NINJA BALLET

A fusion of Eastern and Western dance methodology, practice, and performance, Ninja Ballet Dance Company fuses Classical Ballet and Martial Arts to explore innovative movement in dance and fight choreography, creating a new genre where 'Swan Lake' meets 'The Matrix’. Ninja Ballet performers blur the line between what’s real and what’s possible, using classical and contemporary dance, acrobatics, and stage weapons, to create an immersive and interactive dance theater experience that seeks to reconnect people with nature and their environment, and to create a space where dance, music and visual arts become one. 

Established in NYC by Artistic Director Shoko Tamai in 2017, Ninja Ballet has performed all over the city at venues like Jazz Lincoln Center, Alvin Ailey Citigroup, Mark Morris Dance Group, the Tenri Cultural Institute, Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, Unarthodox, The Tank NYC, Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe, Queens Theatre, Plaxall Gallery, City Tech Theater, Arts on Site, Absurd Conclave, and The Secret Theatre, as well as internationally in Koh Phangan, Thailand; St. Petersburg, Russia; Odessa, Ukraine; Oaxaca, Mexico; and Edinburgh, Scotland.

Ninja Ballet presented work in 2019 at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of the 77th International Choreographer’s Showcase, and has previously participated in the APAP Booking Dance Festival, “Collective Thread” with ModArts Dance Collective, the Chinese-American Singing Contest with Hanbo Liu, KoDaFe in NYC with iKADA Contemporary Dance, the New York Chinese Dance Festival, “Borrowed Light” at Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe, Salon Series #63 with Sachiyo Ito Dance Company, Dance Brooklyn with Purelements Dance Company, Open Studios with Bushwick Arts Collective, WEPAfest in Williamsburg and the annual Chashama Gala event.

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Shoko Tamai was nominated for a New York Innovative Theater Award in 2019 for Outstanding Choreography for her work in “The Tempest” at The Plaxall Gallery. She has choreographed and performed for Surati Indian Dance Company, Belly Queen, Forces of Nature Dance Theatre, multiple worldwide productions with One Drop Cirque du Soleil, World Jazz Dance Company, and Dance Theatre of Harlem. In 2011, she produced the solo benefit fundraiser “Unlimited” for victims of the deadly typhoon in Japan. She has been endorsed by world-leading artists, including the late Arthur Mitchell, Keith Saunders, Guy Laliberté, and Abdel Salaam.