Benjamin Akio Kimitch

Director and choreographer Benjamin Akio Kimitch creates a fantasy Japanese American court dance. It explores the collision of global cultural movements which shaped Japanese American identity in the time between the 1945 Hiroshima bombing and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. At the heart of this new project is Japan's 7th-century Bugaku dances. Kimitch examines its introduction to America after WWII, notably through an erotic ballet reinterpretation by George Balanchine created in 1963. Kimitch's ensemble work will be accompanied by a companion publication and public symposiums for communities to unpack the work's layered influences: post-war Japanese art, U.S. soft power, and Japanese American incarceration.

Caretakers of Land/Land Acknowledgement: Lenape

• Estimated Artist Fees: Single performance: $24,000
• One week of performances: $30,000