Chisato Minamimura is a British dancer and choreographer. She is deaf and a

British Sign Language British Sign Language (BSL) is a sign language used in the United Kingdom (UK), and is the first or preferred language among the Deaf community in the UK. Based on the percentage of people who reported 'using British Sign Language at home' on ...

user.

Background

Minamimura was born in Tokyo, Japan, and became deaf as a baby, after a treatment for a fever. As a child, she attended mainstream schools. Her family encouraged her to learn piano. Minamimura received a BA in Japanese Painting and a MA from Yokohama National University. She then became interested in dance and moved to London to train at Trinity Laban Contemporary Dance Centre. Since moving to Britain, she started using

, as she cannot lipread English. She returned to Japan, where she worked as a dancer and tutor for four years, before returning to Britain upon being offered a job with

CandoCo Dance Company Candoco Dance Company is a contemporary physically integrated dance company, founded in 1991 by Celeste Dandeker and Adam Benjamin. The company is based at the Aspire National training centre in Stanmore, North London. History Candoco Dance Compa ...

in 2003. She stayed with the company until 2006. She has also worked with the Graeae Theatre Company. After a few years of working as a dancer, she decided to move to

choreography Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design ...

. Her style takes inspiration from the movements of

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

and blends elements of mime, visual vernacular, projections, music, conceptual dance, as well as what she describes as "visual sound". She often performs aerial dance on sway poles, trapeze or other vertical supports and surfaces.

Activity

Minamimura has taught and performed dance across 20 different countries. She performed aerial dance at the London 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony and at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Cultural Olympics. Some of Minamimura's past projects include "SoundMoves", where dance and movement were digitally converted into images and lights, "New Beats", exploring the visual rhythm generated by the body parts, and "Ring the Changes+", which use technology to enhance the dance experience Minamimura's one-hour performance, "Scored in Silence" (2020), was created to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For this show, Minamimura interviewed the last deaf

hibakusha ''Hibakusha'' ( or ; ja, 被爆者 or ; "person affected by a bomb" or "person affected by exposure o radioactivity) is a word of Japanese origin generally designating the people affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at th ...

(people who survived the bombing) still alive.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Minamimura, Chisato Japanese deaf people BSL users Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Japanese female dancers Japanese women choreographers Japanese choreographers People from Tokyo Yokohama National University alumni