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Shinichi Iova-Koga is the founder and artistic director of inkBoat, a dance theatre company that has earned six San Francisco Izzie awards and has toured extensively across Europe, Asia, and the U.S.A. He is the editor of 95 Rituals, a tribute to Anna Halprin, and a contributing writer to The Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance. He is also featured in the book Butoh America.
Shinichi’s Martial Arts training focuses on Daoist Internal Arts, including Qi Gong, Dao Yin, Yang Sheng Gong, and Nei Gong. He holds credentials to teach through Lotus Nei Gong International and Wudang West. Additionally, he has a 2nd degree black belt in Aikido, having studied under Jan Nevelius, Jorma Lily, and Cornelius Jaeger-Herzog. As a child, he trained in Judo under his father, Yuzo Koga, a six-time USA Judo champion.
He is an Authorized Action Theater™ teacher, having studied under his mentor Ruth Zaporah. Other key mentors include Ralph Lemon, who introduced him to concepts of "anti-dance," and Anna Halprin, who emphasised community building through the art-making process. From 2009 to 2012, Shinichi served as Anna Halprin’s associate director for numerous projects and co-taught Dances for Men with her until 2018.
Shinichi has collaborated with notable artists, including Ko Murobushi (Butoh Dance), Ann Carlson (Contemporary Dance), Rova Saxophone Quartet (Jazz), Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (Experimental Rock Band), AXIS Dance Company (Mixed-Ability Contemporary Dance), Yuko Kaseki (Butoh Dance), Yumiko Yoshioka, TEN PEN CHii (Butoh and Installation Art), and Do Theatre (Physical Theatre). He is also grateful for his formative years with Hiroko and Koichi Tamano’s Harupin Ha and Larry Reed’s Shadowlight Theater in the early 1990s.
Each year, Shinichi teaches at ImPulsTanz in Vienna, as well as independent workshops (both live and online). He has also taught in university dance programmes, most notably as a core faculty member at Mills College in California from 2009 to 2017. He was a Visiting Professor at UC Davis in 2014 and returned as a Granada Artist in Residence in 2022. Shinichi has taught workshops at institutions including Bath University (United Kingdom), UC Riverside, UC Berkeley, SF State University, Stanford University, the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU/Tisch, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Switzerland), Texas Women’s University, University of Nevada, Reno, and more. Alongside his wife, Dana Iova-Koga, he co-teaches the workshop Dance on Land and multi-month workshops in California, Vermont, Switzerland, and Portugal. Shinichi primarily works in San Francisco, New York, and Lucerne, Switzerland.
His work has been described as a mix of “humor, introspection, playfulness, and memory, with fearless gestures and thoughtfully crafted drama” (Mary Ellen Hunt, SF Chronicle). It has also been noted that he “expertly mines the dark vein of absurdist humor that infiltrates Butoh” (Allen Ulrich, SF Chronicle).
2025
