https://mizuhokappa.com Mizuho Kappa Sun, 15 Mar 2026 15:12:56 +0000 https://mizuhokappa.com en https://mizuhokappa.com/Home Sat, 27 Jun 2020 04:03:18 +0000 Mizuho Kappa https://mizuhokappa.com/Home Mizuho Kappa Choreographer | Performer | Entomologist&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; About&nbsp; Choreography  Performance&nbsp; Film / Commercial  UpComing  Contact ︎ ︎ Photo by Stephanie Crousillat Photography “Potent” &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; - The New York Times &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;”Evoking and Unhinged”&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; - Brooklyn Magazine&nbsp; “Mizuho Kappa dances elegantly playing&nbsp;each creature - laying eggs as a dragonfly, &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; or fanning the air with a paper &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; approximation of a hawk’s wing”&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; - The New Yoker https://mizuhokappa.com/About Sat, 27 Jun 2020 04:03:19 +0000 Mizuho Kappa https://mizuhokappa.com/About Home︎ Mizuho Kappa Choreographer / Performer / Entomologist “This is not a dance. This is a hidden fight for humanity. This is an unheard voice of death. This is endless mourning for slain warriors.” &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; - Mizuho Kappa Bio MIZUHO KAPPA is a choreographer and performing artist with a degree in Entomology, originally from Osaka, Japan. She has recently performed with Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More NY, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, and Yoshiko Chuma &amp; The School of Hard Knocks, Zvi Dance, Ballet Collective, among others. She is an assistant artistic director of dance-theater company&nbsp;PROJECT/TAG .&nbsp; She has had opportunities to present her self-choreographed solos at The Shed, La MaMa, Gene Frankel Theater, TheaterLab, The Brick, Ars Nova, NOoSPHERE ARTS and more. She also collaborates with cross-disciplinary artists, including a neuroscience researcher, a transmedia playwright, a hybrid writer, and a choreographic researcher. These works have been showcased at New Museum, New York Hall of Science, Open Source Gallery, Grace Exhibition Space, City University of Hong Kong, House of Yes, Chocolate Factory and beyond.She is a commissioned choreographer for Peridance Contemporary Dance Company's 2025 Season, also a recipient of the GALLIM Moving Artist Residency. Kappa was a resident artist at Experimental Film Virginia 2022, where she performed lead roles in two award-winning films, Devouring Stones Up Close and Sole, both of which premiered at Lincoln Center’s Dance on Camera Festival. Her choreographic voice is recognized for conveying narrative through raw expression, unexpected physicality, and striking surrealistic tableaux, described as “evoking and unhinged” by Brooklyn Magazine and “potent” by The New York Times. Artist Statement“This is not a dance. This is a hidden fight for humanity. This is an unheard voice of death. This is endless mourning for slain warriors.” At 14 years old, I kept a diary documenting the rigid routines imposed by my vengeful mother. My childhood was a wildfire that ended in ashes, perpetually punished simply for being born. I began creating choreographic works as a teenager, searching for a space to reconcile with my own chaotic self. From those early years, my work has focused on violence: domestic, psychological, and systemic. And the way it circulates within families, communities, and nations. I examine how war enters the home, how trauma mutates across generations, and how power reproduces harm even in the name of care or justice. My process resists conventional dance vocabulary.