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Yūko-kai - a concert of Japanese dance - Artist Bios




FUJIMA Shōgo - master dancer
Fujima Shōgo was born into a family of professional nihon buyoh dancers, and trained by his mother Fujima Shōhō. His first stage appearance was when he was only three years old and took a professional name in 1985, at the age of 25. He also has a degree in performing arts from Tamagawa University, and toured to London and the Edinburgh Fringe. He has been teaching and performing nihon buyoh for over two decades, touring internationally to Thailand, China, Belgium and Denmark (working with Eugenio Barba), Poland, and England. Fujima Shōgo is also a founding member of "Ko-no-Kai" a group consisting of male professional nihon buyoh dancers from a mix of the major buyoh schools/traditions. The group does contemporary choreographies based on buyoh forms often using contemporary music and has won national awards. See: www.konokai.com for examples of this work. Fujima Shōgo was the principal dancer in TomoeArts' Odori: The World of Kabuki Dance in 2010 and Shamisen & Odori in 2012.








FUJIMA Minako - master dancer
Fujima Minako began studying with Fujima Yūko as a child, and spent almost 3 decades specializing in learning female form dances. Minako's mother had danced with Yūko all her life, and it was natural for Minako to become Yūko's deshi or disciple. Minako's first performance was at the age of six, dancing the very sophisticated jiuta-mai Kurokami. She performed in a number of Fujima Yūko's original choreographies including Sasameyuki and Maboroshi Wankyū. Her favourite dances are those set to jiuta music, such as Guchi, Manzai, and Kane ga Misaki. She is one of the most senior of Fujima Yūko's students who is still dancing. Her work is graceful and elegant, and she holds much of Fujima Yūko's style in her movements.








FUJIMA Sayū (Colleen LANKI) - dancer
Colleen is a theatre and dance artist that has been directing, choreographing and performing internationally for over two decades in shows of every variety. She was based in Tokyo for many years where she studied noh (traditional Japanese Theatre) and nihon buyoh (Japanese classical dance) and worked on intercultural theatre projects. She was given the professional name Sayū in 2001 from her teacher FUJMA Yūko, and now studies with Fujima Shōgo. Colleen has created a number of dance-theatre works using nihon buyoh forms. She is the Artistic Director of TomoeArts and currently pursuing her PhD at UBC.








Ryan CARON - dancer
Ryan is a theatre director and dancer based in Vancouver, BC interested in pop culture theatre, movement and physical theatre, and multidisciplinary fusion work. He is in his sixth year of training with dancer Fujima Sayū and TomoeArts, studying Japanese classical dance. In the summer of 2016 he continued his training in Tokyo, under master dancer Fujima Shōgo. Recent credits include directing Over the River and Through the Woods with Metro Theatre, performing in Geekender's Jurassic Parody: The Musical and dramaturgy on C.R. Packer's new play Fists presented as a staged reading for Upintheair Theatre's rEvolver Festival.