Today we’d like to introduce you to Hiroko Kelly
Hi Hiroko, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I am from Newnan, Georgia where I spent almost all of my childhood. My mother and her side of the family is all from Western Japan, Yamaguchi prefecture, and my father is from New Orleans, Louisiana. My mother always wanted to dance but her family couldn’t afford dance lessons so she put me in dance lessons at a modest dance school in Newnan. It provided me with a dance education that was kind and welcoming. They were always encouraging while they valued exploration and individuality. While it was not a serious dance education, it was one that I could take seriously and was fostered by my self-dedication. After high school, I went to Kennesaw State University to study not dance but ended up studying dance anyway, earning my Bachelor of Arts in 2017. From 2014-2023, I was an intern, moving artist, and artistic associate with the social arts platform, glo. In 2021, I went to graduate school to get my Master of Arts in Urban and Public Affairs from the University of San Francisco, completing that program in 2023. Now, I work as a Development Coordinator for DanceATL (a nonprofit resource center for all things dance) and Communities In Schools of Atlanta (an education equity nonprofit). I continue to freelance as a dancer/ moving artist with local companies like Novoa Dances, Catching Mangoes Dance, Burning Bones Physical Theatre, and Bautanzt Dance. I premiered two choreographic works this year. The first at the Supermarket at Madison Nune’s opening exhibition a A Body for Hunger & Desire Too. It was a duet choreographed collaboratively with artist, Faith Fidgeon, titled ” Nonlinear Bodies in a Linear World.” The second work was through Dance Canvas’s Summer Choreographic Residency at the Atlanta Contemporary, where I premiered a solo titled, “Sometimes hidden from me in daily custom and ritual, I live by you unaware.” I am currently in the Atlanta Regional Commission’s 2024 Culture and Community Design cohort and was a 2024 Dance USA Institute for Leadership Training mentee.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think I have been very fortunate and maybe my challenges are more universal. I definitely struggled with my mental health throughout my 20’s I think what was happening was that I was exploring so much intimate movement in a deep process that I had ignored a lot of my childhood trauma and some sexual assault from early in my 20’s. These things had a way of coming up while I was in an intense process and resulted in me walking away from dance entirely many times. I also feel like there were layers of my racial identity and my socio-economic upbringing that continued to warp these artistic relationships, both with collaborators and with myself. I think there is something strange about being AAPI in the United States, where you have to constantly remind others that you are a person of color, that you had family that was once interned by the United States government, and that you have people who express their bigotry to you in all forms everyday. I definitely know and radically accept the privilege that I have but these things take a mental toll after a while. Having to justify your existence or even asking for more. Having to beg people to respect your culture, while also acknowledging your own intersectional identity, where I am just as much Southern as I am Japanese American.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am an emerging choreographer, moving artist, researcher, mixed-media sculptor, and an arts administrator. Reflected in each of these practices is my experience as a Japanese American woman, the daughter of an immigrant, and the intangible truth of intergenerational connectivity rooted in Eastern philosophy. Alongside movement, I love to explore the artistic practices of my family, how my Obaachan (grandmother) does flower pressing, calligraphy, and origami. I am very much still a novice in her crafts, maybe when I am her age I can be just as talented as she is. I think I am most proud that I continued to create and that have not lost that love for dance I had when I was a child.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I think we live in a perilous time. What some might consider risks are maybe just methods of survival for others.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinahiroko/
Image Credits
Personal photo by Dustin Chambers
Headshot by Dustin Chambers
Sculpture photo of Dance Canvas Summer Choreographic Residency at the Atlanta Contemporary