&nbsp; I seek raw expression, unexpected physicality, and striking surrealistic tableaux that leave lasting imprints on the imagination. My movement emerges from a rage to survive, an inner fire, and an endless search for light, connection, and love. I fuse the spiritual essence of Japanese traditional dance with contemporary, non-literal movement. Through trance, repetition, dynamic pulse, and sacred ritual, my choreography seeks to exorcize violence. I integrate abstraction and narrative, past and future, reality and unreality, and create a tapestry of lived experience and artistic transformation. Entomology and Creation My curiosity and love extends beyond the human body into the lives of non-human creatures. Insects, our planet’s most diverse animal group, represent more than half of all known organisms. Over a million species have been described, and an estimated six to ten million may exist, undiscovered. Their ecosystems and behaviors are intricate, efficient, and astonishingly organized. Studying entomology at university allowed me to spend years researching insect biology: bizarre anatomies built for specific purposes, individual bodies functioning within tightly woven social structures, and ecosystems sustained through an economy of instinct, mutation, and necessity. Their existence challenges the ethical frameworks, values, and regulations that humans consider absolute. This tension pushes me to reimagine movement, relationships and stories through a lens unbound by human norms. By observing and researching those fascinating creatures, I explore ambiguity in human certainty. One of my favorite biologists once wrote: “Complete metamorphosis in insects is a form of parasitism. When a larva becomes a pupa, its body dissolves into a soupy liquid, then re-forms into an adult with a completely different shape. Rather than a single creature growing up, it may be more accurate to think of the adult as a separate being parasitizing the larva, using it as nourishment to be born anew.” This idea opened a fault line in my imagination. We humans are fixated on interpreting the world through our own rules, our standards, our justice, our truth. But when that fixation is stripped away, we recognize that one person’s justice may be a destruction to others. This realization forms one of the core statements of my creative work. &nbsp; Home Creation Email, &nbsp;Instagram https://mizuhokappa.com/Choreography-Group-Duet Tue, 10 Dec 2024 17:49:28 +0000 Mizuho Kappa https://mizuhokappa.com/Choreography-Group-Duet Home CHOREOGRAPHY &nbsp;Group / Duet &nbsp;SoloGroup / DuetCollaboration <img width="2834" height="1812" width_o="2834" height_o="1812" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f7753b2e8d53816e14bc45c92b632562763e6d2a96313727766e479c1baac2f2/Screenshot-2025-12-07-at-15.23.55.png" data-mid="241537831" border="0" data-scale="78" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f7753b2e8d53816e14bc45c92b632562763e6d2a96313727766e479c1baac2f2/Screenshot-2025-12-07-at-15.23.55.png" /> The Tree of Spiral (2025)Commissioned by Peridance Contemporary Dance Company &gt; Learn more <img width="1212" height="1486" width_o="1212" height_o="1486" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3a6d06827720ab647c17a0e1480e02125b543cd6866f12b9ced945ab166933d8/Screenshot-2025-12-07-at-15.43.36.png" data-mid="241538387" border="0" data-scale="63" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3a6d06827720ab647c17a0e1480e02125b543cd6866f12b9ced945ab166933d8/Screenshot-2025-12-07-at-15.43.36.png" />My Divine Parasite (2025)Supported by Gallim Movement Artists Residency &gt; Learn more <img width="2230" height="1362" width_o="2230" height_o="1362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/034c22848528a81c2285f7ed1703c8f317f4c361adcebb980e0df1e9af2e3fba/Screenshot-2025-12-07-at-15.54.13.png" data-mid="241538442" border="0" data-scale="82" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/034c22848528a81c2285f7ed1703c8f317f4c361adcebb980e0df1e9af2e3fba/Screenshot-2025-12-07-at-15.54.13.png" />You Are Mine (2025)Creation for Peridance Contemporary Dance Company Summer Intensive &gt; Learn more <img width="1257" height="877" width_o="1257" height_o="877" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/52b1f4872a902e1fe8190b2dffe9adb3f4e49ddd02a0809d8e25164f008dd792/-2024-12-10-13.04.49.png" data-mid="223175976" border="0" data-scale="82" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/52b1f4872a902e1fe8190b2dffe9adb3f4e49ddd02a0809d8e25164f008dd792/-2024-12-10-13.04.49.png" />H