Jo Kanamori

(born 1974)

Is a famous Japanese choreographer who created his own dance company "Noism" in the Japanese city of Niigata in 2004. The word he invented means the rejection of every "isms": nationalism, communism, postmodernism. But it also has to do with theatre No - the art of abstract and physical at the same time. "When I was creating my company, I meant the only “ism” we could do: the "No” theatre at the core of everything."

Kanamori left Japan when he was 17 years old, having started studying dance in Holland, then in France, where he took Maurice Béjart’s classes. After returning to Japan in 2002, Japanese physicality became his primary material. His teacher was Tadashi Suzuki, with whom he sought the physicality with the help of a unique method, in connection with the surface of the floor, and through it with the spirits of ancestors, with the Earth. Jo, as well as Japanese people in general, has an exceptional understanding of beauty: as loneliness and emptiness. He is able to express the pain, darkness, and passion for self-destruction rooted in Japanese culture.