Benjamin Akio Kimitch

My work embraces contradiction. I lean into the disorientation and tension of my mixed identity and the layered dance lineages that shape me. I don’t try to resolve these tensions; instead, these dances surface questions of heritage, power, and creative form, activating my perspectives on contemporary dance while, on a personal level, nurturing grief and loss within my Japanese lineage.

I direct, choreograph, and design my projects in collaboration with other artists and culture bearers. By creating work collaboratively and making it accessible through live performance, the work builds connections within a field that can often feel dispersed and isolated.

Benjamin Akio Kimitch is an artist and producer based in Brooklyn, NY. His projects begin slowly, rooted in personal relationships with traditional dance forms and many years of research. The resulting work unfolds with thoughtful intention and a distinctive aesthetic, often holding tension between preservation and transformation.

Kimitch creates performances that draw from his biracial Japanese American heritage, foundational training in Chinese folk and classical dance, and an ongoing relationship with New York City’s experimental dance community. His work Tiger Hands (2022) emerged from his study of Peking opera in Shanghai and contextualized its formal syntax within a personal, contemporary ensemble piece. Premiered at The Shed, New York, NY as part of Open Call 2022, the work reflected Kimitch’s approach to engaging cultural forms through present-day relationships and realities.

In 2026, Kimitch will present work that examines the global cultural forces that shaped Japanese American identity in the aftermath of World War II. By juxtaposing postwar pressures toward conformity in the United States with the expressive freedoms of postwar art movements in U.S.-occupied Japan, the work reflects his lived experience as an artist whose grandparents belonged to the Internment Generation.

Since 2022, Kimitch has collaborated with Yasuko Yokoshi in an ongoing research project, entitled dojojiproject, in New York City and Kyoto, Japan. Kimitch’s selected dance works include Tiger Hands, The Shed, New York, NY (2022); Ko-bu, Danspace Project, New York, NY (2017), later reprised at The Noguchi Museum, Queens, NY; untitled work, The Kitchen as part of Dance and Process, New York, NY (2015); and discontinuous sounds, Danspace Project, New York, NY (2013). 

Kimitch has received a Creative Capital Award (2026), a NEFA National Dance Project Production Grant (2025), an Asian Cultural Council Artist Fellowship (2024), a Bessie Award for Outstanding Choreographer/Creator (2023), and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant (2022).

In addition to his artistic practice, Kimitch has worked for over 15 years as a full-time producer at institutions including Performance Space 122, Park Avenue Armory, and currently Perelman Performing Arts Center. He also worked at Dance Theater Workshop and through its merger with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company.