E R&nbsp; (2022)Creation for Peridance Certificate Program &gt; Learn more Home About Email, &nbsp;Instagram https://mizuhokappa.com/Choreography-Solo Sun, 07 Dec 2025 21:33:30 +0000 Mizuho Kappa https://mizuhokappa.com/Choreography-Solo Home CHOREOGRAPHY &nbsp;Solo&nbsp;Group / DuetSoloCollaboration <img width="5476" height="3652" width_o="5476" height_o="3652" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f7eb8bf5989cd2ec1f20668249b0396700c7375639a6b25b608aaa0816ee8d6c/TIRESIAS_MYSTERIOSA_Baranova-7947.jpg" data-mid="241541551" border="0" data-scale="87" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f7eb8bf5989cd2ec1f20668249b0396700c7375639a6b25b608aaa0816ee8d6c/TIRESIAS_MYSTERIOSA_Baranova-7947.jpg" /> In My Flesh (2025) Presented at MYSTERIOSA in SUGAR SUGAR (Domino Park) &gt; Learn more <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8ecb94152b9ed924c145e91f82cd354e0498cee00e2d17eded1065998ce20c58/Mizuho-Kappa_by-alexey_kim_ArsNova.jpg" data-mid="241541670" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8ecb94152b9ed924c145e91f82cd354e0498cee00e2d17eded1065998ce20c58/Mizuho-Kappa_by-alexey_kim_ArsNova.jpg" />No Longer (2025)Presented at MYSTERIOSA (Ars Nova) &gt; Learn more&nbsp;<img width="3069" height="2048" width_o="3069" height_o="2048" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d6cef1cd47c79415ccede03e8a357a260fb6d132f6fce9177b409ec625463e2b/20221022-DSC_1775.JPG" data-mid="241539659" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d6cef1cd47c79415ccede03e8a357a260fb6d132f6fce9177b409ec625463e2b/20221022-DSC_1775.JPG" />LARVA (2022)Presented at UNDERWORLD &gt; Learn more <img width="749" height="932" width_o="749" height_o="932" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1f6e0951ed7b5466462b75eefd86741292077ff3325dd9620d7cd82f087d410d/IMG_9690.jpg" data-mid="241541704" border="0" data-scale="45" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/749/i/1f6e0951ed7b5466462b75eefd86741292077ff3325dd9620d7cd82f087d410d/IMG_9690.jpg" /> H E R: a piece taken&nbsp; (2022) Selected by Tulum International Dance Festival &gt; Learn more Home About Email, &nbsp;Instagram https://mizuhokappa.com/Choreography-Collaboration Sun, 07 Dec 2025 21:34:51 +0000 Mizuho Kappa https://mizuhokappa.com/Choreography-Collaboration Home CHOREOGRAPHY &nbsp;CollaborationGroup / DuetCollaborationSolo <img width="565" height="318" width_o="565" height_o="318" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dea37f932f04e1ebcc196f39f83ea575bdec65208cfa2fd62c85ad219dea9f75/68BFC6AD-C71F-4873-8896-908302DB3FDD.JPG" data-mid="241539725" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/565/i/dea37f932f04e1ebcc196f39f83ea575bdec65208cfa2fd62c85ad219dea9f75/68BFC6AD-C71F-4873-8896-908302DB3FDD.JPG" /> DRIFT:FRAGILE FUTURE (2021)Solo performance for an immersive exhibition of kinetic installations andsculptures by multidisciplinary artists DRIFT’s.Presented by Superblue and The Shed.&nbsp; &nbsp; &gt; Learn more <img width="1124" height="537" width_o="1124" height_o="537" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8df6446704291c3489c73c97722148331149a9c61264c109d46fa0d94d082da4/image00010.jpeg" data-mid="241539733" border="0" data-scale="79" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8df6446704291c3489c73c97722148331149a9c61264c109d46fa0d94d082da4/image00010.jpeg" /> <img width="1124" height="538" width_o="1124" height_o="538" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/95be8fe796dbc8b0bf3fb78fd815f433d894265e76b69f15017f080a108e3861/image00001.jpeg" data-mid="241539738" border="0" data-scale="88" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/95be8fe796dbc8b0bf3fb78fd815f433d894265e76b69f15017f080a108e3861/image00001.jpeg" /> <img