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Gio Kusanagi & Jia Doughman

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Transformative Dance Theater

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Saturday July 16th 7pm 2018

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"In this interactive performance art, audience members will be invited to share their current
struggles in symbolic manners, and Gio and Jia will attempt to interpret these shared struggles
through dance, music, and spoken words, and hence transforming them with the intent of
healing. Audience members can expect to experience catharsis through metaphors in this
alchemical process."

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

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Gio Kusanagi is an interpretive dancer/performance artist who is a native of Japan. He studied
Butoh (Japanese avant-garde dance) with Moe Yamamoto, Toru Iwashita, Kunisuke Kamiryo,
Yoshito Ohno (son of Kazuo Ohno), Yukio Waguri, Seisaku & Yuri, Ko Muroboshi, and Kayo
Mikami; a Butoh-inspired interpretive dance with Akira Kasai; Japanese sword dance with
Kensei Namiki; traditional style swordsmanship with Ken Morita; Ballet at various dance
schools including Morgantown Dance Studio, Modern Dance with Bill Evans, Kista Tucker, Don
Halquis, Angela Dennis, Kristina Isabella, and Pilobolous Dance Company; Jazz Dance with Liz
Rossi; Contact Improvisation with Jordan Fuchs and Contact Improvisation groups in
Philladelphia; Break Dance at Harajuku Dance Academy; Central Asian Dance, Persian Dance,
and Middle Eastern Dance with Narah Bint Durr; West African Dance with Jonathan Burbank;
and Eurythmy (a form of modern dance founded by Rudolf Steiner) with both Akira Kasai and
with Jolanda Frischknecht. He was also trained in Mime, Laban Movements Analysis (Bill
Evans and Kista Tucker), Bartenieff Fundamental (Bill Evans and Don Halquis), Alexander
Technique (Suzanne Oliiver), Qigong, Tai Chi, and various other forms of martial arts. He has
integrated the essences of all the movement-arts he has learned and performs originally
choreographed interpretive dance repertories in collaboration with artists of various disciplines.
Gio also teaches classes and workshops on Butoh dance, Tai Chi, Qigong, and dance therapy for
self-exploration through various locations in West Virginia, Maryland, and New York. Further,
he has produced multiple dance theaters in various cities, including, but were not limited to
NYC, Dayton OH, Cincinnati OH, and Morgantown WV. He was a commissioned and a
featured artist at Dayton Performance Art Festival in 2008 as well as at Asian American Dance
Festival in Lower Manhattan (2012), an Artist in Residence through Bronx Academy of Arts and
Dance in June 2012, and an Artist in Residence at Center for Remembering and Sharing and at
Leimay at Cave, both from January through June 2016.

Degrees: M.A. in Kinesiology (The University of Tokyo) / B.A. in Aesthetics
(The University of Tokyo)
Certificates: Certified Evans Method Modern Dance Instructor

Jia Doughman picked up the violin at the age of 3. She's classically trained, and is currently
expanding her repertoire to include such genres as film scores, improvisation and music from
different cultures. She holds an MFA in acting from Harvard, and a BA in chemistry from Case
(an engineering school). After graduating, she auditioned and did Theatre and independent films;
She was nominated for the Ovation Award amongst other awards for her Los Angeles premiere
of the play Opus. Three years ago she went to Berlin Germany, started writing, busking (street
performing), and recording voice overs; There she was able to grow her own projects and
incorporate her multiple disciplines into them. Currently, she's working on a Documentary on
’Buskers from a Busker’s Point of View”, and a solo theatre show.

 

 

 

 

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