Butoh dancer / Choreographer / live in Osaka, Japan

Born n 1967, Chikako Bando studied linguistics at University while becoming active in Theater. She discovered Bali dance which led to her interest in Butoh dance, and she continued intensive studies with Masumi Yurabe and Akira Kasai.

1998-2011, she founded a butoh dance company called Hanaarashi with Yumiko Nii and On Furukara. The company created a body of work heavily influenced by a butoh-informed body sense, addressing fundamental issues surrounding the subject of women-hood with a rigorous and humorous approach. Hanaarashi has performed in Japan, Philippines, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, Madagascar and France.

From 2011, as a solo dancer, she collaborates with another dancers, musicians, performers.

In 2015, she directed the performance "OSHIMOHAN" which theme is life and death.  A midwife, a woman who had cared for mother-in-law for 12years and some mothers joined the show. 

As an educator, Chikako has continued to give butoh workshops and in 2004, began working with visually/intellectually challenged people, making dance pieces with them. She has given workshops for disabled children and adults both in Paris and in Madagascar. Chikako’s theme for research is in the possibility of the body in the state of dance. She wishes to create a space where people can meet through dance and communications of the body. She resides in Osaka, Japan.