Chisa Hidaka, MD, directs the Dolphin Dance Project (www.dolphin-dance.org) in which, together with partner Ben Harley, she brings together wild dolphins and trained human dancers to co-create underwater dances in the open ocean, and to present the dances on film. Her approach to improvising with wild dolphins stems from her 25+ practice of Contact Improvisation (CI), which she has studied with many wonderful teachers, including Nancy Stark Smith. Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors and the CI Committee of Earthdance, where she has curated and co-facilitated several CI Jam events. A graduate of Barnard College and the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, she currently teaches anatomy in the Barnard Dance Department through a course developed based on her training in dance improvisation and experience in orthopedics research. In Dolphin Dance Project and in practicing the Underscore, Chisa is interested in exploring how our understanding and experience of being in community is expressed and informed by the compositional elements that arise as dancers improvise together.
