Reona (レオナ) (tap), Yu Kimura (木村由) (dance)

◆Reonaレオナ (tap) https://reonatap.therestaurant.jp/

An improviser specializing in tap dance. He also works on planning, artwork, composition, choreography, and instruction.

Born in Tokyo's downtown area in 1989. He began tap dancing at a young age. While studying design and manufacturing at the Machine Craft Department of Tokyo Metropolitan Technical High School, he became seriously fascinated with tap dancing and, upon graduating, traveled to New York to train.

In 2008, he received a scholarship and won the Cutting Contest at the Chicago Tap Festival.

In 2009, he received a scholarship and won the Cutting Contest at the Los Angeles Tap Festival.

From 2009 to 2013, he choreographed and performed at numerous tap festivals and shows around Japan.

In 2014, he performed at the "Down Town Dance Festival" in NYC (USA) as a member of Dorrance Dance.

In 2017, she was invited by Michelle Dorrance to perform in the show "TIRELESS" at Jacob's Pillow Dance, America's oldest summer dance festival.

She was invited to and performed in the show "THE MARS PROJECT," held in Toronto, Canada in 2024 and Montreal in 2025.

She has also taught in various parts of Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Canada, and has performed at venues including Nippon Budokan and Saitama Super Arena.

In recent years, her work has become increasingly focused on metal noise, and in order to materialize the sounds ringing in her head through tapping, she uses not only tap shoes and wooden boards, but also metal plates, chains, stainless steel bowls, plastic bags, and loudspeakers. The impulses of sound are directly connected to her legs, and she is a one-of-a-kind performer who expresses herself using not only her arms and mouth, but every part of her body.

In addition to performing live sessions primarily with musicians, she also performs solo performances in which she uses only her own body for both visual and auditory aspects, and has created video works in collaboration with operating factories.

In 2021, he will release "Leona and Shoshiba Seisakusho," in 2022 "Leona and Oriwara Ironworks," and in 2024 "Leona and Akama Sheet Metal."

He will also form the leader trio "Toto" with jazz legends Fumio Itabashi (pf) and Takashi Seo (cb). They improvise on songs by their members and themselves. The melodies woven from the dynamic movements of the body, the overwhelming rhythms, and the intense yet lyrical music cannot help but touch the hearts of listeners. He will tour nationwide from Hokkaido to Okinawa.

In 2023, he will simultaneously release two "Toto" CD albums, "To" and "U."

◆Yu Kimura 木村由 (dance) https://mushi.info/homejp.htm

From the age of seven, she studied modern dance under Chujo Fumiko for approximately 20 years.
While participating in Butoh workshops, she was influenced by the New York-based Butoh dancers Eiko & Koma.

In 1992, she received the Kanagawa Prefecture Contemporary Dance Association Encouragement Award.
While performing in numerous modern dance works, she also creates her own dance works.

She is the leader of Dance Performance Mushi.
She has presented numerous works since 1995, and from 1999 developed a solo dance series at Theater Plan B for eight years.
In 2000, she exhibited at the Yokohama Platform of the Bagnolet International Choreography Competition.
She performed at Dance Hakushu in 2001 and 2005.
She has been performing Chabudai Dance since 2003.

She also collaborates with many artists and musicians. She frequently performs improvisational performances, exploring the relationship between the body and space in improvisational acts.

At the same time, she continues to explore dance, performing quiet solo performances. When theaters and rehearsal spaces were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he began dancing with the rising sun on the roof of his apartment building every weekend and posting videos of the dance on social media. This led to his online participation in the Peruvian art festival "El Atre del Sol" in 2021.
His independent film "Fujiwara," which depicts dance in a marginal village in Saitama Prefecture, was screened at the Tokyo Documentary Film Festival.