width="1124" height="530" width_o="1124" height_o="530" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e7ae7ca0a4a26fe2ea0c5471dc3f05762880bf497de5fab1b2e3b2403594c580/image00004.jpeg" data-mid="241539736" border="0" data-scale="87" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e7ae7ca0a4a26fe2ea0c5471dc3f05762880bf497de5fab1b2e3b2403594c580/image00004.jpeg" /> <img width="1124" height="530" width_o="1124" height_o="530" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2963c67bc60fe0fc93cc54fe2df3e8729d737621df573f86a78836dd1352c0cf/image00002.jpeg" data-mid="241539737" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2963c67bc60fe0fc93cc54fe2df3e8729d737621df573f86a78836dd1352c0cf/image00002.jpeg" /> <img width="1006" height="519" width_o="1006" height_o="519" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/81dedf9d271709ede9de0746de676963842a3d447e7cd9c96e96e249bdaec8d5/image00014.jpeg" data-mid="241539734" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/81dedf9d271709ede9de0746de676963842a3d447e7cd9c96e96e249bdaec8d5/image00014.jpeg" /> project/tagArtistic platform dedicated to nurturing social discourse through dance and the performing arts led by Hussein Smko and Mizuho Kappa.An invitation to make peace with our own chaotic selves.&nbsp; &nbsp;&gt;Learn more Home About Email, &nbsp;Instagram https://mizuhokappa.com/The-Tree-of-Spiral Sun, 07 Dec 2025 23:23:20 +0000 Mizuho Kappa https://mizuhokappa.com/The-Tree-of-Spiral &nbsp; Group The Tree of Spiral (2025)Commissioned by Peridance Contemporary Dance Company Premiered | May 2-4, 2025 at KnJ Theater, NY 21 minutes The Tree of Spiral is an investigation of the relationship between violence and the communities that surround it. I am interested in the complexity of this dynamic. Communities can act as spaces of care, empathy, and protection, yet they can also become complicit in sustaining and accelerating cycles of violence. The nature of society itself, the power of unity, the conviction of shared faith, the enforcement of justice, can sometimes embody violence in disguised or collective forms. In The Tree of Spiral, every character becomes a part of this spiral of violence, each in their own way. Some as victims, some as witnesses, some as those who perpetuate harm without full awareness. The work examines how violence moves through a social body: how it mutates, transforms, and repeats, often under the guise of order, morality, or love. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Choreographer/ Writer : Mizuho Kappa Dancers: Ayala Abrams, Jordan Apodaca, Alexandre Barranco, Manish Chauhan, Elena Gimenez, Amanda Molina, Adianna Valentine Home About Email, &nbsp;Instagram https://mizuhokappa.com/My-Divine-Parasite Sun, 15 Mar 2026 14:50:11 +0000 Mizuho Kappa https://mizuhokappa.com/My-Divine-Parasite &nbsp; Duet My Divine Parasite (2025)Developed during the Gallim Moving Artists Residency 2025 Showcased at RECESS on September 10th at Chez Bushwick Performer: Steve Bangerter, Mizuho Kappa 18 minutes My Divine Parasite explores obsession, desire, and the evolution of violence through the imagery of Cordyceps, a parasitic fungus that infects insects, known for its ability to control both the body and mind of its host. The piece follows a man consumed by his fixation on his wife’s legs, a haunting reflection of his unresolved childhood memory of his mother and the man who took her away. As desire and disgust intertwine, the boundaries between love and violence dissolve. Through surreal physicality and disturbing tenderness, the work examines how beauty and brutality coexist within intimacy. The body becomes a site of transformation, where obsession mutates into creation, only to collapse again into destruction.