ABOUT

With more than 19 years of Japanese language study, Cameron McKinney created Kizuna Dance to create dance works that connect the American and Japanese cultures. He was 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 Japan. He has been a Choreography Fellow at The School at Jacob’s Pillow, a Hearst Choreographer-in-Residence at Princeton University, an Alvin Ailey Foundation New Directions Choreography Lab Fellow, and an Asian Cultural Council Individual Grantee. His work has been supported by the MidAtlantic Arts Foundation, the New York City Artists Corps, Brooklyn Arts Council, and the Rader Young Artists Foundation. Through Kizuna Dance, Cameron has also presented work and taught in twenty states and in six countries. His 2025 teaching features workshops in France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, and across the U.S.

In 2019, his choreography had its French premier at the International Choreographic Festival of Blois on the National Stage, "La Halle aux Grains" in Blois, France. In 2020, Cameron performed his original choreography alongside Sayo Homma (Dance Barbizon) in Tokyo, Japan in the U.S. Ambassador's Residence. In 2024, his company Kizuna Dance celebrated its 10th anniversary with the world premiere of the evening-length work, FATHER ABSENCE | MOTHER MA. He also co-choreographed SAFE HARBOR, a performance collaboration between five American dancers, Toru Shimazaki, and five Japanese dancers from Kobe College in Japan.

His commissions include The Ailey School, Marymount Manhattan College, Princeton University, Montclair University, three times from the Let’s Dance International Frontiers Festival (UK), Slippery Rock University, Swarthmore College, and Brigham Young University, among numerous others. He currently teaches on faculty at Montclair State University and NYU Tisch. Each year, he organizes Kizuna Dance’s Open Intensive, a week of day-long intensives made entirely free for all participants.