Miki Orihara

Education

BA, Empire State College, State University of New York Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, The Joffrey Ballet School

Miki Orihara is best known for her work as a principal dancer in the Martha Graham Dance Company, which she joined in 1987 and earned a Bessie Award in 2010. She has performed on Broadway and with Elisa Monte, Martha Clarke, SITI Company, PierGroupDance, Lotuslotus. Her solo concert series, “ Resonance” has been enthusiastically received by audiences and critics around the world. “Resonance” traces the lineage of some of today’s most imaginative dance makers through earlier innovators like Martha Clarke, Lar Luvobitch and back to the masterworks of Martha Graham and José Limón. In Resonance II, Orihara premiered Shirabyoshi as part of a CUNY Dance Initiative 2016-17 residency at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (LPAC). She premiered “Resonance III” in May 2019 at LPAC, focusing on works of American and Japanese modern dance pioneers. This production received Japan Foundation’s Tour Grant 2018/2019. 

In 2019, in addition to her own concert series, she started to work in Berlin with DanceOn Project. Orihara has presented her choreography in New York, Amsterdam and Tokyo/Nagoya. She is a sought after teacher and coach, working with the Kirov Ballet, Nakamura/Shuto Project(Japan), Japan’s New National Theater Ballet School, The Ailey School, New York University, The Hartt School, L’ete de la Danse(Paris) , Henny Jurien Studio (Amsterdam) and is Dance Director for Mishmash＊Miki Orihara. Orihara was featured in the Inaugural performance of “Peace is…” at the United Nations as a part of the Permanent Mission of Japan in April 2017. Orihara is the Dance Director for Martha Graham Dance Technique Level 1 DVD, documenting Graham technique with Dance Spotlight and Martha Graham Centre.