PROFILE

Tamiyo Kusakari 草刈民代

Tokyo-born, Tamiyo Kusakari began ballet at the age of 8 before joining the prestigious Asami Maki troupe. At 22 she became their principal dancer and had her first leading role as Odette/Odile in "Swan Lake". That year she also won first prize at the All Japan Ballet Competition. The Muramatsu Award and Tachibana Akiko Award were added in the following years culminating in the Hatori Chieko Award in 1997. By 1991 she had reached an internationally-acclaimed standard and was invited to perform with the Stanislavsky and Nemorivich-Danchenko Music Theatre in Moscow. Numerous international guest appearances then resulted as her career developed between Japan and overseas. Between 1997 and 2009 she was a regular performer with the Leningrad National Ballet.

Looking beyond a life of performance, Kusakari moved into producing and in 2005 she put on an open-air ballet gala at the Aichi Expo Japan which was seen by 25,000 people. In 2006 she produced a celebration of the work of the legendary choreographer Roland Peitit in "Soirée de Danse Roland Petit" which showed in Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan and in 8 cities throughout Japan. Another homage to her friend and mentor was "Esprit - The World of Roland Petit" which played in 11 Japanese cities in 2009. Roland Petit and his wife, Zizi Jeanmaire were a special inspiration to Kusakari and having danced in 11 of his projects, they were personally very close.

On screen, after a debut in a TV commercial as an up-and-coming ballerina at the age of 16, she went on to star in the multi-award winning "Shall We Dance?" in 1996. She herself won the Best Actress Award at the Japanese Academy Awards, a role which was reprised by Jennifer Lopez in the Miramax remake in 2003.

As her active dancing career came to a close, she focussed her energies on acting. 2009 saw her perform a lead theatrical role in the play "Miyagino" directed by the veteran director, Katsuhide Suzuki. In 2010 she joined the cast of the prestigious NHK historical drama "Life of Sakamoto Ryoma". 2011 and 2012 saw her return to the big screen in two of Masayuki Suo's movies, "Dancing Chaplin" and "A Terminal Trust". For the latter she received her second Japanese Academy Award. She is now established as one of the leading screen talents of her generation and new roles continue to be offered her.

In other fields, she published a collection of photos entitled "Ballerina" in 2010 and another in 2012 called "Intrinsic".