Statement

As a dance performance artist, I seek to merge and coexist the human body with nature. My practice continuously explores and expresses impermanence: motion in stillness, stillness in motion. Within this field of movement, connections are allowed and encouraged to happen. My body becomes enhanced by my environment and those surrounding me.

As an installation artist/choreographer, my aim is to accentuate this same subtle world of connections in others. It’s something we experience every moment of our lives, often without realizing it. My work facilitates people to move, creating natural “dance” in public spaces. This process becomes a journey we share together, exploring our existence and interactions.

Bio

Kiori Kawai (Japanese, b. 1978) is a dance performer/choreographer, interactive installation artist and an educator.

As a dance performance artist/choreographer, she started her career in New York, she has worked with Carman Moore/Skymusic Inc., Elaine Summers Dance and Film, Lincoln Center, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Brooklyn Museum, Serraves Contemporary Museum (Portugal), Mesa Arts Center (AZ), Transformation Festival (Denmark/U.S), Megaron (Athens, Greece), Sharjah Biennial (U.A.E),  New York University Abu Dhabi Arts Center (U.A.E), touring nationally and internationally. Sheʼs built up her own improvisatory movement vocabulary based on the techniques of meditation, Kinetic Awareness, Contact Improv, yoga, and various dance/movement trainings. This led her to designing interactive installations that include human body movement within kinetic sculptures.

In 2011, she founded Purring Tiger with Aaron Sherwood. Purring Tiger is a multi-cultural, multimedia, interactive installation/performance group dedicated to bringing people together in the context of Art, in a subtext of Wonder. Their pieces have been commissioned and appeared at Burning Man Arts Festival, Brooklyn Museum, Federation Square (AUS), Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Telfair Museum, Cameron Arts Museum, Scottsdale Public Art and many more. Ignite.me magazine said “Not only does their art challenge us…, but it’s also beautiful.”

She teaches performance workshops with interactive installation and Contact Improvisation based classes in US and abroad. Her approach to teaching Contact Improvisation and improvisational dance performances is based on developing awareness and exploring our conscious/unconscious choices through physical interaction between self and others. She has taught at New York University-Abu Dhabi (UAE), Alpine Dance Academy/Wave Festival (CO, USA), Tinkuy (Copenhagen, Denmark), Wrong Movement Studio (Athens, Greece), New England Dance Camp (New Hampshire, USA), Transformation Festival (U.S.A-Denmark), Deakin University/Federation Square (Melbourne, Australia), Savannah Arts Academy/ Telfair Museums (GA, USA), Dancing Water (TX, USA), Azule Dance Theater (NY, USA), Rinyou Temple (Japan) and more.