, Milwaukee, 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, 92Y Harkness Dance Center, Queens Arts Fund, among many others. As a performer, Shinohara has also appeared Off-Broadway in Time’s Journey Through a Room (PlayCo) and performed with artists such as Ishmael Houston-Jones, Dimitri Chamblas + Kim Gordon, Daria Faïn, Yoshiko Chuma. He has also appeared in commercial films/events for Calvin Klein and Grand Seiko.
