Kazuo Kimura

Ballet Coach

Born in Kumamoto, Japan, he began his ballet training at the age of eight. He joined The Tokyo Ballet in 1984, promoted to Principal, 1992. His repertoire includes lead roles in Swan Lake, Don Quixote, The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Pierre Lacotte's La Fille de Danube, Maurice Béjart's L'Oiseau de Feu, Mikhail Fokine's Le Spectre de la rose, George Balanchine's Le Palais de cristal and Theme and Variations among others. He performed in the world premieres of Béjart's The Kabuki (1986), M(1993), and Neumeier's Seven Haiku of the Moon (1989), Seasons - The Colors of Time (2000). He also performed in The Tokyo Ballet premieres including Natalia Makarova's La Bayadère (2009), Frederick Ashton's Sylvia (2010) and The Dream (2005), and John Cranko's Onegin (2010). In 2018, he stepped back from the front lines as dancer and became Ballet Coach of The Tokyo Ballet.