Staff Profile

Yoshi Yano

JSDC President/Instructor Yoshi YanoYoshi Yano had been living in NY for 23 years. As a member of American Ballroom Theater, the only ballroom dance company in the States, he had performed in the States, Japan and Europe as a part of various NY dance teams & musical troupes.

After teaching New Yorkers from all around the world the fun of social dance for 9 years, he moved to Tokyo and opend JSDC Tokyo in 2003. He also organizes annual workshops in Japan to introduce American ballroom dance culture.

Yoshi currently teaches at various venues including “Theater Shiki (four seasons).

Training

    ●Ballet, Jazz & Modern●

  • Alvin Ailey American Dance Center (Full-time Program)
  • Dance Theater of Harlem (Scholarship)
    ●Tap●

  • Henry Lee Tang Dance Studio
    ●Ballroom●

  • American Ballroom Institute (Scholarship)
  • Sandra Cameron Dance Studio
  • Dance Sport
  • Ed Britain
  • Esther don
  • Bill & Wendy Davis
    ●Adagio●

  • Pierre Dulaine & Ivan Marceau
    ●Argentine Tango●

  • Dance Manhattan
  • Mariera Franganero
  • Diego DeFargo
  • Matin Jezer

Teaching Experience

    ●Ballroom & Argentine Tango●

  • President, Japan Social Dance Club (1995-)
  • Pierre Dulaine Dance Club (1999-2003)
  • Japanese American Association (2000-2003)
  • Riva’s Dance Connection(2000-2002)
  • Theater Shiki (2003-)
  • School of Music Osaka & Fukuoka(2003-2004)
  • Chacott Dance Studio (2003-2007)
  • Noa Dance Academy (2003-2006)
  • Culture School Tokyu Seminar BE (2003-)
  • Shochiku Dance Plaza (2004-2005)
  • Roppongi Hills Arteligent School (2004-2005)
  • Ongakuza (2005)
  • Yomiuri Nihon Culture Center Ebisu (2005-2007)
  • Hotel Ibis (Roppongi) Special Workshop (2005-2007)
  • Meirokai Dance Club of the Visually impared (2005-)
  • Goldman Sachs Dance Club at Roppongi Hills (2007-)
    ●Tap●

  • New York University
  • Henry Street Settlement Arts
  • Mariko Fujii Tap City (Tokyo, workshop)

Union

  • Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG)
  • American Federal TV & Radio (AFTRA)
  • Actor’s Equity (AEA)
  • Nihon Argentine Tango Dance Professional Association(NAPTA)

Certificates

  • Imperial Society Teachers of Dancing (ISTD)
  • Modern Ballroom & Latin America Dancing (licentiate)

Performance

    ●Dance Companies●

  • American Ballroom Theater
  • Dance Theater of Harlem Workshop Ensemble
  • Foot & Fiddle Dance Company
  • Ballet Long Island
  • Huntington Ballet
  • New York Renaissance Festival
  • Deja vu Dance Theater (Bolero)
  • Henry Lee Tang Dancers

●Musicals●

  • Wizard of Oz (Radio City Musical Hall/U.S. national tour)
  • Annie Get Your Gun (European tour)
  • Mame (U.S. national tour)
  • Anything Goes (Birmingham Theater/Theater Fest)
  • How to Date (Theater Apple Tokyo)

●Ballroom & Argentine Tango●

  • American Ballroom Theater
  • Tango Festa 2000 (New York Town Hall)
  • Natural Ball (Lindy Hop: Atlanta)
  • Swing Week (Lindy Hop: Macy’s, NY)
  • La National (New York Tango Cafe)
  • Viennese Opera Ball ( Waldorf Astoria Hotel, NY)

●Cabaret●

  • VillageGate (Tap)
  • Caesars Hotel: Atlantic City (choreography)
  • Club Aleman: Mexico City (classical Japanese dance)

●TV & Video●

  • New Yorkese (TV)
  • John Michael Montgomery Music Video
  • Far East (Ballroom instructor, TV Channel 13)
  • Door-knocking Cooking Show (Tango dancer)
  • Other TV commercials

●Play●

  • In My Father’s House (Actors Play Theater)
  • Yuuzuru -The Evening Crane- (Samuel Packet Theater)
  • Ahmed Mamoud for Love (Creative Space Theater)

Choreography

  • Musica ‘Valentino’ (New York)
  • TV Commercial Ebara Yakiniku no Tare
  • Japan Social Dance Theater
  • Japn Social Dance Club
  • Movie ‘Shanghai Waltz’
  • Fuji TV drama ‘Girl Friends’

Yutaka Amano

JSDC Tokyo Instructor / JSDT Member
Yutaka has been performing in a wide variety of fields including ballet, contemporary, dance shows, and musicals. In 2005, he spent a year at Sandra Cameron Dance Center in New York to study ballroom, Argentine tango, and salsa.

Miki Shimizu

JSDC Tokyo Instructor / JSDT Member
Miki started learning Japanese traditional dance (Nichibu) and ballet since she was young. After college, she took up jazz dance, tap dance, and theater arts.

After working for TV shows and theater productions, she worked as a show producer, choreographer, and dance instructor at Space World theme park during their start-up. Around this time, she began an annual visit to New York, where she attends classes to enhance her theatre arts expertise.

In 2001, she started her dance company Dance Bug where she teaches numerous teenagers and adults including professional dancers and actors.

She is also teaching dance and bodywork to children at Seijo Baton Club, leading the team to win national championship and the top list at an international competition.

Koji Shibazaki

JSDC Fukuoka Director

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