Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance

Cameron McKinney, the Artistic Director of Kizuna Dance, is a New York City-based choreographer and educator. With 16 years of Japanese language study, he created Kizuna Dance with the mission of using contemporary floorwork to create works that celebrate Japanese culture. He was recently selected as a 2019-20 U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission Creative Artist Fellow to collaborate with renowned Japanese choreographer Toru Shimazaki and present work in showcases in Japan. He has been a Choreography Fellow at The School at Jacob’s Pillow, an Alvin Ailey Foundation New Directions Choreography Lab Fellow, and an Asian Cultural Council Individual Grantee. His newest work, TOKIMEKI BLUE, a month-long dance film installation made in collaboration with filmmaker Cayla Mae Simpson, recently premiered in the Fosdick-Nelson Gallery in Alfred, NY in September 2021. Through Kizuna Dance, Cameron has also presented work and taught in eighteen states and in Mexico, France, the UK, and in Japan in the U.S. Ambassador's Residence. His commissions include Princeton University, twice from the Joffrey Ballet School, twice from the Let’s Dance International Frontiers Festival (UK), Slippery Rock University, The Dance Gallery Festival, Old Dominion University, and Bates College, among numerous others. His teaching credits include Adjunct & Visiting Lecturer positions at Princeton University, Bard College, and Queensborough Community College. He has taught on faculty at Gibney Dance since 2016, and has taught for festivals nationally and internationally. He is currently building Nagare Technique, a training module that blends streetdance styles and contemporary floorwork. In 2021, he launched the inaugural Open Intensive, a week of day-long intensives made entirely free for all participants, featuring high-quality dance education provided by the company artists of Kizuna Dance. Through Kizuna Dance’s Culture Commissions program, he also directly supports emerging artists through commissions for new works created through research-oriented explorations into Japanese culture.