Benjamin Akio Kimitch is a New York–based artist and producer whose work engages experimental choreography and cultural inheritance. During his five-month fellowship in Japan, he will invest in anchor relationships with two performing artists: Yasuko Yokoshi, a practitioner of Nihon Buyo, with whom he previously conducted a self-directed residency in Kyoto, and Fumiya Otonashi, a Sho musician in Gagaku ensembles. By shadowing their daily studio practice and learning parts of their artistic craft, grounded in tradition, Kimitch seeks to explore how traditional forms can be preserved while also being expanded through encounters as contemporary artists. 

Profile
Benjamin Akio Kimitch is an artist and producer based in New York. His commissioned works include Tiger Hands (The Shed, 2022), which received a 2023 Bessie New York Dance and Performance Award for Outstanding Choreographer/Creator, and Ko-bu (Danspace Project, 2017), later reprised at The Noguchi Museum. He has held residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, Movement Research, and the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography. His writing has appeared in Movement Research Performance Journal, Dance Magazine, and Gibney’s Journal, and his book Tiger Hands: A Dance Document was published in 2023. As a producer, Kimitch has worked with a wide range of artists and supported new opera, music, theater, and dance at the Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center.