Kosei Sakamoto

Kosei Sakamoto (b.1967) is the director of the acclaimed Kyoto-based dance company Monochrome Circus from Japan. In University, Sakamoto studied aesthetics & anthropology, and afterwards started to increase his experiences in the theater world.

“A Collection of Short Dance Pieces” – ensemble of nine dance works, performed in Japan and abroad, is one of the most important works of his. He has also been active in doing collaborations for example “Refined Colors” and “Lost” with Takayuki Fujimoto of “Dumb Type”; “Wash” with Shinta Inoue and “Cage” with Daito Manabe.

He has also created many site-specific dance works based on particular community or area. In 2009 he co-produced with local dancers an orienteering-type dance performance “Let’s find the Dancers!!” at “Beppu Contemporary Art Festival 2009 -Mixed Bathing World “.

In 2010 he produced a new performance with Shigeki Hattori in “Setouchi International Art Festival”. Sakamoto has also received the “Kyoto-city Art and Culture Special Incentive Award” in 2001. In 2002 he received the Grantee of Asian Cultural Council, and in 2007 the Kyoto-city New Artist Prize. Sakamoto works as a part time lecturer at Kinki University, and he has been a program director for the “International Dance Workshop Festival” in Kyoto (1st – 15th) He is also a Director for the “Contact Improvization Meeting in Japan”