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Choreographer/ Writer : Mizuho KappaPerformer: Steve Bangaerter, Mizuho Kappa Home About Email, &nbsp;Instagram https://mizuhokappa.com/You-are-mine Sun, 15 Mar 2026 14:58:35 +0000 Mizuho Kappa https://mizuhokappa.com/You-are-mine &nbsp; Group YOU ARE MINE (2025)Creation for Peridance Summer Intensive 2025 Premiered | August 23, 2025 at KnJ Theater 11 minutes “You Are Mine” is an 11-minute choreographic work in which only musical instrument is the dancers’ own voices. Throughout the piece, performers chant the same phrase ove and over again, using vocalization as both soundscape and emotional engine. The phrase begins as something tender, intimate, even affectionate, but gradually reveals its darker potential. What is often perceived as a sweet or romantic expression becomes a trigger for obsession, possession, and control. Repeated and layered, this phrase exposes how language can shift from desire to entitlement, and how longing can quietly transform into ownership over another person’s body, agency, and inner life. In this way, the work examines a subtle yet pervasive form of violence, one that hides within intimacy and emotional attachment. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Choreographer/ Writer : Mizuho Kappa Dancers: Peridance Contemporary Dance Company Summer Intensive Home About Email, &nbsp;Instagram https://mizuhokappa.com/HER-2022 Sun, 15 Mar 2026 15:12:56 +0000 Mizuho Kappa https://mizuhokappa.com/HER-2022 &nbsp; Group H E R (2022)Commissioned by Peridance Certificate Program Premiere: June 11-12, 2022 at KnJ Theater in New York 20 minutes HER is an ongoing work series potraying psychological distress and behavioral disorder over an abusive relationship between a mother and her child. Movements conceived from a rage to survive, an inner fire and endless search for the light, a connection and love.A dance-doc based on a diary of routines imposed by a vengeful mother.&nbsp; Nine women/dancers embody a woman, a mother, a daughter perpetually punished to be born. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Choreographer/ Writer : Mizuho Kappa Dancers: Denise Chan, Heloise Ponsonnet, Hannah Grahamm, Miku Hirayama, Emily Cattan, Andrea Villarreal, Natalia Sanchez, Manatsu Aminaga, Agustina Rastelli Gatti Voice: Rebecca Gombar Home About Email, &nbsp;Instagram https://mizuhokappa.com/DRIFT-FRAGILE-FUTURE-at-The-Shed Tue, 10 Dec 2024 19:21:37 +0000 Mizuho Kappa https://mizuhokappa.com/DRIFT-FRAGILE-FUTURE-at-The-Shed Works THE SHED DRIFT: FRAGILE FUTURE Presented by Superblue and The Shed Choreographer/Performer: Mizuho Kappa Premiere: December 10, 2021 An immersive exhibition of kinetic installations and sculptures In Fragile Future, multidisciplinary artists DRIFT transform The Shed with sound, movement, and film. Their experiential installations play on our senses and help us imagine positive, alternative solutions to the problems our planet faces. DRIFT’s monumental exhibition and series of special experiences inspire a reconnection to our planet and its natural processes, as well as empathy towards nonliving objects. Featuring a soundtrack created by ANOHNI, Fragile Future takes audiences on a journey through a series of interconnected installations, exploring the universal desire to seek out connection and the power to be found in relinquishing control when embracing change. Since their early careers, DRIFT’s founders Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta have addressed urgent environmental themes in their work in order to challenge their audiences to think differently about their connections to Earth. The exhibition’s installations—from multitudes of shimmering lights that traverse the gallery like glowing seeds caught in the wind to massive concrete blocks, or Drifters, that magically float on air—offer a hopeful atmosphere for imagining a different world. On select dates, Drifters becomes a surreal immersive experience that spans The Shed’s four-story-high, 17,000-square-foot McCourt space. In this unique experience, a congregation of Drifters dances on the air in an ethereal atmosphere, in counterpoint to a soundtrack by ANOHNI. Fragile Future is presented by Superblue and The Shed. Superblue is the groundbreaking new venture dedicated to producing, presenting, and engaging audiences with experiential art. The exhibition is organized by Kathleen Forde, Senior Curator, Superblue. It is produced by Max Fishko, Director of Exhibitions, and Raina Mehler, Director of Media Arts, Superblue, and Chris Roberts, Exhibitions Producer, The Shed. Home Email